3M GVP PAPR Respirator

D_Young_747

New member
I am looking into purchasing the nice new hoseless supplied air respirator from 3M and are trying to hunt down the best price on the setup, as well as painters opinions on it. Not worth it? Is the air quality not going to be as good as a hose type wall set up? Anyone have it?
 

TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
I've never tried that particular unit. I've used both one off of a regular compressor with multiple filters along with one off it's own air compressor.
Both seemed to work fine. The main problem I found is that you end up with hoses everywhere, so it turns out to be quite a paint. You spend more time dealing with these, than you do with painting a car.
BUT, it's been quite a while since I used those, plus I hardly spray anymore, so maybe there is a system out there that doesn't make the hoses a hassle to deal with.
 

TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Looks like a nice respirator, but I wonder what the difference is between that type cartridge and the one's you find on other regular respirators?
Seems you would still be breathing the overspray through the filter.
At least you would have full face protection though.
 

D_Young_747

New member
I really loved the idea of "hose-less", and ya thats true, for the premium your paying their better be a substantial difference between that and your regular run of the mill 20$ respirator cartridge.
 

claysny

New member
Hi, I have 2 of these units and love them. one is set up hoseless and works great, just make sure you keep a spare battery on charge just in case, the other unit I set up with a filter,belt mounted that had 2 exhaust ports, 1 went to helmet , other to gun, so only had 1 hose from wall to deal with. I did this becouse i was painting big commercial stuff ,peterbilts-truck frames, and crawling around with belt unit was very cumbersom. each way you get a nice airflow to the head ,which is clean and cool. had just a very small" learning curve" to get use to it. any other questions feel free to ask
 

D_Young_747

New member
What im most curious of is how the system cleans the air and provides better filtration than a regular respirator cartridge. Is the air comparable with a fresh air system?
 

cozee

New member
I have one. The only issue with them is the fact you need to use suspenders to hold the belt up!!!! They are just like a regular respirator in the fact that you are still breathing "cleaned" contaminated air. They just offer a positive air pressure around your face. I manage a Public Transit body shop and since we not only have to comply with OSHA and EPA rulings, I am under APTA (American Public Transit Authority) rules and regs. They say that since we spray catalyzed paints, we will no longer be allowed to use the PAPRs because they filter contaminated air and 3M does not offer a filter (Not even the HEPA) that filters out all the contaminants. We are currently reviving our old built in supplied air system which gives us filtered uncontaminated air. I still use my PAPR when welding though!
 
Last edited:
Top