Electrical PPE Storage Bags: Protecting Your Last Line of Defense

By: Mike Enright

When one thinks of personal protective equipment, many things come to mind. Rarely, however, does a person think about how it gets from point A to point B. Storage might be the last place you would expect innovation or even attention to detail from a vendor—for many vendors it’s “just a storage bag” and they treat it as such. Not us.

At Enespro PPE, we pride ourselves on delivering innovation and focusing on every detail, so of course we didn’t stop when we created a 40 CAL suit that weighs the same as a 12 CAL suit, designed a face shield that provides better visibility and color recognition than legacy shields, or developed a PPE jacket that a safety manager recently said was “so comfortable that [an employee] wanted to wear it home.” We opted to improve on another part of our PPE offering—the gear bag.

Arc Flash PPE Storage Bags: Protecting Your Last Line of Defense

We’ve used the term ‘last line of defense’ quite often when referring to PPE. Arc flash PPE serves a specific purpose—reduce or eliminate injuries to protect workers that are involved in the unfortunate event of an arc flash.

In order for this equipment to protect a worker, it must be inspected, maintained, and protected from any elements that could decrease its ability to function properly. Simply put, take care of your PPE and your PPE will take care of you.

Without proper protection, the quality and useful life of PPE can quickly deteriorate:

• Dirt, oil and chemical contaminants could render clothing ineffective
• Cuts, tears, or abrasions could remove that last line of defense on some parts of the PPE
• Face shield cracks, scratches or other damage could make continued use unsafe and impair visibility.
• Rubber electrical gloves can be damaged by heat, ozone, chemicals, foreign materials, and debris; even the smallest pinhole in an electrical glove is extremely dangerous.

Taking steps to protect your PPE from damage is a wise decision. It is a major investment and you should do what you can to protect it.

What Should You Look for in a PPE Storage Bag?

Knowing how important it is to protect your PPE, the first place you should look is your PPE gear bag. While glove bags are relatively standard canvas bags designed to minimize exposure to the elements, the overall PPE storage itself varies across providers, with different features. Here are a few things you should look for in a PPE storage and transport bag.

Designated Area for Face Shield

When researching one of the most common complaints we heard from safety professionals was that traditional carrying solutions for arc flash PPE did little to protect the face shield from cracks, scratches, or other damage. While face shields provide protection from arc flash exposures —they are not immune to damage. Dings, scratches, or other damage to a face shield could impede the visibility of a worker at a critical time and reduce the protectiveness in an arc flash.

Knowing how important protection and visibility is when completing energized electrical work, a PPE storage bag should provide ample protection for the face shield. At Enespro, we designed our bag with a special padded “box” area to protect the face shield itself, offering an additional line of protection when transporting this item.

Grommets to Generate Air-Flow in the Garment Section

As we toured dozens of electrical contractors warehouses we realized that the traditional PPE gear bags don’t offer any breathability for the garments, which amplifies foul odors when sitting in storage; especially in hot environments. Therefore, we designed the Enespro PPE bags with 4 grommets on the side that stores the arc flash suits to provide access to fresh air to help mitigate this issue.

Glove Pocket

Gloves are a key part of electrical safety, and finding a place to store them is often a challenge. Canvas glove bags are one part of the equation, but many gear bags on the market don’t make glove storage a priority. At Enespro, we’ve designed our bags with a pocket for the canvas glove bag that provides easy access to your glove kit.

Jewelry Pocket

Since jewelry should be removed before conducting critical electrical tasks, we noticed that adding a specific place to store jewelry would add value. Therefore, we added a small velvet lined pocket on the inside of the bag to store watches, rings and other pieces of jewelry. 

Waterproof Coating on the Bottom

You never know where you may set your PPE bag, and you never know what’s on the floor that may damage your PPE. We took this into consideration when designing our bags with a waterproof coating on the bottom to add an extra layer of protection from liquids or other damaging elements.

Ease of Use, Easy Carry

Carrying a bag full of PPE from location to location could get uncomfortable. We took this into mind when designing our bags with a padded handle and padded shoulder strap to make transporting PPE easier on your hands (or posture).

Protect Your Protection: The Enespro PPE KIT Gear Bag

When we set out to transform the world of PPE, we didn’t want to stop at PPE. During our extensive research with safety professionals and electricians, we heard many complaints about the status quo in the PPE world, as well as the annoyance that existed when transporting and storing it.

Knowing this, we introduced the Enespro PPE KIT Gear Bag, the most innovative PPE storage and transport bag in the market.

Learn more about the Enespro KIT Gear Bag here.