# Store Lenses Up
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 8, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850 "2013-12-08T21:12:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850/1 "2013-12-08T21:12:55Z")
I just obtained a new pair of glasses. I’ve been wearing glasses all my life, but this pair I got from Wal-Mart has instructions not to lay eyeglass face down. I’ve always placed them in cases facing down. Why is that contraindicated?
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850/2 "2013-12-08T21:18:15Z")
It’s a bad habit to be in if you ever end up storing them not in a case, say by setting them down on a table or other mildly abrasive surface. Today’s glasses are made of the lightest plastics they can get away with, so they’re staggeringly easy to scratch compared to the coke bottle glasses we all grew up with. Well, that I grew up with, anyway…
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850/3 "2013-12-08T22:55:48Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> It’s a bad habit to be in if you ever end up storing them not in a case, say by setting them down on a table or other mildly abrasive surface. Today’s glasses are made of the lightest plastics they can get away with, so they’re staggeringly easy to scratch compared to the coke bottle glasses we all grew up with. Well, that I grew up with, anyway…
So there’s no problem if I always use a case? - and I always use a case. Although I got them from Wal-Mart, they are not cheapies. $360. Titanium frames and scratch resistant lenses. All Wal-Mart glasses are scratch resistant, or so they state.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850/4 "2013-12-08T23:02:07Z")
If they’re always in a case, you’re fine.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850/5 "2013-12-08T23:23:22Z")
Assuming there isn’t anything abrasive in the bottom of the case, that is.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850/6 "2013-12-09T03:02:14Z")
When you check the oil in your car, don’t ever set your glasses down on top of the carburetor while you look close-up at the dipstick.
Ask me how I know that.
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### Author:  [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/store-lenses-up/675850/7 "2013-12-09T03:45:20Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> When you check the oil in your car, don’t ever set your glasses down on top of the carburetor while you look close-up at the dipstick.
>
> Ask me how I know that.
And if you do any woodworking, don’t clean your glasses with a shop rag either. DAMHIKT ☹