inhale from reg exhale from nose

[ezadel]

Hello,
I wanted to get your opinion. Is it a bad habit to inhale from reg and breath out through nose. I have one of the cheap masks with a purge valve, and found that doing that automatically clears my mask, produces much less interference feom the bubbles as they do not obstruct my vison..what do you think?

 

[divad]

Hello,
I wanted to get your opinion.

I don't care......but, what happens when the little valve eventually doesn't work properly?

 

[SOFDiver]

IMO a very bad habit, and likely will lead to trouble in an emergency situation. A good Diver will only exhale into their mask to equalize in decent. With such a habit will you be able to isolate your nose and breath effectively without your mask? Also, masks its purge valves present a potential flooding problem at depth, and using as you describe could lead to failure or expelling diaphragm from its seat leading to flooding without ability to clear. Again my opinion.

 

[rongoodman]

It's a very hard habit to break. It caused me endless problems during my rebreather training because I was continually leaking diluent out of my mask.

 

[ezadel]

Thanks. agreed that if valve fails and diver is used to this style of breathing it can present a problem.

 

[ezadel]

It's a very hard habit to break. I caused me endless problems during my rebreather training because I was continually leaking diluent out of my mask.

ok I only have few dives so I wont do it anymore !!

 

[ezadel]

With such a habit will you be able to isolate your nose and breath effectively without your mask?

I think the answer to this is yes.. because I only use it to exhale which would be ok without a mask inhal from regulator exhale through nose.. this habit never teaches inhale through nose.. again doesnt mean its a good habit

 

[ScubaSarah1981]

I can't say if it's a bad habit for you, but it was very much a bad and annoying habit for me. I wasn't intentionally exhaling through my nose, but I would do so just enough for the air coming out of my mask to make a sort of buzzing noise (I don't have a purge valve). This caused three problems for me. The first problem was annoying but not serious: the buzzing noise was very annoying during a dive. The second was a much more significant problem in my mind - I had great difficultly not trying to inhale through my nose when my mask was off. In order to do anything with my mask off underwater, I would need to plug my nose for a breath or two, and then I was fine (but still a bit uncomfortable). I was worried that this would a serious problem in any emergency at depth that required removing a mask (or a lost mask). The third problem was one of embarrassment. I'm training to be a dive master, and it certainly isn't ideal to not be able to remove your mask without plugging your nose when demonstrating a mask removal skill for students. As someone else mentioned above, I found it to be a hard habit to break. Despite being aware of the issue while diving and trying to focus on exhaling only through my reg, it was next to impossible to do during normal dives. I ultimately was able to stop doing it by sitting at the bottom of the pool and simply removing my mask over and over (and over and over) again and very deliberately not exhaling through my nose.

One other thought just popped into my mind - if you're feeling the need to constantly clear your mask, is it possible you have a fit issue? Maybe adjusting the tension on the strap, or perhaps a new mask altogether, would help reduce or stop leaking?

 

[Akimbo]

Exhalation resistance and therefore the total work of breathing increases when you exhale through a small purge valve on a mask. That in turn inhibits CO2 elimination which exacerbates almost all hyperbaric maladies. If that doesn’t kill you mask fogging will annoy the devil out of you.

Not recommended.

 

[ezadel]

One other thought just popped into my mind - if you're feeling the need to constantly clear your mask, is it possible you have a fit issue? Maybe adjusting the tension on the strap, or perhaps a new mask altogether, would help reduce or stop leaking?

Honestly this is not much of a problem if I dont exhale through nose I would only have to do it every once in a long while...if i get little water in
the main advantage is less bubbles and maybe overall better feeling while breathing (sorry cant be more descriptive)