Can I reuse cotton covered wax earplugs?

Not sure about the wax ones, but I use 3M foam ones when I work with loud machinery. They are disposable, but I reuse them anyway. From a physical standpoint, eventually they flatten out too much and will not expand anymore. From a hygiene standpoint, I keep my ears pretty clean and have never had a problem….if I were going to use them every night I’d probably change them more frequently though and if they get dirty with grease or something I toss them.

I am not sure if our products have the same names over there. But I use Delbar, they are a wax and cotton mix. I find them to be very large so break them in half. I keep them in a sealed container so I reuse them until they look a bit off colour. I find the mix of wax and cotton the best sound proofing earplug. Foam I found to be entirely useless and silicone tends to break into small pieces and can get lodged further in the eardrum. If you do break them in half, you cannot “rejoin” them in anyway as they too will break off in your ear.

I love Quies earplugs and have used them for years. The foam ones don’t work very well for me, they never seem to block enough sound and they often hurt my ears. The Quies ones are cotton-covered wax and they are awesome. Very comfortable and they block the perfect amount of sound for me.

I do reuse them until they get a bit off-color, then toss them and break out a new pair.

I would say so, as long as you are keen with putting more unpleasant crap in your ears.

Custom molded silicone earplugs can be washed and reused and will last for years… they can be solid for maximum noise attenuation, or can have filters specific to your needs.

I am an Audiologist, and I use custom musician’s plugs with interchangeable filters for varying the levels of attenuation: http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/erme.aspx

@hearkat they sound great, do you know if we can get them here in South Africa. I know I need to google!!