Suggestions before I abandon my FFM

[RayfromTX]

Would it help to use a smear of chapstick around the perimeter of your face where the seal occurs to aid in making the seal?

 

[JohnnyC]

Ditch the Ocean Reef and pick up a Draeger Panorama. I haven’t seen anybody that it won’t fit. And the P-Port attachments are super useful. No need for QD’s, no nasal blocks, comma are easy.

Worst case you can resell it for what you paid for it.

 

[Compressed]

My wife and I have been diving Ocean Reef G. divers ffm's for about a year now. We've got about 40 dives plus some pool time.

The masks work great for the most part but I can never avoid air leakage completely. It's reduced my dive times on dives that would normally have been an hour to about 30 minutes consistently. We've got a good comfort level with the masks, and use the comms occasionally.

For a while we were steadily regaining ground on air consumption with practice, but we seem to have plateaued somewhere in the neighborhood of terrible about 15-20 dives ago. We're thinking of shelving the ffm's for now and going back to regular mask/regulators this year. Last summer, we were consistently the first people back on the boat. While my sac has never been amazing,

We have taken training on the masks both before and after purchase. The ocean reef guys come out to my LDS a couple times a year and arrange the training free (a sales gimmick I presume).

Does anyone have any bits of enlightenment for me to try?

 

[Compressed]

My wife and I have been diving Ocean Reef G. divers ffm's for about a year now. We've got about 40 dives plus some pool time.

The masks work great for the most part but I can never avoid air leakage completely. It's reduced my dive times on dives that would normally have been an hour to about 30 minutes consistently. We've got a good comfort level with the masks, and use the comms occasionally.

For a while we were steadily regaining ground on air consumption with practice, but we seem to have plateaued somewhere in the neighborhood of terrible about 15-20 dives ago. We're thinking of shelving the ffm's for now and going back to regular mask/regulators this year. Last summer, we were consistently the first people back on the boat. While my sac has never been amazing,

We have taken training on the masks both before and after purchase. The ocean reef guys come out to my LDS a couple times a year and arrange the training free (a sales gimmick I presume).

Does anyone have any bits of enlightenment for me to try?

Kele...

Please contact me. I am a representative for OR, might be able to help.
mphanna@aol.com

 

[h53driver]

It's not always that easy to "ditch" something you paid a lot of money for, and only might need minor twitching to work well. The resale values on these masks are not that great.

I have a OR Space and fortunately, it seals well. I have used surgical or vinyl tubing in the past...way past!...like 35 years ago...to fix the skirt seal in my then brand new Farallon three sided mask. It worked very well. You might try that trick with your OR to see if it works for you. I used 1/4" tubing, and it brought the skirt out just enough on the sides to fully seal against my face.

 

[EireDiver606]

Hi all,

This is unrelated to the thread I’m afraid but how do people clear a FFM if it fills with water?

Thanks

 

[The Chairman]

This is unrelated to the thread I’m afraid but how do people clear a FFM if it fills with water?

it's a special procedure where you exhale through your nose or your mouth. Looking up a tad will help.

 

[EireDiver606]

it's a special procedure where you exhale through your nose or your mouth. Looking up a tad will help.

Wow thanks for the blunt response haha. The only reason I asked is because I cannot imagine having to clear a fully flooded FFM, but then again I’ve never tried one. Surely with that much water volume, it’s very very hard? I would have thought that they have some other way to do it like one way valve or something....

 

[The Chairman]

Wow thanks for the blunt response haha.

Yeah, I shoulda put smileys after that! However, it's just that simple. Kinda cool. I often dive the OTS Spectrum and it fits quite well, even with a Goatee and mustache. I can't ever remember having to clear it.

Surely with that much water volume,

No, it's not hard at all. You have a slightly positive pressure in the mask, so water rarely enters. I did buddy breathing on an Ocean Reef FFM with another instructor during a DiveHeart event, just to show we could. It was hard to keep from laughing, but we were at it for at least five minutes.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Rip the FFM off like a bandaid. Sure, it’ll hurt at first, but you’ll be glad you did. Switch back to a regular mask.