ELACIN Drive Custom Made Earplugs

ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs are made of silicone which is soft, light and safe in use. The soft earplug adapts to the ear canal movement when chewing, drinking or speaking. Therefore soft silicone earplugs are comfortable to wear, able to seal the canals on a long term basis and there is no noise leakage with the movement which is typical for harder acrylic based earplugs. One big difference to disposable memory foam earplugs is that fitting the custom made earplugs is so much easier, the attenuation level remains the same every time and on top you have better conversation features. The ELACIN Drive -earplugs offer attenuation filters up to 28dB and communication features without separate power supply or batteries. This allows the rider to use the normal helmet COM -system and have a conversation at anytime with a good voice quality and hearing protection simultaneously.

The ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs are not the most quiet ones since they have voice filtering features and the company believes that a certain amount of noise helps the rider to remain alert in the traffic and aware of the situation around the motorcycle. I must agree and add that I would like to be able to hear the engine running properly and that the luggage, straps and everything is securely in place before anything happens. Surprisingly voice filtering earplugs can help with that. The ELACIN Drive custom made earplug package includes the following:

The ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs can be equipped with two alternative attenuation levels, the CH24 and the CH26. The SNR value is 27dB for the first alternative and 28dB for the latter. Even higher values could be technically achieved, but the conversation and general riding safety features would be affected too. This is a kind of compromise between the hearing protection and the functionality. I use CH26 and the higher protection because I use mostly highly ventilated offroad helmets. The offroad helmets have basically no noise reduction features what so ever.

ELACIN Drive Custom Made Earplugs in Use

The ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs are simple to use, but they require regular cleaning due to the fact that the earplugs are exact ear canal copies and there is hardly any room for wax to build up in lumps. By keeping the ear canals and plugs clean, the best ear health and comfort can be reached. Depending on personal ear wax building efficiency, regularly cleaning means in my case every morning. Ears are from inside quite sensitive and a hard scrub is not necessary, but the ear canal should not be dry neither. In fact the earplugs are very easy to insert in slightly wet or moisturized ear canals. Therefore using a basic skin cream would be beneficiary for the skin and from the insertion point of view. Ear canals are quite individually shaped and some may have more challenge to insert the plugs, but I have not.

The ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs are quick and easy to insert in the ear canals once the method becomes familiar. There are two color codes and L & R -letters to indicate which plug goes where. Simply the red earplug goes to the right side which is easy to remember. Grab the earplug with your thump and index fingers using the black hold tab. Pull the earflap outwards so that the ear canal would straighten up a little bit. Insert the earplug with a small rotating move in place. Notice that the flat surface with the serial number points forward and the grab tab is horizontally aligned in the final position. Wiggle the plugs a little bit so that they would slide in the natural position. If the ear canals are not dry and perhaps slightly moist from the cream, the earplugs slide in very easy and take automatically the right position. The ELACIN Drive earplugs do not create pressure and they feel comfortable even after hours of continuous use.

Since the ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs have conversation features, there is no need to remove the earplugs very often during the day. Never the less the earplugs prevent the normal ventilation and therefore a brake would be naturally in order. The ELACIN -leather pouch is made to keep the cream and the cleaning pen at hand with the earplugs, but I prefer to store the plugs in a small hard container which can be also washed easily. Generally ears generate wax constantly and the ear canals, earplugs and the container should be kept clean. Clean the earplugs with moist cloth or tissue. Note that the earplugs can not be washed under running water since the filters would gather impurities and loose the conversation features.

The ELACIN Drive earplugs can be stored together and kept in the finger control with an accessory cord which is tied up to the standard pull tabs. In the delivery package there is an ID -register sticker which helps to identify the plugs when dealing with the factory.

ELACIN Drive Custom Made Earplug Impressions

The ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs are produced in Netherlands according to riders individual ear canals. The impressions of the ear canals are made locally by a dedicated ELACIN -specialist, nurse or a doctor. They simply check the ears first and make sure that the ears are healthy and clean before inserting a soft eardrum guard with a thin extractor string. By using a special mold injector, the ear canal is fulfilled with the molding paste which adapts the forms and shapes precisely within few minutes. Therefore the ear canal must be clean or otherwise the shape would be slightly deformed. Even the mouth should be a little bit open and in relaxed position, since the shape of the ear canal changes a bit according to the position of the chin. After few minutes the impression paste is ready to be extracted with the string. It is quick and painless. The whole procedure takes about 20 min., depending on how clean the ears are to begin with.

The custom made ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs are accurate copies of the ear canals and the ear wax must be removed before the molds can be made. The ear canal cleaning is usually made with normal cotton wool swabs, but sometimes the ear wax is too dry and difficult to extract and the cleaning is made with a ear canal irrigator using water or a special ear canal cleaning spray. The ear canal cleaning is not the most pleasant and ears are quite sensitive, but professional methods are safe and effective. I keep my ears clean with the cotton swabs and there was no need for further cleaning. Therefore the pair of molding were made easily within 20 minutes and then sent to Netherlands for production.

The ELACIN -factory will store the earplug molds for a year after the production, but if there is a situation after a year that a new pair of plugs should be made, also new pair of molds are in order. That seems fair and reasonable. Another 20 minutes is hardly a problem. The production of the ELACIN Drive custom made earplugs takes about a month depending on seasons etc. The fresh pair of the plugs are first sent to the ELACIN -specialist in question and the rider is invited to collect and test the plugs. This way it can be made sure that the plugs fit and there has been no mix-ups or anything else in between.