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How I clean my glasses

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Re: How I clean my glasses

#291

Post by mc32 »

twawaaay wrote: post #58
cornstalks wrote: post #24

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 lam…

I 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 j…

Agreed. This is the best way. Soap on fingers as you described above and laminar flow.

Other methods introduce too much unnecessary complication which don't make the lenses cleaner. Any kind of absorbent material has the potential of depositing tiny fibers or other specs on the lens surface. And air drying potentially leaves behind impurities the from water.

Re: How I clean my glasses

#292

Post by ek750 »

userbinator wrote: post #289
hammock wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glasses are plastic lenses? I thought they were… glass. Am I wrong? Warby Parker and such are plastic?

They used to be actually glass, but now the majority are plastic.

For people with poor eyesight (like me!) plastic lenses are lighter and can have a higher refractive index, making them thinner than the equivalent glass lenses. Weight is the big thing though.

Re: How I clean my glasses

#293

Post by sgtnoodle »

camtarn wrote: post #167
sgtnoodle wrote: post #29

I hate the metalized coatings they put on lenses these days because they are so fragile. The antireflective coatings "craze" when exposed to thermal cycles. My current pair I ordered without AR coating, and they still came with a "hardness" coating. All it takes to ruin it is a spattering of aerosol sunscreen in passing. A few weeks ago, one lens got bad enough that I soaked it in glass etching acid overnight and the…

Hah, it's great to hear that the etch-and-polish approach actually works! I've considered doing this to my glasses to remove messed-up antireflective coatings, but always chickened out before actually doing it.

You aren't going to get it perfect. There's always going to be fine scratches, and probably visible ripple texture when you look at the lens from several inches away. When wearing the glasses, though, it looks just fine. It's definitely an improvement from the damaged coatings.

On a previous pair with AR coating, I tried sanding rather than etching. It was a lot more effort, and I caused some distortion on the outer edges of the lenses. It was still an overall improvement from the messed up AR coating. I was taking high dose corticosteroids at the time, and the AR coating was driving me so crazy to the point that, if sanding didn't work, they were going to be smashed with a hammer!

Re: How I clean my glasses

#295

Post by Groxx »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #235
sgt wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The chromatic aberrations are there but I think you just need to get used to them. Alternative is heavy glasses.

That's not true. My glasses are super light and the thickness is not a concern whatsoever. I can shake my head back and forth with my head down and they don't move at all. And for the past decade since my Rx got particularly bad I have always found the aberrations annoying, so no, I won't "just get used to them". I can't stand chromatic aberrations because they make everything outside of the centre of the lens blurry…

Yeah, I've stepped down from the highest index I've used due to the aberrations. Material and grinding techniques have improved since then in general, but it was quite distracting - shift my head a degree or two and bam, rainbow, and further to the edges of the lens it'd be 3+ distinct colored images of every light source.

It was kinda neat to be a walking spectroscope, and see what different light sources produced. But the novelty wears off fast when it starts blurring and coloring text on the outer edges of computer monitors. I'm plenty happy paying another $100-200 every few years for lenses that don't do that.

Re: How I clean my glasses

#296

Post by LanceH »

clashmeifyoucan wrote: post #227
andrelaszlo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 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…

My opticians have always given me a microfiber whenever I got a set of glasses made, and last time I went I asked for a spare as well. Now I have the habit of having one in my pocket at all times so I don't have to devolve back to using the bottom of my tshirt.

I ordered a pack of 100 off amazon, and I have them everywhere -- desk, laptop back, suitcase, car, bookshelf, etc...

Re: How I clean my glasses

#297

Post by Groxx »

justusthane wrote: post #122
Groxx wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine vary from "too thick for almost any frames" to "looks like a normal pair of glasses until you look through them" depending on cost. Mine are somewhere around 1/3rd as thick on the edge as cheaper glass. Look for "high (refractive) index" lenses. It bends light further, so you need less material / less angular difference to get the same effect.

Interesting, thanks! I figured the thickness was just a function of physics and couldn't be changed, but I wasn't aware of the difference in refractive index.

It generally comes with more chromatic aberrations (rainbow splitting of high contrast edges / light sources), but the tech keeps improving and my current pair is only barely noticeable in my normal vision window. At the edge it basically makes text unreadable though, just because the aberrations overlap enough.

Which is much much better than like 15+ years ago, when I had a pair that had enough aberration that I was happy to get the thicker ones the next time. It was kinda fun being a walking spectroscope, but definitely uncomfortable in quite a few cases.

Re: How I clean my glasses

#298

Post by balls187 »

I got LASIK. One of the best decisions I have ever made.

EDIT TO ADD:

I got the surgery 3 years ago, I'm 42 now. Post surgery I am at 20/15 vision.

No complications, and no side effects.

If anyone is interested, here is the video of the entire procedure (they even offered to live stream it on facebook for me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4YOuS-nznk

Re: How I clean my glasses

#299

Post by hooloovoo_zoo »

willcipriano wrote: post #283
Grazester wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once ruined the coating of my glasses by sticking my head into a hot oven to check a disk I was baking. The surface of the lens sort of blistered. From then on I removed my glasses when checking on food in the oven... I also try not to stick my head so far in also.

Chef tip: Take the item out of the oven instead of inserting your head into the oven.

Hanzel and Gretel hate this one simple trick!

Re: How I clean my glasses

#300

Post by ridiculous_fish »

balls187 wrote: post #298

I got LASIK. One of the best decisions I have ever made. EDIT TO ADD: I got the surgery 3 years ago, I'm 42 now. Post surgery I am at 20/15 vision. No complications, and no side effects. If anyone is interested, here is the video of the entire procedure (they even offered to live stream it on facebook for me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4YOuS-nznk

Please tell us more. How old are you, how long ago was the surgery, how is your vision now, any side effects?
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