Promate Scuba Snorkeling Purge Mask Snorkel Set

First of all, if you check the other reviews, you'll find a number of different types of masks and snorkels have been sold, and are being sold, by Amazon under this same name. Some reviews mention the included fins, which are no longer part of this set. It is advertised as being made by PROMATE, but ours had a Body Glove label.Hence, the reviews here may have no relation to what you will receive if you order this set. My wife and I ordered the exact same set as part of the same order. The only difference being the color. Her mask was significantly different in construction than mine. Her mask seemed to work ok for her. Mine had a strap that would not stay tight. Every 15 minutes or so, it had to be readjusted. Which I found nearly impossible to do when in the water, even when wearing a life jacket, which my snorkeling trip operators required. I really had to get out of the water, and work on the strap for several minutes to get it tight again. Repeat fifteen minutes later.....My snorkel guide spent 15 minutes trying to fix it for me, but had no luck with it either. If, like me, you find yourself on a 45 minute group snorkel trip, with no way to get out of the water until it's over, you are going to be miserable with a mask that keeps filling up with water.Oh, and the purge valve, as another commenter noted, is a joke. Yes, you can see it there, but you will never be able to get it to work. When water begins to fill the mask, you have to hold it tight against your face, and blow the water out the soft bottom seal. The purge valve does nothing....Our snorkels, other than color, turned out to be identical. Which means neither of them was "dry". Yes, probably if you dived underwater it would close up. But if a wave washes over you, or you turn your head sideways to look at a fish, and water washes into the top, you are going to get a mouthful of water.I had purchased this set because I needed a new mask. I made the mistake of using this snorkel that came as part of the set. Luckily, I also brought along my 10 year old Ocean Master 3D Dry snorkel. Changing to this, I got not a drop of water, even when snorkeling thru some pretty rough waves that kept washing over me. Amazon has it for sale thru LeisurePro for nearly the cost of this mask and snorkle set. Famous Brand by Ocean Master Taiwan 3D Dry Snorkel is Back! If like us, you are going to spend thousand of dollars on a trip where you plan to snorkel, do yourself a favor. Pay a few dollars more for a quality snorkel that won't let you down when you are in the middle of the ocean. And get a scuba quality mask that will stay in place, and then actually purge if necessary. I buy scores of things a year from Amazon, saving me a lot of money, but this purchase was a mistake that lowered the quality of our trip.We are returning both of our snorkel sets, and buying my wife an Ocean Master snorkel. Then we are going to start shopping for some quality masks.

I have owned this set for more than three years. There are reviews claiming that knockoffs are being sold as Promate, but the one I got three years ago has worked really well for me. I scuba as well as snorkel and I have used this mask during scuba. This mask has a feature that is absent from a lot of other masks, the clearing feature underneath the nose, very useful if your mask gets water inside. I've had other masks and snorkels where the plastic began to degrade, becoming gummy. This mask is in good shape after three years of use. I love that. The snorkel does get some water in it lately. I don't remember if it did that when I first got this set, but it doesn't bother me because I know how to clear the snorkel. I've been snorkeling for 30 years, and I am so happy to have a mask that doesn't leak or become uncomfortable. Believe me, I've seen some bad ones.

This is in reference to the cheapest one on offer here. Cannot speak to the other models offered under the same product description.As a snorkel mask, this works okay, but I would not buy again for a number of reasons.Firstly, the purge valve on the snorkel needed to be cleared (by forcefully blowing) about once every five minutes. Very annoying to start hearing the gurgling sound of a tiny bit of water in the snorkel, and having clear it yet again. This was not in choppy water, so I think it was water coming in through the bottom rather than the top.Secondly, and this is the major problem, the purge valve in the mask (directly underneath your nose) makes it almost impossible to pinch your nose for equalizing. For that reason, I would not be able to scuba in this mask. For snorkeling at the surface this set did the job okay. But I like to dive down when snorkeling (enough to require equalizing), and this was not possible with this mask. I would definitely look elsewhere.

I bought this mask and snorkel set a few weeks ago and just used it yesterday. It worked as described. I was very happy with the dry snorkel it was really cool feature. At first I wasn't very sure of how "dry" it was so i was very pleasantly surprised when I used it and not having a mouthful of water :) The mask did very well it was a good suction fit and didn't leak, I did try the purge valve and that works great also. The main plus for this mask is it didn't have fogginess between glass like my husband mask did- this did fog up at first until I used the "spit" spray which got rid of the fogginess for awhile. I will be using these again and again ! I do recommend the mask strap for long haired individuals, it reduces your hair getting ripped out-and that's a plus.

Just got back from our wedding and honeymoon in Riviera Maya, Mexico, and couldn't have been more pleased with the snorkel and mask. I bought the set a little over a week before we left. We invited our families down with us, and everyone who swam in the ocean tried out my snorkel and mask (we cleaned them first, of course), and were very reluctant to give them back to me! My nephew who was previously afraid of being in the ocean was thrilled to use this snorkel, and overcame his fear rather quickly.It was awesome to be able to go under water with the snorkel, without worry of ending up with a bunch of water in your throat. Honestly, I kept forgetting about the purge mask feature, so I can't really comment much about that...although my husband tried it out, and said it worked well. I definitely recommend this set to anyone looking for a reasonably-priced snorkel and mask.