3M 2091 vs. 2097 vs. 2297: Expert reviews

3M has been working for US health, citizen's safety, and industrial protection since the mid of 20^th century. They are now grossly working with health safety items like facemasks. They first developed the N95 mask with the standard set by the world health organization. They also developed reusable respirators for longer use with supreme protection.

2091, 2097 & 2297 are all respirators' cartridge used as a filter. They have similarities and dissimilarities in the short term.

3M 2091 vs. 2097 vs. 2297

3M 2091 Review

2091 is a round filter cartridge made by 3M to be installed at 3M respirators. It’s been developed as a magenta color. The reason behind its color is unknown. It provides a different shape to the respirators. Like most of the cartridges, it’s also oil and non-oil suitable. The filter type marked for this model is Particulate.

3M marked this model as Easy Breathing and lightweight. The cartridge is suitable for most of the respirators made by 3M. The material used to make this cartridge is polypropylene. This cartridge can be used with 6000 reusable series respirators. Its suitable market set by 3M is Aerospace, Defense, and Homeland Security. The overall height and width of this mask are 4.3 inches.

The recommended uses of this cartridge are as follows:

• You can use this on assembly, manufacture, handling industrial goods
• Unboxing production ingredient
• Unboxing packaging materials
• Operating Industrial printing operation.
• Handling chemicals and dangerous fluid

3M 2097 review

The best protection that 3M 2097 can provide is organic vapor. So it's really helpful for those who are always in touch with organic ingredients. 2097 is also capable of nuisance odor relief. Many of the masks have the option to protect the external air from inhalation without filtration. But bad odor is the thing that is hard to restrict. Once the odor enters our respiratory organ, mask or things like that cause more problems to a person. It doesn't allow the bad odor to come out. So it's really a nuisance. 3M took this issue into their concern and developed the filtration system that can relieve the bad odor from your inhaling organ. It has drop-down features and like some other cartridges, has a speaking diaphragm.

Recommended area of use

• Factory operators can use this
• Those who deal with liquids
• Whose who tends to be exposed to organic vapor
• Those who are for pouring and stirring.
• People who live in high dust area

3M 2297

3M 2297 is the strongest protection filter cartridge that works well in the overall situation but not for medical use. The assigned color for this is gray. Like the other cartridge, 2297 also follows NIOSH standards with the number code P100. The standard makes sure that more than 97 percent of particles can’t pass through the cartridge. The air can contain germs, pollutants, dust, and molds. If you think you are in such a place of pollution and contamination you can consider having this. The 2297 cartridge makes sure it doesn't let any air particles pass into the respiratory passage of a person. So, using this is a real miracle in history.

There was a great crisis in the environment after the second world war. The air was highly polluted with the explosion of the explosives. WHO (World health organization) soon developed the standard for masking respiratory organs i.e., nose and mouth. 3M is the first one to deploy WHO’s standards in their items.

2297 cartridge common features:

• It has ab wide area of use
• 3M 2297 can be used for office, factory and in special use
• Its Advanced electrets media (AEM) provide easy Breathing.
• Variety of protection in oil and non-oil application
• Use is the site of explosion and hazard
• Works fine with firefighting
• 2297 is a more official version than the other corresponding cartridge.

Who can use 3M 2297?

• Industrial chemical demonstrator
• Lab worker
• Chemical project engineer and member
• Those who work in dusty surrounding
• People who visit the chemical area

What are the differences among 3M 2091, 2097, 2297?

2091 is a basic one of cartridge and filter. It has most of the protections except some important ones. All these filters and cartridges have NIOSH filter approval rating P100  indicating that they are more than 96% effective to refrain from air particles. 2091 can’t protect from organic vapor that keeps people unsafe to exposure to chemical vapor. 2097 & 2297 have this facility.

All of these three cartridges have the Speaking diaphragm. They all being round indicates the similar use with the fluctuation of services. 2297 has some special benefits including stronger and reliable filtration.

2297 and 2097 have nuisance odor relief functionality which is not available in 2091. The features are helpful for the situation where things or elements are preading bad odor. However, the odor is consistently dangerous as it contains chemicals compounds. Those who has asthmatic issue is highly in need of such filter mask. Moreover, some chemicals are too strong that nothing but 2097 cartridge can save you.

What cartridge is right for me?

The cartridge that you need should be selected depending on the place and situation you go though. From the three, 2091 is considered the one that provides less number of the facility. But, 2091 is made of soft materials that allow easy breath. If you have one with strong filtration the air inhalation might be narrow.

However you can have one between 2097 and 2297 if you live or work in the following situation.

• You are working in the plastic or polythene industry.
• You often go to any place that is exposed to chemical flavor
• You are living or visiting any smoky area.
• When you visit a recycling factory
• Welding space and spark flame
• If you are close to industrial garbage.
• If the air has too much moisture

You can use 2091 when you might be exposed to dry air particles like the situation below.

• When you are in a dusty area
• When you visit smells and smokeless factory
• People who avail around a food factory
• If you are sure that you are not being exposed to chemical vapor
• The place is well restricted from the nearby factory

Is those cartridge filter effective to protect from virus?

No. They are not designed or developed to beat viruses, bacteria or any other living germs. They can just protect from poisonous and chemical air.

You can see more 3M N95 1860 vs. 1870 Surgical Mask review.

Can I be be around or close to welding?

2091, 2097 and 2297 are designed to resist welding wave from mixing with human inhalation. But that doesn’t mean you can always use this to work with or around welding exposure. Alternatively, you can wear an eye and face protective shield to safeguard your face from microwave emitting from welding spark fire.

Can I handle TB patients with these respirator’s cartridge?

It’s not recommended rely on those respirators to visit any patients with infectious diseases. TB is highly contagious. So you should take cation. You can rather use a surgical mask along with a face shield and hand gloves to go closer to anybody with infectious diseases.

Can I enter a smoky room with these respirators?

We don't recommend you to do so. The respirator having features of smoke filtration doesn't mean it is to be always used to be in smoke. It's for emergency use and doesn't intend to use on a regular basis.

However, some industrial factory reserves thousands of respirators for their technicians to use on emergency flame or fire. Most of them rely on 2297 for emergency protection and 2091 and 2097 for regular use. After recent compliance and guideline, many factories began to use those respirators for their operators who handles painting and packaging materials that emits just horribly suffocating smell. Those worker reported a very light odor to pass in their inhalation while using respirators with cartridge like this.