[jfh]

I had my neighbors Harbor Freight hood do that to me too. Welding is very bright I learned and it didn't take me long to look at that. Come to find out one of the internal batteries died. There are 2 internal batteries and the other battery was nearly full charged. The Harbor Freight helmets do not recharge themselves. I'm not sure why the other battery was not affected.

There are videos on how to open up the screen and wire in an external battery holder if you think your batteries are bad. It is kinda hard to split the screen so take your time. I fixed my neighbors and I also fixed mine with 2 battery holders. Now we can just change the batteries out. I think I used (2) AA 2 battery holders wired in series to get 3v because the internal batteries are 3v watch batteries if I remember correctly.

The newer versions of the Harbor Freight helmets are not as sensitive as the older models. The newer version I could not get it to darken when I looked at the sun but the older versions will. Maybe other helmet manufacturers are using the same circuits or something.

You can tell the new and old versions of the Harbor Freight helmets by the knob on the side.

New Version:

Old Version: