mask -- with valve or without
- Thread starter avenger79
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
One thing nobody has mentioned . . . some of the masks with purge valves make it more difficult to pinch your nose to clear your ears, because the valve structure is stiff and won't collapse. I've never experienced this myself, as I have never used a mask with a valve, but I have helped students with this issue.
Simple scuba gear like masks, snorkels and fins, is somewhat like toothbrushes. Everybody uses one, and everybody buys one -- so how do you differentiate yours from the rest, and above all, how do you justify charging more for it? You add bells and whistles, like contouring the bristles or making them different colors and stiffness. You convince the customer that this brush is way superior to anything else, so you can charge three times as much for it.
What can you do with a mask? It's a piece of tempered glass with a silicone skirt. You can make it colored; you can change the shape of the glass (and this DOES make a difference); you can grind in bifocal lenses (I ponied up for that); you can add a purge valve. You can tout those changes as making it a better mask and charge more for it. As with the toothbrush, some of those changes are really of value and some probably are not, but in the end it's the customer who decides what he will pay for.
One thing I will say about dry snorkels, though, is that the valve mechanisms they build into the tops of them make them top-heavy, and with many of them, they will fall over, twisting the mask strap and encouraging the mask to leak. I hate it when our students show up with fancy snorkels, because I know what the problems are going to be with them.
Simple scuba gear like masks, snorkels and fins, is somewhat like toothbrushes. Everybody uses one, and everybody buys one -- so how do you differentiate yours from the rest, and above all, how do you justify charging more for it? You add bells and whistles, like contouring the bristles or making them different colors and stiffness. You convince the customer that this brush is way superior to anything else, so you can charge three times as much for it.
What can you do with a mask? It's a piece of tempered glass with a silicone skirt. You can make it colored; you can change the shape of the glass (and this DOES make a difference); you can grind in bifocal lenses (I ponied up for that); you can add a purge valve. You can tout those changes as making it a better mask and charge more for it. As with the toothbrush, some of those changes are really of value and some probably are not, but in the end it's the customer who decides what he will pay for.
One thing I will say about dry snorkels, though, is that the valve mechanisms they build into the tops of them make them top-heavy, and with many of them, they will fall over, twisting the mask strap and encouraging the mask to leak. I hate it when our students show up with fancy snorkels, because I know what the problems are going to be with them.
- Messages
- 5,141
- Reaction score
- 4,149
- # of dives
- 5000 - ∞
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE YELLOW MASK
too historical...no interest in history of mask design
Last edited:
eelnoraa
Contributor
OP ask for opionion, so we give opinion. haha
No purge valve for me either. One less thing to go wrong. I don't see slight issue clearing mask without purge valve after learning it, so I got to wonder how can it make it easier. Also I won't put anything feature on a mask that compromise the field of vision. I kind of thing purge will.
No purge valve for me either. One less thing to go wrong. I don't see slight issue clearing mask without purge valve after learning it, so I got to wonder how can it make it easier. Also I won't put anything feature on a mask that compromise the field of vision. I kind of thing purge will.
Had a friend with a purge valve, he's dead now of course. would have saved him but I was staring straight up at the surface clearing my mask. To this date I'll never wear any kind of mask,death traps the lot of them.
This has been a fun thread so far. not bad, my first question and it generated 6 pages of responses and of course death threats. LOL
BTW TSandM: while not mentioned here, the gal at the dive shop did mention exactly that about pinching the nose to clear ears. I did try it, eh, didn't seem too bad to me.
my preference so far is to lean towards a mask without the valve. I am a person who ordered a vehicle with crank windows, regular locks and no A/C so yeah I kind of fall in the less is more crowd. LOL Besides I hear power windows can automatically roll up when you don't want them to and kill you.
BTW TSandM: while not mentioned here, the gal at the dive shop did mention exactly that about pinching the nose to clear ears. I did try it, eh, didn't seem too bad to me.
my preference so far is to lean towards a mask without the valve. I am a person who ordered a vehicle with crank windows, regular locks and no A/C so yeah I kind of fall in the less is more crowd. LOL Besides I hear power windows can automatically roll up when you don't want them to and kill you.
............and then we'd go out and stare at the blazing sun until our eyes turned black and our hair caught on fire.........and we LIKED IT that way.
I'll get back to the quote in a second.
My first mask had the valve. It worked fine at all recreation depths without any leaking issues. There was a plastic guard that covered the flapper valve. As long as the guard was in place, everything worked great.
During one dive that I was having equalization issues, while I was pinching my nose (see TSandM's quote), the guard popped off. Since the guard was clear, I was able to track it for about the first five feet, then it was gone forever. Needless to say, the rest of the dive involved a lot of mask clearing and swimming with my finger on the valve.
It is another idea that is good in theory, but lacks in execution.
Similar threads
