These have been banned by every snorkel company on Hawaii because they have had folks die from the lack of fresh oxygen entering the mask and the build up of carbon dioxide in the mask…the plastic pipe sticking out of the mask is too small to exchange air effectively.
Yeah these mask have been known to be actually dangerous. Please do not buy these for your family as much as we all need a vacation right now.
Wonder if I can mount a filter on it and wear it in public?
If you wore this in public something tells me no one will get close enough to you to need anything else.
Thats odd we were in Maui a year ago and a gal from the UK had one and told me it was the greatest thing. Perhaps the brand makes the Difference?
I wouldn’t wear one…These are dangerous. From three articles about them:
“With a full face mask, some of the exhaled air may not fully exit the device and it is possible to breathe in the contaminated air. That has potential to lead to unconsciousness.”
“it’s inherently harder to remove the mask in case of emergency because of how the strap harness fits around the head.”
“Another issue with the full-faced masks is that they appear to be prone to leaking and fogging up. Rather than creating a tight seal using silicone, around just the eye area, like a standard mask, many (not all) of these masks use lower-quality PVC to create the seal around the mask. As the PVC must cover the entire face, rather than just the eye area, the number of potential failure points is dramatically increased. Some have reported the simple act of squinting may cause leakage.** Because the masks cover the full face, once they fill with water, the user, literally, cannot breathe. Whereas, with a standard mask and snorkel, if the mask fills with water, you can still breath through the snorkel. To compound the matter, with straps that go completely around the head, removing the masks can be difficult. In a panic situation, remembering the steps to remove a full-faced mask may be forgotten.”
Just think about killing yourself or loved one from this product.
It’s interesting to read the comments about low oxygen. All of the articles I read and even the city resolution to ban than was more because they are difficult to use and people struggle to remove them. Have people died? Yes. People also die while snorkeling using regular gear. Like any sport, people should understand the gear they are buying and how to use it. These masks have a lot of limitations on use, like you should not dive deeper than 10 feet because it is difficult or impossible to clear your ears.
I could not find a “complete” ban by tour operators in Hawaii or the state of Hawaii.
I am still not buying one, getting a regular dive mask to seal to your face is difficult. I cannot imagine getting it to seal to my whole face.
Hello out there I see numerous comments about how these are dangerous and kill people. Doesn’t any type of dive gear have dangers attached to it and the user obviously should know that using it.
Now, that’s outta the way. I’m not certified in dive gear or anything of such although I have sold Aquaegis snorkel 180 full view dive mask before and have had not one complaint about them. If that’s the manufacturer of these im sure they will work great for the user as intended. I won’t be buying more since they were a hard sale with so many lower quality companies manufacturering the same thing consumers just didn’t seem to buy the top notch product. Even if those lower quality snorkel full face mask may or may not work as good. As long as the user understands the risk then that’s on them when it fails.
As previously mentioned im not certified nor have I used any of such product so I really can’t say from my own personal experience that this here full 180 view snorkel dive mask will work as intended Its just that I never had any complaints about it from buyers. If its once again Aquaegis brand. Now, I don’t work or get any endorsements by mentioning such brand so there you have it. Nuf said…if I violated any rules by mentioning such brand sold on Amazon let me know and I will edit it or a mod could choose to do it for me. Thanks and good night.
I’ve been using one of these for the last 4ish years for extended periods of time. In my and my wife’s personal experience they have been safe.
But lets be clear, any equipment can fail. So keep a watch out for these:
If the masks starts to fog up, that’s a sign of CO2 build up. Take the mask off and reseed it. If it keeps fogging up, you might have a defective mask. Do not put it back on.
Pay attention to your breathing, is it getting hard to breath? Are you getting dizzy, take the mask off.