My 3M half mask broke. What should I replace it with?

This comes up constantly, usually as "my 3M 6500 broke, what now", and the honest first answer is boring: replace it with the same thing. A half mask that sealed on your face and that you actually wore is worth more than a better respirator you take off.

Change category only if the old one was failing you, and be specific about how.

It never sealed properly. A beard, stubble, a low nose bridge, scarring — a sealed mask depends on a gasket meeting bare skin, and no amount of strap tension fixes a leak path. A powered respirator has no seal to break.

You could not keep it on. Heat, breathing resistance, fogged glasses. A half mask makes you pull air through the filter yourself; a powered one blows filtered air past your face, so there is no resistance and the airflow clears the fog.

You want your face covered too. A half mask leaves your eyes and skin in the dust.

If none of those apply, a new 3M and a box of cartridges costs a fraction of any powered unit and does the job. We would rather say that than sell you $499 of respirator you did not need.

One thing to check either way: half masks are rated for what the cartridge is rated for, so if you were using organic vapour cartridges for finishing, a particulate-only powered respirator is not a like-for-like swap. Ours is rated EN 12941 TH3 P R SL for particulate and is not approved for paint fumes, solvent vapors or gases.