Paintball shots can sting a lot and may cause an injury. Most of the injuries occur from the removal of masks during the game. So, you just need to make sure that you are wearing the paintball mask while playing and that your mask is perfect for you.
Paintball masks come in many types. Typically, these masks cover areas around the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. Choosing the best paintball mask is really important. This decision of yours can either enhance or hinder the results you achieve in the field.
But paintball masks can be really expensive as well. That is why you need to be extra careful in terms of both functionality and price.
Features You Need To Look For When Buying Any Of The Best Paintball Masks:
- Brand
- Price
- Customer Reviews
- Interior Space
- Light Weight
- Anti-Fog Lens
- Comfortable Foam Padding
- Design and Style
- Scratch-Resistant Lens
- Adjustable Straps
- Eye Protection
- Removable Visor
- Durability and Quality
Brands:
Brands do matter when buying the best paintball masks. The brand needs to maintain its reputation in terms of the quality of its products. If you want to have a better experience using the paintball masks, consider buying the branded ones.
Price:
I believe everyone must have a budget for everything. Wasted money is not worth it. Consider your budget before buying, but don’t compromise on functionality. Choose the one that fulfills both functionality and must be within your budget.
Customer Reviews:
People’s reviews matter a lot. We buy products only after seeing a review of them. Believe in the reviews because they are based on their personal experiences. Don’t go for that product that doesn’t have reviews or has bad reviews.
Interior Space:
You should definitely see the interior space of the mask, especially if you have glasses on. People who used to wear glasses must see this thing; otherwise, it would be a waste of money. You can also find paintball masks for glasses on the market.
Light Weight:
The helmet should be lightweight because I am sure you don’t want to run around wearing a heavy helmet. That would be so inconvenient. I personally recommend checking the weight of the mask before buying.
Anti-Fog Lens:
Nowadays, the best paintball masks use anti-fog lenses. By anti-fog lens, we mean that your lens won’t become foggy because of your breathing or anything else because it is fog proof. How inconvenient it would be that you have to wipe the fog from your lens during the game, right?
Comfortable Foam Padding:
Paintball is such a fun and thrilling game, but it would be so annoying if you weren’t comfortable in masks, which is a must in this game. Comfortability from paintball comes from the foam padding and the fitness of the mask. It would be a perfect mask if you wouldn’t feel discomfort while playing because of the mask.
Design & Style:
Obviously, design and style matter, at least for me. If you are playing and you are looking so dumb, then that wouldn’t be nice, right?
Scratch Resistant Lens:
One of the features of the best paintball masks is that the lens they use is scratch resistant. Scratches can hinder your game very badly. If you are not watching your opponents clearly, how will you target them and how will you win the game?
Adjustable Straps:
The straps should be adjustable. If your straps were adjustable, it would be easy for you to adjust them according to you and your requirements. Otherwise, you have to find that mask that perfectly fits your head, and that can be a tiring task, so it is better to get one that you can adjust yourself.
Eye protection:
The masks that you are buying must completely cover your face because safety and protection are important. If you get those paint fillets in your eyes, it can be very irritating and dangerous, so make sure that your eyes, nose, ears, and mouth are protected enough to be harmless.
Removable Visor:
It is better if you can find a mask that has a removable visor.
Durability and Quality:
Durability and the quality of the goggles should be up to par, because if you buy any goggles and they aren’t durable, then it would be a waste of money. Make sure the goggles you are buying are durable and the quality is good; otherwise, you will have to spend money again.
Here is the list of the best paintball masks that you can find under $200.
1) DYE PRECISION I4 THERMAL PAINTBALL GOGGLES
The Dye Precision i4 Thermal Paintball Mask is one of the most popular and best paintball masks. It is really a stylish mask with amazing features:
Pros:
- It has a thermally treated lens to protect against UV light and maintain excellent visibility for a long time.
- Scratches on lenses can be very irritating and can be the cause of your loss in the game, but this mask has a scratch-proof lens.
- You can easily and quickly change the lens in a matter of seconds. Most of the lenses require time to change the lens, but it is different with this mask. If you want to change the lens, you just need to push two small tabs on both sides and then push the earpad forward, and the lens will pop out.
