This wasn’t even worthy of going in GQ, so in MPSIMS it goes:
I’m in the habit of washing my regular eyeglasses every now and then with soap and water. Can sunglasses also be washed this way, too, or is there something about the tinting/reflective coating that wouldn’t react well to soap or water?
Even more mundane question: Someone said that hot water coming in contact with the glass lens of eyeglasses can cause the glass to emit harmful fumes (glass, when heated, emits toxic fumes??). I thought this weird because there are glass lids for cooking pots that are exposed to boiling-hot steam all the time when cooking, yet most likely don’t emit any fumes. It’s a nonsensical claim, right?
Only if the water was hot enough to melt the glass, but the water would have already turned to steam by then.
Depending on what kind of “soap” you use, there’s a chance of degrading the lens tint/coating, but that’s about it. As far as I know, diluted dish soap will not cause any problems.
The cloth you use to wipe them dry after is probably much more important than the soap you use or the water temp.
It depends on the sunglasses. If they are actually glass there shouldn’t be a problem. Many sunglasses, even expensive ones, are plastic. One reason why I hate Oakley is that mine would spiderweb if exposed to water too many times. The shaded film crackles and they become unusable. I prefer Wiley X.
Regular tap water should get them plenty clean. Dry them with a soft cotton or microfiber cloth.
Glasses with anti-reflective coating do tend to be smudge magnets, and when the coating begins to pick up small scratches it can make the lenses look dirty, causing people to clean them even more vigorously, making more scratches in the coating. Eventually you wind up with a hazy-looking film of tiny scratches that you can’t wash off.
I clean mine all the time (smudges/streaks make me nuts) and I use windex and a napkin. Nothing’s ever happened to them but scratches unrelated to the cleaning - they get scratched because I’m an idiot and don’t take care of them. Hell - I get them at the Dollar Store - I usually lose them before anything bad can happen.
I’ve been cleaning all of my glasses with a drop of dish soap and warm water for decades.
I’ve lost all the sunglasses before any damage could manifest itself. Nothing has happened to the prescription glasses.
Bonus: dish soap removes any body oil from the nose- and earpieces of the glasses
Same here. Dish soap is excellent. Hand soap is almost as good.
But … hand soap with “lotion” or moisturizers AKA grease, is exactly the worst stuff. You’ll successfully remove all those fingerprints and replace them with a film of grease/oil that’s especially formulated to be sticky and resistant to removal by soap. Have no fear. Two or three good washings with dish soap will fix it.
Unless the dish soap also has moisturizers. :smack: Don’t buy that crap.
I use hand soap and dish soap as well.
I tend to dry the lenses by blotting rather than rubbing, hoping to minimize any scratching. Small dust particles on a cloth or paper towel could cause scratches if you rub the lenses.
I ruined a pair of glasses by cleaning them with a bar of soap, not that I rubbed the bar on the lenses, but I rubbed my finger on the soap and then on the lenses.
I suspect either the soap was formulated with abrasive particles or, since this was a bar of soap laying on the open in a dusty area, that rock dust got to it.
That I was drowsy from waking up very early after a day of heavy trekking didn’t help matters. “Oh, there’s some lines on the glasses, I’ll rub them out… funny more lines now, let’s try the same thing and expect different results”
The photochromatic coating ended up looking as if I had taken sandpaper to it.
Morality of the story, now I only use liquid soaps to clean glasses.