What's your goggle lens cleaning protocol (??)

[arewolfe]

I can't remember where I acquired this belief, but I've long thought that lenses (for motocross/MTB, and ski goggles) should - in a perfect world - never be touched with anything except their silk carrying case. Can anyone verify or deny this?

It's completely possible that my above belief is correlative (not causative) as related to the following experience: I've had near-zero fogging goggle problems or issues with scratches or smears in my life. Any time I need to clean the lens I simply grab the silk bag and wipe the exterior (I try to avoid wiping the interior (again: can't remember why), even with the silk bag, though I've done it a few times sans poor results).

It may be I'm just not a goggle-fogging type of guy. I've also been on countless ski and MTB days where friends have had fogging goggle issues where I had none. And two weeks ago my friend spat on his MTB lens, rubbed his shirt around on it, and yelled "what the fuck" as the mirrored finish proceeded to disintegrate into utter horse shit in front of our eyes.

Anyone have 2 cents on this? Looking it up on youtube I've seen people recommend Rain-X and Windex, so I'm assuming these people on onto something I haven't learned about yet... I just have no interest in experimenting with stuff like that when I have no reason to (if it ain't broke...). But I'd also like to have some substantiated advice I can dole out to friends when their gear is fogging or needs to be wiped, rather than always saying "yeah, dude, I don't know, mine aren't fogging".

[Dee Hubbs]

When I worked in ski shop and sold goggles and sat through plenty of product knowledge session I came up with this advise for all my goggle customers.
- Your googles only should be in one of two places: On your face, or a warm dry place. Never leave them wet in a bag, or in a cold. Make sure they are hung to dry after a day on the hill.
- Only wipe the exterior of the lens with the soft bag, paper towel and tissue paper are made from wood and will scratch the lens.
- Never wipe the inside of the lens, especially if they are wet. Its covered in an anti fog coating, and you will only wipe it off and scratch the non hardened suffuse of the lens. If you get snow in them knock the snow out and avoid touching the inside of the lens. If you must touch the inside of the lens, only dab the water droplets to get you through the day. Wait until the lens is totally dry to dab any water droplet stains off the inside of the lens.
- Or ignore this and buy goggles/lens multiple times a year.

[MrMan]

My hot breath and the lens friendly goggle bag have worked great for eons.

[XXX-er]

When I worked in ski shop and sold goggles and sat through plenty of product knowledge session I came up with this advise for all my goggle customers.
- Your googles only should be in one of two places: On your face, or a warm dry place. Never leave them wet in a bag, or in a cold. Make sure they are hung to dry after a day on the hill.
- Only wipe the exterior of the lens with the soft bag, paper towel and tissue paper are made from wood and will scratch the lens.
- Never wipe the inside of the lens, especially if they are wet. Its covered in an anti fog coating, and you will only wipe it off and scratch the non hardened suffuse of the lens. If you get snow in them knock the snow out and avoid touching the inside of the lens. If you must touch the inside of the lens, only dab the water droplets to get you through the day. Wait until the lens is totally dry to dab any water droplet stains off the inside of the lens.
- Or ignore this and buy goggles/lens multiple times a year.

this ^^ some people will pack a second pair and just swap if they get snow inside the goggle

no paper products on eye glasses either

[ticketchecker]

this ^^ some people will pack a second pair and just swap if they get snow inside the goggle

no paper products on eye glasses either

eggzachary

[Aus George]

I use the goggle wipe on the thumb of my gloves... Only if the manafacturer states the material is specifically for that. Gotta be careful with gloves though, I got some new North Face gloves and the material on the outside of the thumb seemed like it could be used for lenses. There was nothing on the packaging to state whether it was or not, but after several calls and emails back and forth with their design team I learnt that goggle lenses WEREN'T taken into consideration when they designed it. So you can't just assume if it looks good.

[gregorys]

After I dig the snow out of my nose and ears, I usually pop the lenses, whack them upside my head a few times and then ski in the foggy soup for a while. Wiping is optional.

I won't worry much about avoiding wiping the inside, but I do use a cloth wipe. Then again, I'm skiing an Anon knock-off - so trashing a lens is not much of a worry. But I haven't trashed any lenses, so I must not be doing it wrong, regardless.

