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The best method I’ve found so far: 1. Get your glasses wet with warm water. 2. Apply dish soap to both lenses. 3. Gently rub the soapy water over the lenses.
by cornstalks 4y ago
The best method I’ve found so far:
1. Get your glasses wet with warm water.
2. Apply dish soap to both lenses.
3. Gently rub the soapy water over the lenses. For some stubborn things (like sunscreen) in the edges I sometimes gently use a Q-tip.
4. Rinse under warm water. Gently rub with your fingers to agitate the soapy water and help rinse it off.
5. (This is the important step) Adjust the faucet’s flow to a low laminar flow and run the glasses through water, hitting the top of the glasses first and letting the water flow down and off the bottom of the lenses. It might take a couple passes but doing this will eliminate any water droplets on the lenses.
6. Use a clean towel to gently dry the frames. The lenses don’t need drying since the laminar flow eliminated all the water droplets on them.
- lttlrck 4y agoThis is exactly what I do. I know someone that cleaned their hard contacts like this too.
- dionian 4y agoMy process was the same except for #5. Just tried it out and see what you mean! No more drops on the lens! Thanks for sharing
- melenaboija 4y agoI do almost the same and I completely agree. For step 6 an unused paper towel is what works best for me. I am guessing this may damage the glasses with the dust but it is fast and effective.
- sdfhdhjdw3 4y agoHaha laminar flow. So I'm not the only one. I always wondered.
- vmaen 4y agoExactly what I do!
- conqrr 4y agoThis works for me. Dish soap is barely a drop that I use to spread. Also clean the frames occasionally with water. For 6, I use a fresh clean underwear instead of a clean towel. One less towel and the usual laundry cycle takes care of the rest.
- ddingus 4y agoThis is the best way. I do it as a general "reset", to really clean things and start fresh. In between these sessions, I will use the little wipes. I find that paper they are made of is very similar to chem wipes. I keep the papers in a little box and use them for all sorts of minor tasks.
- headbee 4y agoUsing soap on surfaces that have an oleophobic coating can degrade the quality of the coating. This is even worse with dish soap.
- sdfhdhjdw3 4y agoHow else do you get rid of grease? The scattering of light on grease on the lenses is unbearable for me whenever I don't use dish soap.
- headbee 4y agoIf the oleophobic coating is intact (and good quality) it should come off with just a clean cloth.
- LK83 4y agoMe too! I thought I was the only one who did this. Replace step 6 with using my shirt :)
- twawaaay 4y agoI use similar method, except: - Do not apply soap to the lenses. Soap is too thick. Apply it to your fingers and rub between fingers to dilute with a bit of water before applying to glasses. - Use your fingertips as abrasive. Soap is there to dissolve any fats but your fingertips (if clean) are best material to remove anything from your glasses without scratching the surface. - Few faucets give good laminar flow. I just blow over the glasses. If you do this right, your glass are not scratched and you have cleaned them well, all water will slide off easily. - Don't ever use towels on either frames or glasses. Towels can easily scratch glass not to mention much softer frames.
- yisonPylkita 4y agoI second this. Don’t use any kind of cloth. Just blow over your glasses a few times, droplets will disappear. Even finest cloth will leave scratches over time. Also it will reapply dirt and grease that naturally builds up as you use it
- senthil_rajasek 4y agoInstead of wiping with cloth, I use a hair dryer in cold setting.
- twawaaay 4y agoThat's bad. You don't want to dry it, you want to remove the water BEFORE it has a chance to dry out. If you just dry it out, the mineral residue from water will be left on your glasses. More than that, mineral crystals are incredibly abrasive so next time you try to clean the glasses they will be abrading and destroying your perfect glass surface.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- pcthrowaway 4y agoThe author of the submission mentions they use distilled water , presumably for this reason
- paulsmith 4y agoAlmost my exact same method. Just wash your glasses in the sink with soap. It's easy.
- thedracle 4y agoThe dish soap method worked best for me. But the best method was getting lasik, now my old glasses are in a drawer gathering dust.
