Deep Blue Gear Full Face Masks Certified Safe

A mask is one of the most important pieces of equipment a snorkeler will purchase. Deep Blue Gear puts safety first, and when the information about full face masks being potentially unsafe surfaced, they sprang into action. Deep Blue Gear wanted to ensure that their full face masks were as safe as possible.

When full face snorkeling masks were originally introduced to the marketplace, they were deemed unsafe due to the possibility of re-breathing exhaled air. The first models were designed with snorkel tubes that were divided into 3 parallel chambers lengthwise in the tube. The middle chamber is dedicated to inhaled air, and the outer two chambers for exhaled air. This design increased dead airspace in the masks because the exhaled air had such a long way to travel in order to leave the mask. This led to a potentially unsafe buildup of carbon dioxide which may cause the snorkeler to get disoriented, weak, or black out.

The Vista Vue Full Face Snorkeling Mask by Deep Blue Gear was introduced in 2017, around two years after the original Tribord Easybreath full face mask hit the market. This extra time allowed the design team at Deep Blue Gear to develop a full face mask with additional one way purge valves near the temples of the mask frame. This new design allows exhaled air to travel half of the distance to escape the mask compared to the original design. It also allows the snorkel at the top of the mask to be completely dedicated to inhaling fresh air.

To make sure these masks’ extra purge valves work as they intended, all Deep Blue Gear full face snorkeling masks have been tested at an independent US based testing facility called Dive Lab in Florida. The results of these tests confirm that our masks exceed the EN 250 safety standard. The EN 250 safety standards are widely used in the scuba diving industry to set the maximum safe concentration of CO2 in SCUBA regulators. It has been adopted to set standards of CO2 concentration in the lower breathing chamber of full face snorkeling masks. All Deep Blue Gear full face snorkeling masks were tested on an ANTSI machine. The results exceed the EN 250 standard for CO2 exposure for breathing rates consistent with snorkeling. Passing this benchmark EN 250 standard for measuring CO2 eliminates the risk and worry with full face mask snorkeling.

The revolutionary purge valve system is a game changer in the safety of this mask. Since the launch of these Deep Blue Gear full face masks two years ago, there have been no reports of the effects of re-breathing CO2 enriched air. In addition to the Vista Vue Jr full face mask for kids, Deep Blue Gear has released a new edition of the full face mask called the Vue Tech using the same unique purge valve system. The Vue Tech is a more modern design with a collapsible snorkel for easy packing. All of these full face mask styles have been tested, and it is confirmed that they all exceed the EN 250 safety standard.

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