Hi Adam, I totally relate to your experience with trying to keep glasses clean, without scratching them and destroying the coatings. It's not easy when you have oily skin, or are in a dusty environment. I've had over forty years of experience with this.
In the last several years, since discovering Glassyeyes and online ordering, I've bought dozens of different pairs of glasses, with different lens materials and coatings. I've experimented with different methods, and come to some conclusions. The gentle, lukewarm soap-and-water washing technique you describe is exactly what works best for me. I sometimes use the optician microfiber cloths to dry, as you do, but more often, I use ultra-soft cotton or cotton/bamboo fiber hand towels that I reserve just for glasses. I strongly recommend against using anything containing alcohol, even from optical supply companies. I suspect that a few uses of such a product may be more responsible for the degradation of your coatings, more than the soap-and-water washing. I also strongly caution against using tissues - EVER. If you're in a fix, it's better to resort to a knit cotton shirt tail, than any kind of paper. I've had good experience with the coatings from Coastal, 39dollarglasses, and Eyebuydirect. Having several inexpensive pairs on hand to rotate helps cut down wear a lot. Especially if you find yourself wanting to wipe your glasses during the day, it's much better to change to a fresh pair instead, and wash dirty glasses carefully with water later. Good luck! Eric On Mar 8, 7:45 pm, Adam <[email protected]> wrote: > No matter what technique I use, I always seem to scratch/etch my > lenses [prematurely]. > > The two things that continually 'dirty' my lenses are dust from the > air and oil from my face. So, on average, I clean my glasses once a > day. > > When using [alcohol based] glass cleaning solution from optometrists > offices or Costco, I can never seem to finish with a streak free > surface. > > Instead, what I use lately is a 'gentle foaming hand soap'. > I start by rinsing my glasses under luke-warm water - just letting the > water run over them. > Then I lather my fingers with the foaming soap and gently, using no > discernible pressure, glide over the surface of the lens once. > I then rinse the glasses off with luke-warm water.. letting the gentle > stream of water rinse away the soap. > While the water is still running, I will angle the glasses so that 95% > of the water will sheet right off the lens. > There is usually a droplet or two remaining, so I will grab an eye > glass cloth [the ones that you get for free from coastal contacts and > Costco] and gently [as little pressure as possible] dab at the drops. > > This technique leaves my lenses sparkling clean. No streaking > whatsoever.. but I am already starting to notice some faint dots where > the anti-reflective coating is failing. These glasses are only 4 > months old. Much too early to see signs of wear and tear [IMO]. > > What cleaning solutions, cloths, machines should I be looking at that > will preserve the optical clarity/quality of my lenses? > > My vision has finally stabilized [the same prescription for the last 3 > years], so I would like my glasses to last as long as humanly > possible. > > Thanks. -- Check us out at the oft-updated http://glassyeyes.blogspot.com! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GlassyEyes" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/glassyeyes?hl=en
