How often do you clean your eyeglasses & sunglasses? To get the best vision and extend the life of your eyewear, it's vital to clean your eyeglasses often. 

Using the proper technique ensures that you don't accidentally scratch your lenses. 

Do I Need A Special Eyeglass Cleaner or Eyeglass Cloth?

No. Special eyeglass cleaners, eyeglass wipes, or a special eyeglass cloth are not required to clean your eyewear —just plain old soap and water will work, and a clean, soft cotton towel. The same way you wash your hands!

You should never use harsh solvent chemicals like ammonia, bleach, vinegar, or window cleaner on your eyeglasses, as these can and will destroy them. Also, never use paper products like paper towels or Kleenex to dry them, as the pulp fibres will slowly scratch the surface over time.

And please, please please, don’t just wipe them on your shirt.

How Does Helio Optometry Clean Your Eyeglasses?

We wash eyewear the same way you wash your car in 5 quick steps.

1. Rinse - rinsing your eyeglasses off under a stream of lukewarm tap water helps to remove any large particles of dust or debris from the lens surface. This step reduces the risk of accidentally scratching your lenses. Using lukewarm water, about the same temperature as the air, prevents your glasses from undergoing a sudden temperature change which can destroy your lenses.

2. Soap - We use a product like Bath & Body gentle foaming hand soap to help clean and remove any oils on the lens and frame surface. We find that it's soft enough on the lenses but can easily be worked into all the nooks and crannies of the frame. The foam formulation also rinses cleanly away, resulting in a streak-free shine to the lenses with minimal polishing. We never suggest liquid hand soaps or dish soaps as they contain harsh cleansers, which can start to wear away the surface of your lenses over time and may destroy those anti-reflective non-glare coatings.

3. Rinse - once again; you need to rinse your eyeglasses off under a steady stream of water to remove the soap.

4. Dry - With new hydrophobic lens coatings, your eyeglasses should almost be perfect by now, but you can gently use a hand towel or tea towel to dry your lenses. Don't over polish them, as this causes the lens to build up a negative or static charge which helps to attract dust and debris to the lens surface.

5. Spray/Polish/Microfibre - Optional step. If you want them perfect, this is where the anti-reflective lens spray and microfibre cloth come into play. Spray a small amount onto each lens surface, and gently use your microfibre cloth to dry the surface.

That's it. Nice and simple.

The whole process should take less than a minute, and you should have a nice clean frame and lenses. If you've let your frame go and need it professionally cleaned, don't hesitate to stop by our optical showroom, where one of our opticians would be happy to help bring your eyewear back to life. 

If you take nothing else away from this blog post, please remember that the anti-reflective lens spray and cloth we give you with your new eyeglasses is not intended for daily cleaning.