- It not only has anti-fog properties but also has wide-sight vision. Many goggles claim to be anti-fog, and there are many anti-fog masks, but this is for sure one of them, as I am telling it with my own personal experience.
- This is designed in such a way that you can easily communicate with your players. As you can see in the design of the mask, it covers about the area of an open mouth, allowing air to flow easily, resulting in clear communication.
- Apart from the above-mentioned features, it is equipped with comfortable foam and is so lightweight, making it one of the best.
Conclusion:
From personal experience, the experiences of some of my friends, and our review surveys, it is absolutely one of the best paintball masks. I personally love it. This dye-i4 thermal mask is super light, ventilated, and easy to use.
My friends felt really tired from wearing other masks because they were so heavy, but this did exactly the opposite. But yeah, I would say there were some others who didn’t like this mask because it was a bit tight on them. So it is recommended to buy it for only small-headed people and not for large-headed ones.
2) VIRTUE VIO EXTENDS THERMAL PAINTBALL MASK
Virtue VIO Extend Thermal Paintball mask is one of the highly recommended masks. Buying this mask is really an investment in your safety, protection, and performance more than anything else. You can also wear it with glasses. From our virtue VIO extend review, we found that this mask has many incredible features:
- Anti-Fog Thermal Lens: This property is considered one of the properties in best paintball masks because, without it, the mask wouldn’t be the best as it should be. This is one of the reasons this virtue vIO mask is considered one of the best.
- Enlarged Strap: A wider backstrap causes a better and more stable fit, this makes adjustments easier and looks perfect. Because what we need is a better style, more comfort, and more security, looks like a perfect fit right?
- Enhanced Earpads: One of the amazing features is enhanced earpads, this result in better acoustics and complete safety for ears. However, now there won’t be any hindrance in your game. You can clearly hear your teammate‘s voice and make a better team.
- Increased Jawline: Increased jawline design not only looks good but protects your jaw completely.
- Enhanced Facemask: This enhanced facemask ability allows players to breathe and communicate easily with their partners.
- Other key features are full face coverage, flexibility, a lightweight, comfortable, scratch-resistant lens, and 100% UV protection.
Conclusion:
From the reviews and surveys, we found out that this is one of the best paintball masks on the market. There is a variety of colors available in this. Well, there is a reason there are not any flaws seen but it can be a bit pricy than others. Unlike Dye I4, this is perfect for large-sized heads as well.
3) EMPIRE E-FLEX PAINTBALL GOGGLE SYSTEM
Another best paintball masks include Empire E-Flex Paintball mask. Empire paintball goggles are known as one of the most known paintball masks. Like other paintball masks, this mask will also protect your face with the most coverage. Some of its amazing features include:
- Rapid Lens Change: Lens changing is one of the tasks. With these goggles, you can easily and quickly change the lens and prevent yourself from wasting too much time. You can change the lens within a few seconds.
- Anti-Fog Lens: Like I said before this feature is important and the key feature of all. These goggles have anti-fog lenses making your vision clear.
- Ventilation: There are extra vents in the face skirts making this mask more breathable. This feature of masks allows better communication because of airflow.
- Light Weight: Nobody likes to wear heavy masks. The weight of this mask is almost 1.9 pounds which is so much less and that is why it is preferable.
- Echo Proof: Another feature of this empire of google is that it is echo-proof.
- UV Protection: The lens of this mask avoids UV rays i.e they protect you from UV rays.
The only concern with this mask is that the quality of the foam is not reliable and it may not provide that much comfort. Other than that, there is one more major concern the top of the head is not covered with this mask.
Conclusion:
This is the perfect mask for newbies, the price range is also good. It is quite affordable and has many amazing features. In short, this is one of the best paintball masks for newbies. For skilled and professional players, I would rather not recommend this one but if you are new to this game and your budget is low, buy it now.
