Bulgarian PG-1 Gas Mask Review and Test

Hello! I was asked if I could do a review and a test on this Bulgarian, I think it's called the PG-1. So if I call it the wrong name, it'll be the right name in the title. And this is an interesting mask, particularly because I don't think there's all that many of them about, or at least not that many to turn up, and it's got this lovely blue voice diaphragm colour that looks black when you look at it there, but when it catches the light it's definitely a weird blue-black colour. So, basically, I'm not massively aware of what gas mask Bulgaria used during the Cold War. I do have one, I think it's called the PDE-1, which is basically the Bulgarian version of a US M17 or a Czech M10 or whatever. You know, one of the M17-style cheek filter masks. But they also have this, which is clearly a Draeger M65 copy. Now, if you're not familiar with the Draeger M65, there's a Draeger M65. So as you can see, it's a Draeger M65 copy. Or it may have been a copy of the Czech copy of a Draeger M65, which is the CM-4. But the really interesting thing about this mask is that the exhale valve is an exhale valve and a voice diaphragm. So you can see that under there, you can see where the rubber is from the exhale valve, and then you've got this voice diaphragm bit on there. It's probably not going to be very easy to show you the inside of the mask on the camera. But if you can see maybe or not in there, I think it's going to be quite difficult. There we go. You can see that there's actually a voice diaphragm and an exhale valve. The voice diaphragm sits further away than the exhale valve. So that's a really weird system. I've not seen something like that really before on a gas mask, but there you go. So I'm assuming it's a ghost thread. I'm just going to wear one of my safe Polish shorters when I test this. Now, it may make a face seal with me, it may not. Because when masks are Draeger M65 clones, the Draeger M65, as I've complained about before, doesn't have a great thing for sealing around the face. It's the reason the Israeli M15 is clearly the best Draeger M65 derivative mask, because it's got a proper seal around the face. Not so much with actual Draeger M65s and things like that. It's got the same five-point head harness system that the M65 has. And yeah, it's a really cool-looking mask, and I really do like that kind of bright blue bit there. So I'm going to put a filter on and test it. If it fails the test, I don't think it's a rip in the rubber or anything. It's just M65s don't seem to agree with my face shape. But I'm going to test it regardless, and let's have a look. Right, hopefully I'm properly in frame and you can hear me. I've tried to do this up as tight as I can, but again, whether or not it works depends if this M65-style face seal likes me. I don't like the inner mask to this, because it's kind of a bit crumpled and doesn't seem to sit right. And it's digging in a bit to my mouth, but we're only going to be testing this for a couple of minutes, so let's see if it works. Right, I'll give that a couple of minutes. At the moment I can't smell anything, which is a good start. So, one thing I have to mention if I'm talking about Bulgarian gas masks is for some reason the Bulgarians love to cover these masks absolutely with talc, which is really, really hard to get off. If you thought the Soviets were bad at talc-ing the masks, you'll see how the Bulgarians did it. Basically, when you get on these masks, every inch of the black rubber is covered in this grey talc, and you can't get this stuff off. I did a cleaning video a while ago to show how to clean this mask, and a particular reason I clean this mask is to try and get as much of the talc off as possible. And the talc just wouldn't come off of this mask. So, what I actually ended up doing just now is just spraying the whole thing with silicone lubricant, because that at least seems to shift the talc off. So, the reason it's black and shiny is because I've just put a fresh coat of silicone lube on. The inside is still a bit talc-y, but I don't think I'm going to inhale that, because the talc just likes to sit on the mask and not move. So, this definitely makes an airtight seal, which is impressive for me, because it's a Drainer M65 type mask, and as I've said before, unless you have this very particular face shape, those masks are like, no, we're not sealing on your face. But this thing's fine, other than the fact that the actual inner sort of oral nasal cup is digging into the sides of my mouth, because it doesn't seem to quite sit right on the inside of the mask. Maybe that's how it's been stored for years. Maybe there's been a load on top of each other, and the weight's compressed it and just bent it out of shape. Interestingly, while Bulgaria obviously had this mask, Romania actually, I think it's called