Smoke masks have attracted great interests and have been supplied widely for the improvement of the safety during fire evacuation. However, there is not sufficient research on the practical utility, certification status and easy-donning about commercial smoke masks, therefore it is difficult to determine the actual usefulness of the smoke masks. In this study, we conducted a survey on users’ perceptions and experiences about the smoke masks, and investigated the status of certification of 54 commercial smoke masks. We also performed donning tests and examined degrees of discomfort for 4 types of the smoke masks. Although 22% of 235 respondents had experienced the smoke masks before the test, and 23% of the respondents did not know the smoke masks, 93% of the respondents expected that the smoke masks could protect users from fire smokes and toxic gases. It was found that 41% of the commercial smoke masks did not certify according to domestic or overseas performance standards. Most certification standards have not effectively regulated maximum wearing time for the smoke masks. Only ASTM E 2952 and KFIS 024 had specific standards for the maximum wearing time of 30 s. As a result of donning tests for 4 types of smoke masks, the wearing time of the hood-type mask and self-contained smoke mask exceeded 30 s, therefore these types of smoke masks might increase the required safe evacuation time. On the other hand, it was also found that short education about the donning could reduce the wearing time by 19% and numbers of improper wearing by 89%.