IMO, fogging is a result of breathing into your goggles. ANY goggle is going to fog then.

And if you packed snow into the goggle, the best/fastest way to de-fog them is to start straight-lining stuff. [It may be the best way to kill yourself too, when you can't see anything - but I digress.] But no wiping procedure is going to leave you fog-free if you packed snow in the insides. Get the snow out, and as much other moisture as possible. Wipe gently, and live with fog. If you have the courage to crank it up, they'll clear faster.

Being overheated is also a problem, though that's usually from boot-packing, where there'a not a lot of air exchange across the face of the goggle. [So I think it's the lack of air-exchange more than actual body heat/moisture.]

TLDR; Ski faster. Quit breathing. Don't crash.

[Edit later: goGGle, not gOOgle. I obviously type Google way too often.]

[Cocximus]

When I worked in ski shop and sold goggles and sat through plenty of product knowledge session I came up with this advise for all my goggle customers.
- Your googles only should be in one of two places: On your face, or a warm dry place. Never leave them wet in a bag, or in a cold. Make sure they are hung to dry after a day on the hill.
- Only wipe the exterior of the lens with the soft bag, paper towel and tissue paper are made from wood and will scratch the lens.
- Never wipe the inside of the lens, especially if they are wet. Its covered in an anti fog coating, and you will only wipe it off and scratch the non hardened suffuse of the lens. If you get snow in them knock the snow out and avoid touching the inside of the lens. If you must touch the inside of the lens, only dab the water droplets to get you through the day. Wait until the lens is totally dry to dab any water droplet stains off the inside of the lens.
- Or ignore this and buy goggles/lens multiple times a year.

How are you supposed to clean sweat? If the Anti fog rubs off they are shit lenses. My julbo zebra lenses still don't fog after years of wiping.

[unitofstuff]

Depends who made your goggles. Different companies use a couple different methods for anti-fog on the innermost lens surface. If you aren't sure what you've got and you have water on the inside, DAB DON'T WIPE.

[skizix]

In-area, the best way to safely dry out the inside of your goggs is to find a hand dryer (in a restroom - the kind that blows warm air) - take a few minutes and be thorough. If it is a storm day, this may be your only hope, as no amount of dabbing/wiping is likely to get them dry enough to prevent fogging easily for hours (though the other kind of dabbing may make you care less about it, assuming you don't ski off a cliff).

[NorCalNomad]

TLDR; Ski faster. Quit breathing. Don't crash.

New sig

[Thurgood Jenkins]

Watching people wash and dry them with paper towels and drying them with shit saturated air from bathroom blowers is great. lolz

[markcjr]

I don't know about other people but my eyes tear up sometimes and leak fluid into the inside of the goggle. This leaves a salty residue. Pretty much have to wet a cloth and try to almost scrape it off. Or just leave it and live with a spot on the inside of the goggles which kind of sucks too

Sent from my VS987 using TGR Forums mobile app

[swissiphic]

I'm a heavy heat producing machine, sweat a lot and ALWAYS had foggy goggles untill I switched to Smith fan operated units. Changed the game for me. There's still condensation that forms on the top of the lens in really warm wet coastal snowy stormy days so I do have to clean the lenses from time to time. Don't use a recommended cloth, just use a wad of t.p. that's in my damp pocket if i gotta clear them on hill. At home if they're really soiled, i'll pop the lens and get rid of remnant body oil residue by washing with dish detergent, dabbing dry and blow drying the rest with indoor ambient temp air. IF there's just a few water drop rings and fingerprints, i'll clean with rubbing alcohol. Good to go.

Daily google maintenance routine is at the end of ski day, ALWAYS hang the goggles from the rear view mirror in car so any moisture dries off from the car vent on defog so there is no threat of moisture infiltrating the double lens dead air space...the smith googles have a porous hole supposedly to vent any moisture in between the lenses but in my experience, it does the opposite as well on prolonged exposure to wet snow/rain/moist warm goggle case... if i do experience fogging in between the lenses, i leave the goggles on a home heating vent overnight with the porous thing sticking up to pump out the moisture...seems to work.

