In this review we’re looking at the Earjobs Comfy Foam, a disruptive new entry to the slim fit ear plug market. One of the most economical foam plugs on the market, how do they match up?
Key Features
- Hypoallergenic foam is suitable for sensitive ears.
- Slim fit design makes this an excellent fit for sleep, particularly side sleepers.
- Soft foam is very easily compressed, and places little pressure on the ear canal.
- Coming in a box of sixty, among the most economically priced plugs on the market on a per pair basis.
First Impressions and Stats
The Comfy Foam comes in bottles of sixty pairs. The bottles are clear, tall, and stand nicely on the bed side table or in your desk. The screw cap lid ensures the bottle can be effortlessly re-sealed, keeping your pairs hygienic and safe. They’re made of a hypoallergenic foam with a smooth skin finish: they won’t irritate the interior of the delicate ear canal, and the skin will help block wax or oil for repeat wearers.
The first thing I notice on removing a pair of the plugs is how soft they are. The Comfy Foam are made of a very, very soft foam material that is easily compressed in the fingers. They’re a narrow, bullet-shaped plug — similar to the ‘slim fit’ plugs that are increasingly popular among wearers. They expand smoothly after being squished. On first impressions, these would be most suited to individuals with smaller or narrower ears — if you find you’re currently wearing a ‘slim’ or ‘soft’ or ‘small’ type foam plug, these are for you.
The Comfy Foam are rated to NRR 30. This is a popular way of evaluating how much sound is blocked, particularly in America. When properly fitted, these are going to block approximately 30dB of noise — making them among the strongest ear plugs on the market. While NRR ratings typically ‘overstate’ the level of noise blocking, even adjusting for that they should be blocking at least 27dB — more than enough to suppress snores, traffic, and other common enemies of sleep.
Performance
Narrow and super soft, with a hypoallergenic skin design, they compress easily in your fingers and fit nicely into the ear.
But how are they when worn?
As we mentioned, the Comfy Foam are SOFT. They’re among the softest foam plugs we’ve trialled. While foam plugs — particularly the ones you see on building sites — can be somewhat firm to the touch and rigid, these are very very malleable. They compress very easily in your hands.
I squashed these down and fit them easily into my ear. I normally wear a slimmer plug, like the Super Soft Orange or the Macks Slim Fit, and found that these fit just as effectively. They’re a very soft plug in-ear, they’re hardly noticeable when worn. As a side sleeper, I leaned all my body weight onto them — with none of the piercing or jabbing feeling you sometimes get with bigger or more rigid plugs.
As a sound blocking plug, I found them equivalent to the higher end foam product. They do a great job of dampening snoring noises, the wind, and traffic from the street. It’s impressive performance for a set so light. A light plug is particularly noticeable in summer, when bedrooms get warmer and you become conscious of every heavy, temperature raising thing in your body. The smooth skin, low density plugs have a very low temperature footprint — I rested comfortably with these for a full eight hours.
At $31.99 for 60 pairs, they’re among the most economical foam plugs on the market, working out at about 53 cents a pair. By contrast, 56 pair sets of the Hearos work out to about 63 cents per pair and 50 pairs of the Macks are 54 cents. This may seem like a subtle difference, but if you’re wearing ear plugs every night the cost adds up over the long term.
Not Just For Sleep
Particularly in the Work From Home era, ear plugs have found a second life as a work and study supplement. I’ve used the Comfy Foam in a work setting as well as while studying: in both cases, the plug effortlessly suppressed external noise in a comfortable way. When worn for long periods, there can be ‘plug fatigue’ -- I noticed none of this with the Comfy Foam, they’re suitable for all day wear.
Conclusion
The Comfy Foam are one of the softest plugs trialled, with a great slim-fit body for smaller or narrower ears. For side sleepers particularly, they’re a high performing foam unit — you’ll hardly notice they’re in. Coming in 60 pairs only, we would have liked a smaller ‘trial’ set but for this price you can take a punt on the Comfy Foam. They very well could replace your current fave.