Where are these manufactured?
Great question! as there are so many cheap (made in China) brands which falsely claim they meet KN95 filtration standards.
KN95 is the Chinese certification standard for masks with 95% filtering performance (N95 is the USA NIOSH standard), so you can expect most (if not all) KN95 masks to be made in China.
As long as they’re genuinely tested and certified against the KN95 standard, then they’re as good as N95 masks. The challenge is, who polices the sale of fraudulent (uncertified) masks in the US? The US government takes care of N95 and watches out for that, but KN95 is a Chinese standard. China undoubtedly watches the sale of KN95 masks in China very carefully, but probably doesn’t have any authority or interest in what’s sold in the US.
I’m guessing a lot of what’s sold in the US doesn’t go through the expense of certification, but probably is still very effective… who knows. If you want certified N95 masks, spend real money on real US-certified N95 masks.
This actually helps. We had KN95 masks that were pretty good. The manufacturer’s product received NIOSH [edit thanks RNLori i meant] approval [not certification] as well. But then the dummies did an over head strap design change to over ears rendering new items with same designation less snug. As penalty NIOSH correctly banned all their products, forced a recall, loss of sales and probably cost several people their jobs (if so, rightly so).
We gave existing stock to staff if they wanted to use outside of work e.g., grocery store. They still were much, much better than the 2 and 3 layer cloth masks I purchased that were made in local shops. Comparable to the certified N95 masks I had (including 3M branded) which also were made in China.
No KN95 can receive NIOSH certification. Only N95’s can and they need headstraps.
We definitely have good KN95’s, even some now made on US soil. In the same line, we have great N95’s made in China.
South Korea makes great KF94 too, but some report a few of those are even made in China.
It’s confusing, isn’t it?
Even with adequate testing data to research masks tested by the CDC, nothing matters without an adequate fit too. The side gaps in KN95’s can be large.
There’s so many fakes that filter less than a bandana. This definitely isn’t the month to take chances on a mask, fit, or even a distributor that aren’t announced.
It is confusing and dangerous. A bunch of the fakes made it all the way to frontline care in the early pandemic days. I lost a co worker and friend.
Don’t take chances.
Stay safe and well all.
Sorry not certification so much as approval. I apologize for use of the wrong word. Agree with you fully about the need for caution and use of quality masks.
N-95 masks need to be fit tested. In most workplaces such testing is badly done or not at all. In addition, if there are air gaps when people wear the mask they don’t have a tight seal. Many had to reuse their mask over five times even though they were designed for single use.
You actually cannot blame the mask, Even if it is a 3M N-95 if there is not a tight seal or prolonged exposure in a room that has had 8 hours of COVID sick people and lack of ventilation.
[We have had 23 months of no staff to staff or patient to staff transmission using N-95 masks for staff and KN95 masks or double masking (cloth on top of surgical) for patients during peak exposures two sick patients]
What is the name of the manufacture and I’m a bit skeptical when the masks are labeled KN95 but have 4-layers of protection versus the usual 5 layers.
Sorry this is late.
The manufacturer name is Guangxuan Commodity Co.
it is a 4- layer mask with 95% filtration.
Thanks for this info. I googled the company and found a link to their certification from 2020
Kn-95 is not equivalent to N-95
Appreciate you posting this!
When I scrolled towards the end, the link indicated this is for a 5 ply mask. ThunderThighs indicated in above post that this item is a 4 ply mask. 
I usually can find these on sale 100 for $20 plus shipping.
Thank you all for this responsible chatter. With what’s going on in the world, it’s nice to see people taking action to ensure someone who thought about buying this product did so fully informed 
Hi there. I’m not seeing the reference to 5ply. Could you show me?
The elastic bands for the ears come loose on the first two I tried. The mask is a bit small for me. Overall Im not impressed with them.
I have a cloth mask that fits tightly. I may use these underneath the cloth mask to hold them in place.
These KN95 are better than the regular surgical masks not for use in an ICU or EMT situations where breathing in the virus is an issue. They are to prevent the spread only.
The current “authenticity” issue based on code-imprinted (or lacking) KN95 masks is not a panic issue.
I suspended a mask (the red package with 105 on the package) and poured water into it. It took a good 30 minutes to start leaking the water in a drip manner.
That, and the price, make them useful enough.
CDC is not involved here as these are not NIOSH masks!
While your test is interesting, they were sold as filtering 95% of 3 micron microdroplets. People who purchased do expect masks that fit those specs.
People in health care do depend on KN95 masks as well when N-95 are in limited supply. We also use them to issue to Patients and give N-95 to more exposed staff. Never in the past 2 years has infection spread as fast and as prevalent as this variant.
Had it been more lethal, American lax attitude and magical thinking would have been catastrophic. This should be considered a warning. The next major mutation is not guaranteed to be as low in virulence. We as a nation already own the jaw dropping consequences of our choices in this Pandemic. From my staff talk:
Source graph:
I think some of these masks were given to people who bought the other ones. The ones in the picture on this feed match the ones I received. I actually purchased the other ones and I think they sent these instead. They were the exact same price. It seems like it was the same vendor trying to get people to buy non branded masks by having them listed as a brand and simultaneously selling them on the same site without the brand. The masks are not the same. However they got shipped as if they were.
These are likely fakes. They came delivered in an open bag with no packaging or branding. They are individually package but not sealed. There are typos on the insert. None of the limited information that was in the bag corresponds with either the woot description or the clarifications from the woot admin on this discussion thread. Will be returning.