Had the same pair of smith's for 7 years now, average about 80 days of skiing per season. No scratched lens, fan still works, foam still intact and the elastic strap is still good. I'm diligent about always putting the goggles in their hard case in between uses so maybe that's helped preserve them. Best bang for the buck out of any piece of ski equipment i've ever purchased.

[Cocximus]

Watching people wash and dry them with paper towels and drying them with shit saturated air from bathroom blowers is great. lolz

Your costco googles need medical grade air to dry?

[bobsdesk]

Protocol?

Ha. Buy 47 lenses when they are on sale at Steep and Cheap, throw them away when they need to be cleaned.

[RShea]

Some goggles as mentioned have a softer inner coating that is best to either use the small camera lens cleaner cloth swatch, or ones out there for computer and touch tablet screens. Do not rub with these lint free cloths only dab the water or drops. If the lenses are prone to fogging then it is usually the way you wear them or by removing them from your face and put them up on a helmet or hat or some wet forehead. Sometimes you can test alcohol on them to help prevent fogging if the problem continues (cheap drinking vodka or denatured similar that will evaporate if you just use a few small drops and spread it around. Not every goggle lens like this though. And never as stated rub on your coat or inside liner, or any lint producing tissue or paper products.

[skizix]

I'm a heavy heat producing machine, sweat a lot and ALWAYS had foggy goggles untill I switched to Smith fan operated units. Changed the game for me. There's still condensation that forms on the top of the lens in really warm wet coastal snowy stormy days so I do have to clean the lenses from time to time. Don't use a recommended cloth, just use a wad of t.p. that's in my damp pocket if i gotta clear them on hill. At home if they're really soiled, i'll pop the lens and get rid of remnant body oil residue by washing with dish detergent, dabbing dry and blow drying the rest with indoor ambient temp air. IF there's just a few water drop rings and fingerprints, i'll clean with rubbing alcohol. Good to go.

Daily google maintenance routine is at the end of ski day, ALWAYS hang the goggles from the rear view mirror in car so any moisture dries off from the car vent on defog so there is no threat of moisture infiltrating the double lens dead air space...the smith googles have a porous hole supposedly to vent any moisture in between the lenses but in my experience, it does the opposite as well on prolonged exposure to wet snow/rain/moist warm goggle case... if i do experience fogging in between the lenses, i leave the goggles on a home heating vent overnight with the porous thing sticking up to pump out the moisture...seems to work.

Had the same pair of smith's for 7 years now, average about 80 days of skiing per season. No scratched lens, fan still works, foam still intact and the elastic strap is still good. I'm diligent about always putting the goggles in their hard case in between uses so maybe that's helped preserve them. Best bang for the buck out of any piece of ski equipment i've ever purchased.

I run hot and sweat like a mofo, and had chronic fogging problems forever. Tried many different pairs of goggs and wound up settling on smith turbo-fans, which usually worked. But they have their issues as well: of my two pairs, one had the fan go wonky (still ran, but made a weird noise and moved little air - like it was in v-fib). And the noise is annoying. And I'd constantly put them away with the fan still running, to find a dead battery next day out (carried spares, but still). And if the fan does quit, they fog worse than any other goggle.

Then one day, I got tripped up, working through some stupid-tight spot in the trees (walking). Fell backwards and whipped my head into a tree pretty good (first and only time I've ever really "used" my helmet). That plus the fact that I'd been wearing that helmet for 10+ years triggered me to get a new lid. And crap...turns out my fogging issues were the helmet all along! The lip of the old helmet's liner was all roundy, and was sitting in the goggles' upper vent, mostly blocking it. With the new helmet, I don't need fkn fans, rarely have any fogging, and when I do it resolves quickly. You might want to investigate.

[swissiphic]

With the new helmet, I don't need fkn fans, rarely have any fogging, and when I do it resolves quickly. You might want to investigate.

Thanks for the tip if/when i buy a helmet...I don't wear one and my goggle fogging is definitely due to the heat/sweat production...plus i live in a coastal climate...lose/lose for clear goggles that aren't fan op.

Before fan op, not only would the general face heat/sweat fog the goggles but fogging would usually start right in front of each eyeball, exactly in the center of each eyes field of view. Friends and fellow skiers were always incredulous. Sweaty, heat projecting eyeballs...who knew of such a thing????