How To Stop Glasses From Fogging Up
Cloudy glasses are irritating. This might happen when you’re wearing a mask. Or, when you’re moving across environments that have a significant temperature. Think going from an air conditioned hotel room into midsummer heat, or the cosy indoors into wintery weather. Whatever the reason, fogged up lenses can hinder your vision. This is particularly dangerous if you’re driving or using heavy machinery. Aside from this, it’s just plain annoying when you can’t see where you’re going. It’s also a pretty unpleasant feeling too. The moisture from the fog can also drip onto your nose, resulting in your glasses sliding up and down. So what’s exactly causing your glasses to steam up, and importantly, what can you do to prevent it? Keep reading for our top tips to learn more.
What Causes Glasses To Fog Up?
Simply put, fog is condensation. It is formed when two different temperatures mix with each other. It’s the warm moist breath you exhale hitting a colder surface - in this case, your glasses. This significant temperature change results in the gaseous water particles in your breath turning to water droplets. This is amplified due to there being a limited amount of airflow between your glasses and face. It funnels your breath upwards, and before you know it - fogged up lenses.
How Do You Prevent Glasses Clouding?
Prevention is the best type of defence. If you find your designer glasses are fogging up frequently, it might be because they need a good clean. Dirty lenses cloud up more easily, as there is much more grime for water droplets to cling onto. Cleaning your glasses on a regular basis will help minimise this. But if you use a lens cloth, take note - keep it clean so you don’t end up adding more dust and grease to your lenses.
Another simple trick is to let your glasses adjust to temperature changes before you wear them. Take them off before you move into a different climate, or put your mask on. Leave them for a minute or two, and then put them back on.
Anti-Fogging Tools of the Trade
The need to constantly defog glasses can be frustrating, but certain tools are ready for the job. They may even reduce the amount of defogging. Here’s our top recommendations for accessories to treat lens fogging.
Anti-fog wipes and sprays. A quick spritz or a wipe, and your glasses are good to go. Wipes and sprays work by creating a very thin film. This acts as a surfactant - gaseous water is absorbed by surfactant molecules before they transform into liquid. Both of these products are easy to carry around with you, so you can easily de-cloud on the go.
Anti-fog lens cloth. These keep moisture at bay by absorbing it. Ensure that the cloth you use is suitable for glasses use, as you don’t want to accidentally cause scratches.
Warm water and soap. An oldie but a goody, a combination of warm water and soap works in a similar way to sprays and wipes. Before you reach for the taps, ensure your soap is gentle. You don’t want to use anything too harsh that could damage the lenses and any specialist coatings.
Your Glasses May Be Causing Lens Fog
If you’ve tried the above tips and are still having trouble with your glasses clouding up, it may be that they are not sitting properly on your face. They could be fitting too close to your face, creating a narrow space that traps more of your hot breath. Your glasses can be adjusted to mitigate this. However, a big word of caution. We recommend that you don’t adjust your glasses yourself and ask an optician or eyewear specialist to do it for you. Not only can a DIY job result in accidental damage, but tinkering with your glasses could end up affecting your vision. You may end up wearing your glasses differently to how they were initially measured, meaning your focal point could change. This is particularly pertinent if you wear multifocal lenses.
How To Reduce Glasses Fog When Wearing a Mask
It’s not only a change in temperature that causes glasses fog. Wearing a facial mask can funnel hot air up to your lenses and result in them clouding up. The good news is that there is a straightforward solution to alleviating this. You want to create a tight seal around the top of your mask. Doing so restricts the amount of warm breath reaching the lenses. Easy ways to do this include tucking the top of your mask under your glasses, tightening your mask by adjusting the straps/using an extender, or using a nose clip. If you’d like to use a nose strip, this can be fastened with a bit of tape for extra security.