gear – Dive with Clive

There are lots of ways to defog your mask.

The proper stuff

There are a lot of brands that make defogging gels, they are usually slightly thicker in consistency than baby shampoo, giving them a bit more adhesion to the lens. You generally only need a drop in each lens, and then a quick rub to spread it round to get even coverage. I haven’t found that these work any better or any worse than the cheaper alternatives in the market. What they do have in their favour is that they generally come in small bottles, making them easy to carry around with your gear.

Baby shampoo

What I love about baby shampoo, is that it works great, is cheap, and it comes in small bottles. You can either use it diluted in a spray bottle or directly on the lens, just a drop in each lens does the trick. There are a couple of benefits that I love about using baby shampoo:

It’s cheap and easy to find in any supermarket
It doesn’t sting your eyes
It makes your mask smell great
You can use it to wash yourself with as well when you’re rinsing off

If I’m diving anywhere for a long period, I’ll usually buy some, and then towards the end of my stay, I’ll start using it to wash my hair, so I use up the whole bottle.

Dishwasher paste

If you’re in Asia, then the dishwasher paste works a treat. It comes in a tub or a block. I first saw it in Thailand, where the locals were using. I’ll be the first to admit that it doesn’t look pretty however, looks aside, it works a treat. It also has the added benefit of cleaning out the build up of gunk in your mask because it is slightly abrasive. Make sure that you thoroughly rinse out your mask if you use this stuff, it wasn’t really designed for eyes.

Dishwashing liquid

Another common one is dishwashing liquid, the application is the same as baby shampoo. It is generally cheaper too, however with the downside that it isn’t as eye friendly as baby shampoo. In this particular case, I’d suggest using it diluted in a spray bottle.

Spit

As the old saying goes, “the greener, the cleaner”. You do want to make sure though that it is of a relatively good consistency, so don’t drink too much water (it’ll make your spit a bit less effective) or drink milky substances (it’ll give it a thicker but more emulsified texture) beforehand. Spit is the key, not phlegm 🙂 This is the most reliable method, and while I like using baby shampoo, spit is always there and available for you.

Licking the lens

If you can’t get enough quality spit because it’s too watery, or you’re already in the water or underwater and your mask is fogging up, you can try licking your mask. It’s not super effective but it does help a little bit.

Keep flooding and clearing

When all else fails, keep flooding your mask, swishing your head around until all the fog is clear, and then clear your mask.

Ongoing maintenance

If you’ve used your mask for a while, give it a scrub with some toothpaste or jif to remove any residue that might have built up from being in the sea, or from whatever product you’re using to regularly defog your mask.

1. The Lighter/Burn it method

Essentially, you’re burning off the chemical layer inside the mask.
This is the most risky of all the methods but it is also the fastest way to prepare a mask. It works best on plain tempered glass lenses. I haven’t tried it on the UV coated lenses, and have opted for more traditional methods.
I’ve used this method on the way out to dive sites or between dives for some of my guests, and it works a treat. All you need is a lighter. I like to run the lighter over a spot until you can see it burn off the chemical layer, you’ll be able to see it burn back. While you’re doing this be careful of the following things:

Don’t put the lighter on for too long, it’ll heat up the glass layer quickly, meaning it:

Might burn you if you touch it
May delaminate the glass
Can melt the silicon skirt

Don’t drop it in a bucket of ice cold water afterwards

Be careful around the silicon edges, don’t spend too much time burning near it

Yes, it will leave a carbon layer on the inside of the lens. This is easy enough to remove

That’s it! I also like to just do a quick once over with toothpaste to get ride of the carbon.

2. The scrub/polish method

You can use all sorts of things to do this. Save yourself some money and don’t bother buying the stuff from the dive shop, it does the same thing as toothpaste or jif or any other abrasive surface cleaner.
Toothpaste – use plain white toothpaste, not the gel types, just something cheap will do the trick
Jif
Dishwashing detergent bars – These dishwashing detergent bars are very common in asia, and replace normal dishwashing liquid. They have a slightly gritty feel to it

How to do it

Take a small dab of toothpaste in each lens, with a little bit of water (a few drops is generally enough, you want it paste-like but not too diliuted). Scrub each lens in a circular motion, covering the entire lens, and do that for a few minutes (3-5mins). Give the lens a rinse, and repeat 2 more times.
Once you’re done, give it a good rinse, and try to get all the paste out of the sides of the lens, where it meets the skirt.

I often hear people mention that they left their lens with toothpaste on it overnight. This does nothing to remove the chemical layer. Toothpaste is an abrasive so requires scrubbing, it isn’t acidic, so won’t eat away the layer.

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Defogging your mask