Exhaust Valve Assembly

Product Features

The DESCO (Jack Browne) Shallow Water Diving Mask was the winning entry in a competiton held by the US Navy in 1943. At one time it was the most widely used piece of diving equipment in the world. Thousands were produced for the war and varients created over time increased that number. The direct descendent of the US Navy Mask is the DESCO Commercial Mask. The only difference between the two was the commercial mask did away with the three way valve from the Navy version. In the early 2000s the stamping dies for the exhaust valve cover were lost. It was not until recently that our supply of covers was exhausted. In searching for a replacement method to make the covers a company undertook hydroforming the covers instead of us incurring the high cost of die replacement. Our first run was kept small until the new part proved itself. Those parts were used up and the current price was found to be unsustainable. This meant a redesign of the valve to make them in house. DESCO recently had to redesign the air control system on the Air Hat. We discovered the advantages of in house production and breaking reliance on suppliers. This idea was applied to the Mask exhaust valve and a new model was created. The valve is round instead of square. The body and cap are machined parts we can make in our own shop. This gives us control of cost and quality. It functions the same as the old valve but weighs a little more. The tradeoff to holding down cost and having more control of the product is a fair one. The square exhaust valve has been discontinued and none are available for sale. This new valve is a direct replacement.