- browningstreet 4y agoI had RK in my 20s. No I'm in my 50s, so I'm back to glasses.
- gsich 4y agoCan't escape that.
- pizza234 4y agoUltrasonic cleaners, with a bit of dishes soap in the water, are the most efficient/effective way (I uses to clean them with water and soap as well, in the past). They are simple devices that lightly shake objects very quickly, in water. They work well with dirt that is soft (e.g. grease), and therefore not only for glasses, but also for teeth aligners and jewelry/small objects. Some grease is still sticky, but generally speaking, I do a 10 minutes pass every day, and the eyeglasses have never been cleaner. BE CAREFUL with coated lenses (in particular, cheap sunglasses there), as they will be destroyed (the coating/film will detach from the lens)!
- aidenn0 4y agoWhat uncoated lenses do you have? Polycarbonate lenses usually have an anti-scratch coating, and most lenses have an AR coating as well.
- samatman 4y agoI think the intention was (cheap (coated lenses esp. sunglasses)) though they wrote it as (coated lenses (esp. cheap sunglasses)). I have a few uncoated lenses, such as semi-disposable safety goggles, and a few uncoated glass lenses of one sort or another, although I expect you didn't mean those.
- pizza234 4y agoCorrect objection :) I don't know the technical distinction, but there is a noticeable distinction in prcatice. I guess that "cheap coating" is made by gluing a film; I see this type of coating very often in budget or even not-so-budget sports (sun)glasses. Cleaning this type of glasses in an unltrasonic cleaner will cause bubbles to form between the film and the lens.
- kqr 4y agoI clean my wife's glasses (it's unfair that she should get both bad eyes and all the extra work associated with it, so I do the parts of it I can). This is the exact thing I do as well. I have also found that rinsing with hot water helps tiny droplets evaporate quickly without (for some reason? Clean water at home?) leaving drying stains. My main concern is that the more effective soap may damage coatings. In practise, however, it seems that she has to change lenses often enough that damaged coating does not have time to become a big issue. (This is partially due to how pregnancy and breastfeeding changes the eyes -- we'll see how things go after this.)
- js2 4y agoThe best method I've found so far (I've worn glasses for over four decades): https://www.amazon.com/Zeiss-Pre-Moistened-Cleaning-Wipes-Count/dp/B00MO0MUUC https://www.amazon.com/Zeiss-Pre-Moistened-Cleaning-Wipes-Co... If they are especially dirty, I'll rinse them with clean water and maybe a bit of soap first.
- buro9 4y agoYup, I do this with some nice microfibre for drying / removing any smears afterwards.
- robga 4y agoI use the exact same cleaners and have for years.
- clumsysmurf 4y agoAnd they are easy to get, I see them at walmart in 50 and 100 count.
- andrelaszlo 4y agoI asked the optician how they clean glasses: - Wash with cold water. Warm or hot water might ruin the coating. (Our water comes supercooled right out of the tap in the winter,so in order to not have my hands instantly frozen into a solid block of ice I go for 15—20 degrees or so.) - Use a drop of mild dish soap without ammonia. - Dry them with a soft clean cloth (they use microfiber I think, I just use a random soft towel that doesn't give off any lint/dust) Doesn't have to be more complicated than that. It takes 20 seconds and my glasses are as good as new.
- otachack 4y agoI second this. Super easy to do and kept my current 1 year old glasses in great shape.
- causi 4y agoWash with cold water. Warm or hot water might ruin the coating. This is why I worry about radiant heat from fires while camping or burning yard debris. Plastic lenses are usually opaque to IR and that means they're heating up even more than you might think.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- wyclif 4y agoAnother reason to consider glass lenses.
- elliekelly 4y agoCan you even get glass lenses anymore? I don’t recall seeing it as an option the last time I ordered a pair but maybe since Zenni tends to focus on affordability they don’t bother offering the (presumably more expensive) option.
