WL safety goggles vs. 780mw 445

Alright, ever since wicked came out with their 1W Spyder III people have been wondering if the goggles sent with the spyder will suffice, so I decided I would test them, and see just how good they are. Then I remembered I had some yellow shooting goggles that seemed to work fairly well for 405nm, so I grabbed them, and decided to compare.
My results were not quite what I expected...

Testing materials:




Output before safety glasses:


Output after going through WL safety glasses for ~10seconds:


Output after going through yellow shooting glasses for ~10seconds:


Almost instantly after turning on the laser through the WL goggles the output starts rising... 7,8,9,10,11! Not so great :undecided:.
Then I tested the Yellow shooting glasses, and got a suprise. Absolutly no results. Meaning that the output stayed under 5mw for a whole 30 seconds until I turned the laser off...
What does this mean? My 12$ shooting glasses protect me far better than my 40$ wicked lasers goggles...

SHOOTING GLASSES ARE NOT ALL THE SAME, AND RESULTS WILL VARY. DON'T REPLACE CERTIFIED GOGGLES WITH ANY OTHER TYPES OF UNCERTIFIED GLASSES. I believe Glenn (Scopeguy20) sells some yellow goggles like the ones above. Anyone up to testing his glasses?

kevinmassey said:

My 12$ shooting glasses protect me far better than my 40$ wicked lasers goggles...

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I think 40$ wicked lasers goggles are fake as they are the same like these 7$ goggles: Focalprice.com offers Professional Anti Green Laser Glassess ,discount Professional Anti Green Laser Glassess,Professional Anti Green Laser Glassess products,low price Professional Anti Green Laser Glassess,cheap Professional Anti Green Laser Glasses but without text on the side

Wicked's goggles are authentic, at least for green, no one knows what they'll be like for blue though.

No one knows? I just tested them, and showed you the results!!! lol

I'm talking about the glasses that will ship with the arctic. No one's sure which one's will come with them. If it's the same as the pair you tested, we'll be fine, but until I see someone pull them from a WL box with an Arctic next to them, I'll have my doubts.

I'm 99% sure those are the ones that are going to be shipped with the arctic. We'll see I guess. I actually like using the wicked goggles. I can still make out the beam with some smoke in the air. With the yellow ones NOTHING.

I appreciate the effort you put in and I'm sure I'm not alone. Good to know that at least some WL goggles will work for this laser, +1 for your effort.

I would have to disagree with the common assumption that the focal price goggles are the same as the WL goggles.

I have bought a pair from both suppliers and there is a difference in that the WL goggles are of better build quality. I have both the 650nm and 532nm pairs from WL and at first glance they >look< the same as the FP 532nm but are of a better overall quality.

My WL shades are thicker and slightly heavier, but only by a few grams (4-5g)

The FP shades have a weaker frame and feel more flimsy. I haven't compared the protection level with a meter yet though.


Focal price lens thickness is 1.92mm
WL lens thickness 2.58mm

Although I haven't compared the stopping power, I hope this contributes something

ArtDen said:

I think 40$ wicked lasers goggles are fake as they are the same like these 7$ goggles: Focalprice.com offers Professional Anti Green Laser Glassess ,discount Professional Anti Green Laser Glassess,Professional Anti Green Laser Glassess products,low price Professional Anti Green Laser Glassess,cheap Professional Anti Green Laser Glasses but without text on the side

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Why are you all still convinced that WL will be shipping anything? Anything that you will get anyway?

As far as the glasses go, I've been using red laser enhancement glasses for green that I got at lowes or home depot for like 20 bucks 5 years ago. They work just fine.

Why does something need to be certified? If I can see in person that it is working, that is certification enough for me. A full on blast with 800mW of blue for 30 seconds is amazing, the glasses should have melted (unless you were moving them as you were taking a reading)

+1 for useful information!

They aren't shipping me anything. I canceled my order . I just made this thread for everyone else.
Why do I say that? Purely for liability purposes. lol Better safe than sorry.
I thought it was pretty amazing too. I didn't move either of the glasses at all during the test. By the end the yellows were bubbling, but still no output going through, and as you can see I kept the glasses really close to the sensor to try and make it about the same distance it would be to your eye.

kevinmassey said:

They aren't shipping me anything. I canceled my order . I just made this thread for everyone else.
Why do I say that? Purely for liability purposes. lol Better safe than sorry.
I thought it was pretty amazing too. I didn't move either of the glasses at all during the test. By the end the yellows were bubbling, but still no output going through, and as you can see I kept the glasses really close to the sensor to try and make it about the same distance it would be to your eye.

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So the wicked glasses started to burn and pass immediately, and the "non certified" glasses didn't

Well that says something there

Yeah, I was thinkin about gettin another pair from WL until I did that test. Now I'll just run up to walmart, and grab enough of these for my whole family .

Pontiacg5 said:

So the wicked glasses started to burn and pass immediately, and the "non certified" glasses didn't

Well that says something there

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I think it just reinforces why you would want certified goggles. The WL goggles are not "certified"; they're just red laser enhancement goggles like the ones you own that WL sells for over twice the price of their value. They also failed as far as eye protection at the power levels the Arctic is supposedly supposed to run at. If WL is shipping those goggles, they're shipping out goggles which will not protect your eyes from a direct hit at safe exposure levels.

Why get "certified" goggles? So you know that some outside authority has tested and verified that they will protect you at the stated levels, or if not, you can buy higher protection goggles. What if you believed your laser enhancement goggles were sufficient when they are not? They sure look red enough, and they work almost too well for green. I'm sure many here will think they're sufficient, especially if they come with their 1W Arctic. Hell, I thought they'd be sufficient. I was lucky enough to be wearing two of those types of goggles (taped one over another, because one broke) when a beam from that laser directly reflected into my eye. After kevin's test I was sure lucky that I did have two of them shielding my eyes.

I test the goggles on a far corner with every new laser I use to see if they do give some protection.
If it is something that has unknowns involved, especially with safety, I will test it out a lot before I ever depend on them, I would do the same with expensive certified goggles too. I would never just pick up a pair of glasses designed for something else and wear them as if they were safety glasses because the lenses are yellow or blue.

Also, even if you were to take a direct hit (assuming you are using a laser that has an IR filter) you would react before the laser did enough damage to the glasses to get anything more than 5mW to your eyes.

Pontiacg5 said:

I test the goggles on a far corner with every new laser I use to see if they do give some protection.
If it is something that has unknowns involved, especially with safety, I will test it out a lot before I ever depend on them, I would do the same with expensive certified goggles too. I would never just pick up a pair of glasses designed for something else and wear them as if they were safety glasses because the lenses are yellow or blue.

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Yes, but not everyone owns a meter to run their own tests with. Even other-user-performed tests may not reflect the conditions of the goggles a person owned (might be slightly thinner, not the exact same filtering properties, etc.). Even worse is if WL is shipping goggles which simply don't provide adequate protection, but people believe they do.

Also, even if you were to take a direct hit (assuming you are using a laser that has an IR filter) you would react before the laser did enough damage to the glasses to get anything more than 5mW to your eyes.

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No, that was with the 445nm, not a green, so no IR. I use other goggles for green now which do protect against IR. Also, as shown, the WL goggles don't filter the power below 5mW. I was lucky enough to be using two of those types of goggles at the time I was directly exposed.

Those WL goggles you have do look EXACTLY like my FP goggles
Though my FP goggles let ZERO light of my 445 through after 20 seconds (they did melt, but still let no light through)
Not sure of my laser's power, but it's at 1.05A with AixiZ 405 lens so it's up around 800-900mW mostlikely.