👉 Full Face Snorkel vs Traditional Mask — Which One’s Better?

Which type of snorkel is better for your next trip? We're going to look at both of these. I'm going to tell you everything there is to know about them so you make the right decision. Comfort and fit. We'll start with the old school snorkel. Everybody knows how these fit. They have a rubber strap that goes on the back of your head. You want it nice and snug. These do tend to pull hair if you have long hair, but as long as you don't have a mustache, you don't have to worry about your beard getting in the way for this mask. Fits on perfectly easy. This can go in and out of your mouth as you need to. Your mouth will get a little tired if you're snorkeling all day holding on to this thing, but it's not that bad. Fits in nice and easy. This one even has a place for your teeth to go so it stays in without you having to hold on quite as tight. Overall, this is very comfortable except for the hair pulling. Full face snorkel. Different kind of strap on these and most of these have this kind of strap. Instead of rubber, it's kind of a stretchy fabric. It doesn't pull your hair so that's a little bit better. It does cover your whole face so you won't be getting, if you're in the ocean, salt water on your lips or in your mouth. That's a plus for comfort. It is heavier though, so you will feel this when you're walking around about to get in the water if you're carrying it. When you're snorkeling, it is a little bit buoyant so it won't be that comfortable if you're diving down a lot. If you're snorkeling staying on the top, you're perfectly fine. This will actually help you float the right way, but if you're diving down, the pressure can be a little uncomfortable. Overall, I would say for comfort, the full face snorkel wins the first round but this is a close second. Section two, safety. When we talk about safety, there were a lot of concerns with the full face snorkel. People said that CO2 builds up on the inside and you're breathing your old air. This new design does prevent that problem somewhat. It has a separate breathing chamber and one-way valves to let air out but not back in and then you got air coming in from the top here. So you don't have to worry about breathing your own air that much, but these are working parts. If these valves mess up and you don't notice it, that could be a problem. These things need to be checked every time you snorkel. For the traditional snorkel, the old school snorkel, there's nothing really unsafe about it. If you get water in your mouth, you get water in your tube, you just spit it out and come up. When you come out of the water, if you're having trouble breathing, you just take this off. It comes off real easy. The full face snorkel, it's a little harder to get off. It's covering your whole face, so if you panic, this might be a better option. When it comes to safety, the old school snorkel definitely wins. The full face snorkel is getting better though. Section three, visibility and fogging. Everybody who's used an old school snorkel knows that fogging is a problem. You can try some of the old tricks like spitting in it and wiping it around. Lemon juice helps a little bit, but when you're diving down, coming back up, this thing's going to fog up. There's no air moving around inside this mask, but you can just pull it up, dip it, and the fog is gone. It's not that big of a problem. Visibility, you can see pretty good out of this. You can't see out to the side, but you can look around. It's not that big of a deal. These have worked for years for a reason. Pretty good on visibility and fogging. Fogging, not quite as good as the full face snorkel. You have constant airflow coming in from the tube, going over the lens, and then down in here where you're breathing. You're constantly clearing that fog. And this separate breathing chamber means when you breathe hot air out, it comes out these holes. It doesn't go up into the mask as much. And that constant airflow from you breathing in is going to keep that fog going. A lot of people said that these things fog up, but this version does not fog up. You get constant airflow and it's constantly clearing that fog. So when it comes to fogging and visibility, I would say the full face snorkel definitely wins. No fog, and you can see out the sides a lot better than you can in a traditional snorkel. It's just a lot more bulk. Section four, ease of use. The old school traditional snorkel, it comes off and on really easy. And when it comes to actually using the thing, it can be a little tricky for new people to learn how to use this mouthpiece. But once you figure it out, I would say it's a lot easier than the new full face snorkel. Now, straight out of the box, you can put this thing on never having gone snorkeling before and do just fine. But if you want to be able to dive down and explore underwater a lot, then you're probably going to be disappointed in the pressure that you feel in your face. But for snorkeling at the surface, this is as good as it gets. For diving down, I would say the old school snorkel is a lot better. With most of these, you do have to clear the water when you come back up. So you have to blow really hard, shoot the water out, and then start breathing again. Or you can just spit it out of your mouth and take a breath when you come up. But for ease of use, I would say this snorkel wins if you're new. If you're an experienced diver and you want to try free diving or maybe even scuba diving, this will be a lot easier to use and more reliable. Section five, value. When it comes to price, these are very similar. You're talking about the full-face snorkel being maybe $5 more, some maybe $10 more. They're really similar. But what you get with this one is a reliable snorkel that once you know how to use it, it won't let you down. And there are no parts you're going to have to replace with this one. For this one, you get a much better beginner snorkel. If you've never snorkeled before, you could get a lot for your money with this one. You can take it to the beach and use it first time. You'll learn it in minutes. It's not that much to worry about. But when you get more advanced, it's going to let you down a little bit. It's going to limit you in the things you can do, and you'll probably end up switching to one of these later on. But if we're just talking beach trips, this is the way to go. But overall value for your money, the traditional snorkel. Final verdict. I say the traditional snorkel wins. If you're going to be snorkeling a lot, and you're going to be trying to learn how to do different things like deep diving, this is the way to go. Go ahead and learn how to use this snorkel. It's going to last you a long time, and it's going to let you do all the things you want to do. If you're going on a beach trip, you don't want to bother having to learn how to snorkel, go for the full-face mask snorkel. It'll work for your trip. It's not that much more expensive. And you can use it over and over again. Maybe eventually you'll upgrade to something like this. Leave me a comment down below and let me know which one you think is better. I've linked both of these so you can pick whichever one is better for your situation. The prices are about the same, and they're really low right now. Check them out.