Wait, how do you properly clean glasses?
Then blow the droplets off both sides and let the rest air dry. We have soft water here, so no water spots. No rubbing dry with any kind of cloth.
I mix my own spray bottles from dish soap, non chlorinated water and a bit of rubbing alcohol actually. Water is softened.
They recommend (v=5FUUgO95sb4) against both detergent for the sake of the lens coatings and against sprays which may cause grease to accumulate around the lens rim.
>Cleaning your glasses properly – what to do — Use this method for both for [sic] thorough cleaning of your glasses at home, and fast, effective cleaning when you are out and about: rub a microfiber cloth or a folded lens cleaning wipe gently over the lens surface to remove coarse dirt particles.
https://www.zeiss.com/vision-care/us/eye-health-and-care/hea...
"As good as" seems an equally valid takeaway....
Two cloths are ideal: one for cleaning and another for polishing.
If you're using soap and water, apply a tiny amount of soap onto both sides of the lens --- less than a grain of rice --- then apply water and rub with your fingers until clean. Skip to polish step.
If using cleaner, spray cleaner onto the cloth, NOT onto the lens. Spray onto one side of the cloth so that you have a wet side and a dry side.
(You can use water instead of cleaner in a pinch.)
Three passes.
First pass: with wet side, wipe lens in lines from top of frame to bottom. NOT in circles. (You'll spread the dirt around this way, making the cleaning process take way longer and potentially introducing scratches.)
Second pass: Repeat first pass with dry side of cloth.
Repeat first and second passes until lenses look mostly clear.
Third pass, if you have a polishing cloth: Wipe polishing clothes in circles until lenses are clear.
Your lenses will last forever if cleaned this way.
The cleaner steps above also work on any glass surface, like laptop screens or car windows.
No, it wont. I'm cleaning mine for decades with anything at hand (cotton shirts, napkins, etc) and not a scratch.
And of course there's the little fact that microfiber cloth is a recent synthetic thing. People used cotton and linen squares, or chamois leather ones if they felt fancy, to clean their glasses.
In any case, no scratches on my non-glass eyewear either.
if you have vision benefits in the US, you can get glasses with glass lenses for free or heavily discounted
the best optics are glass
But yeah, dust can also definitely scratch the coatings on glass lenses, too.
You can always tell if it's glass by tint of PVD coating. Polycarbonate or acrylic lenses can't be coated. Plastic's only advantage is low manufacturing cost.
Today plastic lenses are considered “State of the Art” and are found in most spectacles.
https://www.rodenstock.com/journal/plastic-vs-mineral-glass
> You can always tell if it's glass by tint of PVD coating. Polycarbonate or acrylic lenses can't be coated.
This not true. Plastic can absolutely be PVD coated. You can buy cheap sunglasses with PVD mirror coatings on plastic lenses. I’m pretty sure Rodenstock’s own plastic coatings (e.g. “Rodenstock technology Solitaire® Protect Plus 2”) are also a PVD process.
> Plastic's only advantage is low manufacturing cost.
And weight. And shatter resistance. And higher refractive index options.
To clean glasses safely you basically need a soft, clean cloth. Cotton is totally fine. You could get away with a soft clean sponge, too. Or even a soft-ish piece of paper (which is what most disposable lens words are.)
The latter does tend to scratch over time, if perhaps only slighly, but the damage can accumulate.
I'm on team soft-cotton, with a very-well-worn bandana serving as my usual cleaning material, plastic lenses, no scratches.
Another sin, for glasses, is laying them lens-down, or face-up, on surfaces when not in use. Lens-down of course grinds the lens into whatever is on the surface. Face-up, as you'd wear them, is vulnerable to flipping over (most glasses are top-heavy), so upside down is preferable. Or folded, with the earpieces down and lenses up. In a case is of course preferable to either.
Leaving glasses randomly on chairs, sofas, beds, etc., is also an invitation to catastrophe.
I've lived with people doing many of the above, and their glasses were perpetually scratched and damaged. Given the high cost of a new pair for many of them, this was ... curious.
A lot of facial tissue also has lotion, which means it just smears glasses anyway.