- not_the_fda 4y ago
- ComputerCat 4y agoSame! Except dish soap lathered between fingers first, and I just blow dry them to avoid streaks or fuzz of any kind.
- parentheses 4y agoyep. no more microfiber whatever and no “lens cleaner”. i discovered this a long time ago and i think it’s hilarious that others use such care to clean theirs.
- jsvaughan 4y agothis is it. also needs emphasis on getting a clean tea towel or equivalent out of the drawer, do not be tempted to use anything else.
- ornornor 4y agoThat’s exactly my technique too. Except I wear rubber gloves because the dish soap makes my hands very dry otherwise.
- chrisseaton 4y ago> 5. (This is the important step) Adjust the faucet’s flow to a low laminar flow and run the glasses through water, hitting the top of the glasses first and letting the water flow down and off the bottom of the lenses. It might take a couple passes but doing this will eliminate any water droplets on the lenses. This final step is also how soldiers get those perfect mirror finishes on their boots and belts!
- batch12 4y agoI did it by using lots of polish, time, and a little (drops of) water. I don't remember holding my boots under a faucet, maybe I could have had an easier time if I'd have known back then. Some folks did use heat guns, but that always made the polish crack for me.
- chrisseaton 4y agoAfter you’ve water-bulled with the little drops of water how did you get the water off without leaving any streaks? This laminar flow approach collects them up and rolls them off as larger drops so the surface is left dry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0wZLGrxuKg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0wZLGrxuKg
- batch12 4y agoI rubbed until there was no water.
- chrisseaton 4y agoThe water is for lubrication - if you’re rubbing until there is none then you’re abrading the polish surface.
- JJMcJ 4y agoYou can get water shedding coatings for lenses. Then you just have a few beads of water when you do this. You can either leave them there to dry or dab at them with a soft cloth like a tee-shirt. Since I've started doing this I've actually had compliments from optometrists what good shape my lenses are in.
- ridgeguy 4y agoI use this with mods on steps 5 & 6. We have super hard water. Despite soaping to degrease the lenses, our water never just sheets off like soft or distilled water does on a really clean surface. It beads up and leaves deposits when droplets evaporate. So step 5 is problematic for me. After the rinse, I set the glasses down on a paper towel - temple pieces extended as if I were going to put them on. The lens frames rest on the paper towel, their lower parts in contact with the towel. I use canned air to gently drive droplets down front & back surfaces to the bottom of the lenses. They then generally wick away into the paper towel, or else evaporate at the lens/frame interface. No need for step 6. Takes about 30 sec, leaves no spots on the lenses after.
- ezekg 4y agoExactly how I do it. There's no easier way to clean lenses.
- WalterBright 4y agoI don't use a towel to dry them, as any grit at all will fog the lenses. Instead, I just bang the edge of the glasses against my abdomen to knock the drops off. They'll eventually fog, but it takes a lot longer.
- raggi 4y agoI do something similar, but I tend to be less particular with using laminar flow, as ensuring that works reliably is difficult. I find I can simply blow on the lenses to drive any remaining droplets off of them.
- thomasmg 4y agoI do the same. The problem is at step 5: some faucets (at hotels and so on) are automatic (no touch, due to pandemic maybe). I don't have a solution for this yet.
- dwringer 4y agoThe easiest solution I've found is to use a Zeiss lens wipe; at this stage the lens is already clean so you don't have to worry about pushing dirt around on the lens, and the alcohol on the wipe evaporates quickly and cleanly. A better solution is to keep a clean microfiber lens cloth that never comes into contact with anything except freshly cleaned lenses to dry them. Unfortunately, for me it's tough to keep one that clean for very long. A worse solution is just to use the relatively-clean inside of a t-shirt. All three methods have their place IMHO.
- nickjj 4y agoI do something similar for the first 1-4 steps, only difference is I use cold water instead of warm or hot. I don't know how true it is but I read in a few places where hot water and glasses don't mix well. It can mess with prescription lenses and potentially strip away extra coatings you have like auto-tint. I know hot and warm are different but just to be safe I always go with cool. It's too bad hot water is bad for lenses because it would be really convenient to be able to clean them while showering.
