Loop ear plugs for business
Loop have emerged as quite a high profile provider of hearing protection in recent years, mostly via fairly extensive social media marketing, but should Loop ear plugs be used for noise safety in a work environment?
For hearing protection, to be certified as hearing protection all products must be certified to one of the branches of EN352, part of which generates what is called SNR, HML and APV performance data. Those tell you how strong the hearing protection is and think of those as ‘good’, ‘better’ and ‘the best’ way to judge how good an ear plug or ear defender is.
All reputable hearing protection manufacturers make their SNR, APV and HML data readily available as they understand it is needed for noise safety in industry. For example:
To be clear, a web page including something like ‘SNR 23’ in the marketing speak is not really good enough for industry and for workplace hearing protection the full performance data is needed. In a noise assessment for a factory we usually use the APV data which is the best of all - it is the noise reduction in individual frequency bands - rather than just the SNR.
What is important is not just how many decibels the hearing protection reduces noise by which the SNR tells us, but as all protectors have frequencies at which they perform best we are looking at whether those frequencies are matched to the noise risk in the workplace and you need APV data to do that.
Legitimate long-standing providers of hearing protection always make this data available as they understand it is how companies choose to use their products.
Loop Ear Plug performance data
Loop have a range of SNR claims on their website for their different Loop ear plugs, but some are limited to the SNR only, nothing else.
I actually like how the Loop ear plugs seem to perform and if their SNR range is correct it could be good for a lot of workplaces and I would like to be able to recommend Loop ear plugs to clients, but they don’t have the APV data available online for all their products. I contacted Loop to ask for it and received the reply:
“We’re unable to disclose that information. But you're more than welcome to use all the information on our website! If you have any questions about the products and their use, we're happy to answer them! Or if something about the information on our website isn't very clear, you can also let us know.” Loop B2B Team email, 7th Feb. 2025.
We shall set aside the tooth-grinding over-use of exclamation marks in company emails, although it is definitely one of the signs of humanity’s descent into Hell.
They appear unwilling to disclose the information which looks rather dodgy frankly. Why on Earth not disclose it unless they don’t have it, are wanting to hide something or simply don’t understand how hearing protection is chosen in a work environment? As above, all legitimate hearing protection manufacturers make this information available, but for Loop ear plugs it appears to be a corporate secret.
They are not consistent with it either as for some of their products they do actually have it online, for example the Loop Experience 2 ear plugs have everything but then nothing other than SNR for others such as the Quiet 2 Plus Loop ear plugs. It is not there for the Loop Engage 2 ear plugs but it is there for the Loop Engage 2 Plus variety, it makes no sense.
Also, they tell me to contact them if the information on their website is not very clear, so I did, but their reply is that it is secret stuff they cannot disclose.
Do I recommend Loop ear plugs for use at work?
I have no financial interest in whatever hearing protection my clients use as they buy it from wherever they want, I do not sell it. I do however want to give my noise assessment clients the best advice I can though.
So no, I do not recommend Loop ear plugs as hearing protection for use at work. The treating of some HML and APV data as a corporate secret smells to high heaven as there is no reason to hide this, it is part of the standard certification. The only reason to treat it as a secret is if they don’t have it (I am fairly sure they do though) or don’t really understand what they are selling and how it fits into a professional use rather than a private individual buying it for their own use. I suspect it is more likely this.
In the profession of noise safety the gold standard for suitability calculation for hearing protection is the APV data, and Loop are not disclosing that for all their products.
So for now, until they sort their data out no, I would recommend Loop ear plugs are not used at work.