4) V-FORCE GRILL PAINTBALL MASK
In the paintball arena, V-Force Grill Paintball Mask is the meanest-looking mask. By meaning looking it means the style of the mask is like an angry man. Well, this doesn’t matter of course. Amazing features of this mask include:
- Thermal, Anti-Fog & Scratch Proof Lens: Like many other good paintball masks, this mask’s lens also possesses the feature of thermo-cured anti-fog and is scratch-proof.
- Built-In Visor: There is a built-in visor in this mask. The visor is the movable part of a helmet that can be pulled down to cover the face.
- 3D Shape Lens: Sleek spherical 3D shape lenses are used in it for a huge field of peripheral view. This helps you to clearly view the
- UV Protection: This mask is designed to protect you from dangerous UV rays.
- Light Weight: Being lightweight is a very noticeable feature of the mask.
- Rapid Dryer Padding: Quick dryer padding foam is used that soaks up your sweat within a matter of time. You won’t like it if you get sweat all over you and your gun so this feature allows you to focus on your game instead of worrying about your sweat.
Conclusion:
Overall this mask is a right fit for beginners considering its functionalities and price range. But there is no doubt that this mask has some flaws that need to be considered.
5) HK ARMY KLR PAINTBALL MASK
HK Army KLR Paintball mask is one of the most popular goggles in the world. This mask has a versatile design and most people want to have this mask because of the design mainly. Of course, there are many other impressive features as well which is the reason for its popularity. This can be considered one of the best paintball masks.
- Anti-Fog Anti-Reflective Lens: Anti-Fog lenses are always best. It is really difficult to play with the foggy lens so this property helps you to see clearly and focus on your game fully.
- Adjustable Straps: This mask is lined with adjustable straps that allow you to fix your mask accordingly. This is perfect when playing multiple consecutive rounds.
- 3D Ultra Soft Foam: The use of ultra-soft foam in this mask is another reason that makes this mask perfect for playing multiple rounds. This also helps you in absorbing your sweat and lets it dry quickly.
- Soft Ear-pads: Comfortable ear-pads also helps in playing game well. The mask should not only be functional but also comfortable enough to not disturb your game.
Conclusion:
KLR is definitely a good-looking mask. According to the reviews survey many people find it fascinating not only because of its design and style but also because of its excellent properties. Although yes there is a bit of concern in regard to the forehead part that I discussed earlier overall it is a yes from me.
Overall Summary:
There are many paintball masks in the market but finding the best paintball masks for yourself or for anyone can be a tiring process. Here in this article, we have made your task quite easy by sharing what features you must see while buying the right one.
Also, we have shared a list of some of the masks that are available in the market with amazing features. Now it’s up to you to decide which one would be perfect for you as you are your own boss.
Frequently asked questions
There are some other concerns that we found during our survey:
What is a paintball mask?
A paintball mask is a mask that you use in a paintball game to protect your face from paint-filled shots.
Can you wear glasses in Paintball masks?
Well, yes, you can wear your glasses in paintball masks; you just need to check the interior space of the mask.
When should I replace a Paintball mask?
It’s time to replace the mask if it is compromising your safety and protection.
How do you stay cool in a paintball mask?
By choosing a ventilated mask, you can stay cool. There are many options for you in this regard, you can go for them.
How do I clean a paintball mask?
We personally recommend using lens cleaner for this purpose. If you use other polishing cleaners, they might damage your lens and cause fog in the lens.
What is the cost of a paintball mask?
There are many paintball masks available at different prices, but the above mentioned paintball masks are under $200. That means you can easily find the best paintball masks under $200..
How not to get fog in a paintball mask
Already, there are masks available to prevent fog from gathering on the lens, as they are using the anti-fog lens. If you don’t have an anti-fog lens in your mask, get an anti-fog cleaner for your lens.
What material is used in paintball masks?
Most commonly, the frame of the mask is made of plastic, and the visor is made of polycarbonate material.
What is the best anti-fog paintball mask?
Any mask containing a thermal anti-fog lens is best, like the Virtue Vio and Dye Precision thermal paintball masks.
What is the best paintball mask?
The best paintball mask should provide maximum protection and safety, maximum visibility, ease of breathing, and clear communication.