clear skirt discoloring

[DRhodes]

Like Irishsquid said use some crest toothpaste w/no pumice in it to scrub the mask, and lens. It will take most of the yellowing out and clean your lens enough to where you don't have to use much defog.

From what I have heard about applying anything liquid silicone to a solid piece of silicone, it will melt the solid and deform it badly.

[cummings66]

When it comes to damaging the mask, a rule of thumb is like dissolves like. So a silicone gel would cause the silicone mask to incur a minor amount of damage, over time you might notice a funky look to the skirt due to it. It won't dissolve in your hands real time. So for Silicone use a petroleum product and vice versa.

[danielh03]

I bought a clear sea dive last year, only have 10 or so fresh water dives on it, no salt water ever. The skirt started turning yellowish after about 6 months. As long as it seals well i will keep diving it. You really dont notice it when its on.

[Scuba Bear]

Truly this is just my opinion. I agree that the clear masks will start to discolor a little over time, however, I still like the clear over black - when I have used black, I feel like I am looking out a porthole, but with clear, its more like looking out a big picture window. IMHO.

[LaCroix42]

I have a JT Proteus paintball mask that uses clear silicone It started discoloring after about ayear of play (12+ hours in the sun, five times a year). If you'd like I'll post pics of it for comparison. It's not 7 years old and still works great, just a bit yellow.

[Puffer Fish]

Originally Posted by Scuba Bear

Truly this is just my opinion. I agree that the clear masks will start to discolor a little over time, however, I still like the clear over black - when I have used black, I feel like I am looking out a porthole, but with clear, its more like looking out a big picture window. IMHO.

A lot of things can discolor silicone, skin oil being one of them. For the most part, it is just cosmetic. Sun tan products will also do a number on the clear stuff. Get Coffee on it and see what happens (I know, how does one get Coffee on a mask? It was a spill, ok? and the mask happen to be on the table... and I was getting ready for a dive and did not notice....) I just assume it is part of having clear silicone masks, and makes you look like more of vet.

[cummings66]

I don't use sunscreen or anything like that, nothing other than water has ever touched my mask and it started turning yellow within the first year. It's not really got that much worse, you can tell it's used but that's about all it's ever affected.

I've been told it was exposure to light that turned it yellow.

[Scoobidoo]

I thought it won't happen to me, but sure it's not a myth. I had two clear skirt masks, one started yellowing 3 months into using (~10 dives), the other is relatively new and see signs of yellow coming. I decided to sell the new one while I can, no one wanted to buy the yellowed one unfortunately. And now I've moved on to using black skirt mask and keeping the yellow skirt as backup.

[Grizbear98]

I have a clear skirted mask, it started yellowing a few months after just 4 dives. It really doesn't bother me that much since it fits so well, but I haven't dove with it yet since then. I guess I'll know after February if it's still good for me or not.

[Monkeylemon]

So yellowed silicone *doesn't* mean that the material has dried out or become less flexible or will disintegrate when you're underwater and leave you for shark fodder?