I don’t wear glasses, but I know an older lady who cleans hers with a drop of gin (yeah, the liquor) and a lint-free cloth. She swears by it.
My son’s glasses get really dirty every day (it’s the way he wipes his nose – yuck!) and his lenses sound like yours. Even though the bottled lens cleaner is supposed to be save, I found that it seems to partially dissolve the coating and leaves the lens with a smudgy-looking film. So instead, we run them under warm water and clean with a drop of liquid soap and fingers, then dry with Bounty paper towels. That works fine.
I do the same (although not daily), and it has worked better than spray cleaners, etc., for me as well.
I’m curious if anyone has one of those steam-cleaner devices for eyeglasses that The Sharper Image sells - it’s probably just a gimmicky-gadget thingy that is designed to part you with your $50 for the “gee-whiz” factor, but I’m willing to believe someone who’s tried one & likes it.
I received that as a gift a few months ago and I returned it.
it’s not steam-based at all. You have to fill it with water, add some concentrated cleaning solution and it needs batteries. You open it, clip your glasses inside it and attach the clip back to its position (it’s a magnet). Then, you have to start the machine, wait for a couple of minutes while it soaks the glasses. it then opens and starts vibrating them to get rid of most of the water on the lenses. Finally, you have to take the enclosed microfiber cloth and wipe the glasses dry.
In short, it sucks. I was expecting it to have my glasses clean and dry when it was done. The fact that I still had to wipe them clean is a total deal-breaker. It means I have to keep the cloth clean, wash it periodically, etc. No better than using water and soap in fact.
I tried drying my glasses with a hair drier but it’s a no-no. It leaves very noticeable water streaks and some other stuff and is basically a useless method.
I like to use the stuff sold by LensCrafters, the individually-packaged wipes with a cleaning solution in them. Nice because I can just put them in a pocket and not worry about it. They work pretty well.
“Dot scratches” sounds like pitting. Did any nasty chemicals spatter on them at any time? Acids can pit glass, acids or some solvents can pit plastic, and there could be other chemicals I can’t think of at the moment. (Petroleum distillates?) If you were wearing them at the time, and maybe you weren’t, you might or might not have noticed, depending on how fine the spray was. You could try asking the optical shop how vulnerable your lens material is to chemical damage.
Personally, I clean my glasses with diluted dishwashing detergent. It even works when I get hairspray on the lenses.
Addendum: if there’s a coating on the lenses, the coating could have gotten pitted separately from the base lens material, by God knows what chemical, depending on what the coating is.
I just leave the cloths and special cleanser on my night table, and use a case to stop dust settling on my glasses.
To the folks who use glass – Lucky you. I am so blind I had to go with special-ordered German lenses that cost more than a car payment if I didn’t want coke bottle lenses. :eek: (on the other hand, it was one of the best wads of cash I ever blew. :D)
I have polys, & use a home-made cleaner ( rubbing alcohol, no additive, tap water 30% alcohol, 70% water) or I use plain tapwater.
Never use soap or commercial glass cleaners. This will take the coating right off.
BTW–I work in a photo lab, & spend a lot of time cleaning glass.
While my situation isn’t this bad, I do have a steadily developing case of Scottish Eyebrows, and I can confirm that eyebrows produce quantities of grease one could never imagine until one wears glasses. Also, I have really, really long eyelashes, so that if my glasses are adjusted to ride properly on my nose, my lashes will occasionally swipe against the lenses, leaving distinctive oily streaks. Don’t get me started on wearing glasses while frying food.
Anyway, I use the microfiber cloths, throw them in the laundry (yes, without softener) when they start just smearing the oil around, and sometimes wash my lenses with dish detergent and water. According to my optician, the cloths generally work better without the cleaning fluid, and yes, never, never use Windex on plastic lenses.
My only other morsel of information comes from my doctor. He says they can make lenses so clear and free of distortion and reflection, that you notice the tiniest iota of schmutz, and that’s why it seems my glasses are smudgier than ever lately.
I love a good stirfry, but only when wearing contacts. They also have the benefit of protecting from the Dreaded Onions of Doom.
I think that may be exactly the stuff I have. My specs prescription is -12.25/-11.50, and Zeiss (German) 1.9 is supposedly the highest-index available anywhere. More than £300 ($520) just for the glass. Where’s the ‘WAAAAAH my wallet’ smiley?
My reading glasses are OK but my sunglasses are disgusting and nothing has ever got them clean or streak free. Thanks for that tip. It’s the only thing which has worked and they’re now as clean as new.
Seventeen+ years as an optician here.
The dish soap and water is probably the easiest method. I use Dawn, which is the finest in “grease cutting”. Of course, if you have ANY kind of “specialty” lenses, always ask your optician for advice. Soap and water won’t hurt ANY lens. However, Windex (or any other household cleaner) will eat the surface of any lens other than glass. I personally do not ever wear glass lenses. Also, on plastic, polycarbonate, or hi-index plastic, stay away from any and all paper products. Paper is smushed wood, etc etc. Yes, one time with a tissue has ruined poly, and I ruined a nice pair of glasses once with a paper towel. You’ll notice if you use paper towels or tissues, that all the scratches on your lenses are on the “inside” surface, which is where you usually put more pressure.
If you are wearing anti-reflective lenses, be diligent about what you’ll use to wipe them. Anything that’s been washed with fabric softener will leave them looking nasty. I wear A/R, and I specifically order the more hydrophobic coatings for myself so that I generally don’t have to wipe them (kind of like what RainX does for your windshield). I spray them with A/R cleaner, squish it around with my fingers, and rinse with running water. Set them on a towel for about 10 seconds, and I’m good to go.
For the person who mentioned the little “dot scratches”, if they’re not pits, they may be specks of hairspray. If your glasses are even in the same room as hair being sprayed, those spots will appear, and they are hard to remove, until I tell you this… dip a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol, and gently rub away the dots. Rinse well before wiping. I don’t recommend using alcohol often, but every 2 months or so to remove hairspray never killed a lens. I’ve never seen a normal lens cleaner that will take hairspray away.
Those little pre-moistened lens wipes that someone else mentioned are OK too, as long as it says on the box that it’s safe for A/R coating. I’ve even used them to clean my CD’s and DVD’s. Anything safe for A/R will be safe for plastic or poly.
Some of the coatings on some lens are terribly “fragile”. While scrubbing the patio wall, my glasses fell into the buckle of pine cleaner. It ate the coating off me glasses in that now I have this iridescent sheen to my glasses as if I got oil on them. :eek:
I second the gin recommendation. As clean as new. Make sure to use a soft cotton cloth though, paper scratches.
I’ve taken to wearing my glasses in the shower so that I can actually see things in the shower. Added bonus of getting my glasses clean!