- dboreham 4y agoOpened this page to make post about my secret method for glasses cleaning. Find 50 posts saying to do the same thing I do. The joy of HN...
- flappyeagle 4y agoI do almost the exact thing except with cold water.
- qwertywert_ 4y agoI just air-dry my glasses after dish soap cleaning, by whipping it in the air with my arm. Works pretty well actually.
- MengerSponge 4y ago0. Wash your hands :) It's better to do a final rinse with RO or distilled water.
- toss1 4y agoAt the end of that sequence, I finish with a spray of deionized water (made using a resin filter specifically to make DI water), and a clean/dry microfiber wipe. DI water is an amazing all-around cleaner and leaves zero residue. The best recommendation for it is remembering my chemistry teachers telling us that "water is the universal solvent". Well, filtering and removing all of the stuff previously dissolved in the water turns it into a very aggressive yet gentle solvent. It's great for cleaning surfaces and tools at the shop, windows at home, it makes glassware really shine, and of course, as a final step cleaning eyeglasses. (I just use a kit & resin from CR Spotless, available online. No affiliation, hope it helps as a starting point)
- m463 4y agoI learned the dish soap method when I ... accidentally dropped them in dish water. It is AWESOME. It is amazing for sunglasses. Clarity is critical for driving, but they also seem to build up oil faster than normal glasses. Dawn makes them meticulously clean.
- ramg 4y agoIf you leave your sunglasses in the open in the car, it might be collecting the offgassing from the plastic - that same haze that accumulates on the inside of your windshield. I keep mine in a closed container and it seems to do just fine.
- fmajid 4y agoI use an air compressor to blow the droplets away.
- BenFrantzDale 4y agoI do almost the same thing, but I turn it to scalding hot once I’m done using my fingers so the lenses get hot so they dry faster. So far that hasn’t seemed to damage anything.
- wyclif 4y agoThis is almost exactly what I do. After a lot of trial and error I found it works for me. The only thing I would add is to never use paper products to dry your Rx glasses or sunglasses if they have plastic lenses; the fibers in the paper will scratch the lenses.
- FunnyBadger 4y agoThis is exactly what I do. It's always worked fine for me (40+ years)
- tlarkworthy 4y agoI do similar but use centrafugal forces to spin dry them almost dry with arm swings. Then I use toilet tissue dabbed to get the final few drops off (not wiped!). Toilet tissue can be scratchy so you might want an alternative but for me it's not doing much work and it's always at hand.
- analog31 4y agoI do some optics design and prototyping for my day job. This is close enough to how I clean expensive optics, except that I would avoid a q tip unless absolutely necessary. The only thing I'd add is if you do need to dry something with a cloth, an old cotton undershirt that's been washed many times does a great job. Also, I wash my windows at home with plain water and a squeegee.
- Groxx 4y agoAvoid moisturizing soap in general when doing this, since they often have silicones, and that can leave a film. Dish soaps are less likely to have them, so it's a decent one to try blindly... or just read the label. But yep, this is exactly what I do. Usually hand soap, but the stuff I get is just plain soap, no fragrance or moisturizer, so it rinses super easily. And when it's properly clean, the water leaves the surface dry and streak-free.
- fy20 4y agoThis is what I do, usually once or twice a day. I seem to touch my face and glasses a lot, so dish soap is important as it removes the grease. Hand soap isn't as powerful and often has additives that will leave a film behind. Between cleanings when I get a small smudge I go back to using my t-shirt, but I only clean the specific area that is dirty.
- twistedanimator 4y agoI just wanted to thank you for this advice. I just used your laminar flow idea and didn't even need to use my microfiber cloth at all, the lenses were totally clean! Here's what I did: 1. First pass of laminar flow water from the faucet to remove any large debris. 2. Two sprays of lens cleaner on each side of each lens. 3. Rinse lenses with laminar flow water making sure to leave no droplets behind. Thank you for changing my algorithm forever.