something like the M85, Romania had an actual, as far as I'm aware, licensed M65 copy, which is really weird, because most of the Central and Eastern European Warsaw Pact members and Soviet satellites basically had either Soviet masks, or they ripped off something else's design, but apparently the Romanians decided they were actually going to pay the West Germans for their gas mask, and despite being a NATO country, West Germany said, yes, we're going to sell our design to a CombiBloc country, so the logic in that I do not understand, but the Romanians actually do, as far as I'm aware, have a licensed M65 copy, which I think is called the M85, but I can't look it up here. Well, the mask isn't the most comfortable mask, but that's mostly because it's an M65 design, meaning I have to do the straps really tight to actually make an airtight seal, and as I said, the oral nasal cut bites into my mouth, but it works, and it does work, so I'll have to give it a thumbs up for that, it does work, and I can't tell from the outside until I look at the footage, but it seems the voice diaphragm actually seems to work alright, because I can hear it vibrating slightly. So, I have no idea if this is a direct copy of the M65, or they did their own voice diaphragm thing, or whether they copied the Czech one, but regardless, the mask works. Now, if you want to see something really weird, well, you won't see it on camera, but for whatever reason, inside the mask, I can see a reflection of up there, and I don't know how that works, but I can. Something inside the mask is shiny and reflects, so you can see up like that. Again, I don't think that's an intended feature, it just works that way. Anyway, I've had the mask on long enough, as I say, it's not too comfortable to wear, so let's just break the seal, and yeah, I can smell pine there. But yeah, the mask works, so yeah, thumbs up, this is an actual working gas mask. So there you go, that's the Bulgarian PG-1, it works, which is a nice surprise, because, as I said, it's an M65 style mask, which generally don't work. There's my complaint about, again, if it's visible on camera, the oral nasal cup being a bit skew-with and not brilliant. It's kind of like one of those things where if it was tucked in somewhere, it would be quite good, but it doesn't really seem to tuck in to the sides of the mask or anything. But regardless, the mask works, which is the important thing. So I imagine with the PG-1, I'll just see if I can find a date stamp on this one for when it was made. I imagine, personally, that this was probably for a civil defence one, or an army one that they used after the PDE-1. But again, it's weird, because like Czechoslovakia, the CM-3 and CM-4 gas masks would actually be more practical than the M-10, but the M-10 was the military mask, because the ones that took the 14mm Gauss filters are obviously going to be a lot more practical for soldiers. So if this does be a civilian mask, it's weird. It's like they've copied a West German military mask to give to civilians, but they've copied a US cheek filter mask to give to the military. So I have no idea if that's the case. I think that might be a date stamp on this strap. Yeah, it is, 86. Okay, this is a really weird place to put a date stamp, but there's a date stamp on that strap that says 86. Another thing I'm pointing out, the head harness on here is very much like British WWII gas masks, with the kind of elasticated straps and one of these harnesses. I think the MM-1, the Soviet mask, has something similar to that as well. But yeah, I can't really fault this thing, to be honest. Other than them covering it in an excessive amount of talc, it's actually a good mask. It has an oral nasal cup in it, so it doesn't fog up, even if that's a weird oral nasal cup. It doesn't stick to the side of the mask properly like it should. It's got a proper outer sort of rubber mask bit, but although the M65 has that, it's not big enough and doesn't do its job properly, because so many people complain, so it's not just me, that they can't get a good seal with a M65. It has a voice diaphragm. When I review the footage, I'll see how good that is. But yeah, it works. It's got that lovely blue bit to it, which I think looks nice. So yeah, if you were from Bulgaria and you were interested in me talking about your Bulgarian PG-1 gas mask, you did a good job with it. So well done, Bulgaria. As again, I don't know the history of this mask. You can't find out that much information on it online. I don't know which M65 version they copied. Was it an M65 clone mask? I don't know. But regardless, it works. Other than my complaint about the oral nasal cup not sticking to the sides properly, and that being a bit uncomfortable, the mask is good. So there you go. The Bulgarian PG-1, yeah, it's actually a good mask for what it is. It does the job.