Home made Lens Cleaner...

I wear glasses, and cleaning them with the store bought lens cleaner can get spendy at $12 a bottle. (I tend to use it on other things as well...)

So after buying a bottle of it, I started making my own. It works just the same, if not better!

It also works great for cleaning mirrors, glass, lcd screens, tv screens pretty much anything you can get away with - and is made with items usually found in the home.


On with the show!

Step 1: ...What you will need...

What you will need is...
 

• Water.
• Isopropyl Alcohol 70%.
• Spray Bottle. (I reuse the bottle from the store bought stuff.)

I use filtered water for my mix, in the picture is a Brita Filter Pitcher, it cost a few dollars more than a new bottle of lens cleaner and comes with a filter! (Plus, you can drink the water!)

 

Comments

[marlowe1356]

Thanks, Mutantpoptart, the mix was easy and my eyeglass lenses haven't looked this good since I picked them up from the lenscrafters!

[teresalhawley]

You can use any coffee filter if you do not have a microfiber cloth for plastic lenses. I've been using them since 1979.

[mpisarski]

I only have 91% Isopropyl Alcohol... can I still use it?

[mutantpoptart]

I'm sure you can - the mixture here isn't exact or anything I would add a bit more water than alcohol in the case of the 91% though. I usually just eye the "percents" in whatever container I am mixing it in.

[Bug Me Not Free Acount]

Liquid soap is the last thing that you want to use on your glasses. Some glasses are made of special materials, or may have a UV coating. When they come into contact with soap they can form a film on the lens that will render them useless. As in "throw them away" useless. If you have old solid glass glasses, ignore this. This is specifically for the light plastic ones. Lens cleaner is specially formulated for use on glasses etc. Alternatively, normal window/glass cleaner is excellent. Would the formula work as well without the soap? If so, excellent! If not, check with your optometrist before using this

[Dr Qui]

I have had a pair of glasses with several coatings UV anti scratch and something else. I have cleaned them many times with soap, liquid or even the tablet type, I have yet to find any soap to cause a film on my glasses. I used the super expensive cleaner for about a month as they said the lenses would scrape easy, this is only a lie to sell more cleaner.  I soon found out the lenses where very resilient to scrapes as long as you rinse them under water before you clean them.

I switched from glass lenses to the plastic type about 15 years ago and find the plastic lenses are way tougher than glass.

[belsey]

I have to disagree about soap -- but the key is to use only the tiniest drop. Soap is a surfactant, which means it helps the cleaner spread all over the lens, which in turn helps the solution clean better. Granted, if you're scrubbing away you can clean anyway, however the soap offers another advantage: anti-fogging properties. If a thin layer of soap is left on the lens it breaks down the surface tension of all the little droplets of water which steam up your glasses. Instead of covering your glasses with tiny opaque droplets, the water spreads out into a thin, transparent film. In the picture I uploaded I cleaned only one lens with a cleaner similar to the one in this instructable (plus one drop of liquid soap). I then exposed the glasses to a humidifier: the untreated lens fogged up immediately, the other stayed clear. These are lightweight plastic lenses, I've been cleaning them with my solution for more than a year, and they are perfectly fine and undamaged... The key is to use a very small amount of soap.

[mutantpoptart]

I think it would work great without the soap, wasn't aware of the damge it could cause! thanks for the info though... I will update the instructable :D

[valhallas_end]

On the other hand, many lens cleaners optometrists provide specifically for plastic lenses are absolutely worthless. I threw away the bottle I was given for my polycarbonate lenses - lenses with UV, anti-glare, scratch-resist, and smudge-resist coatings (love freebies on vsp's) - because it left the most unbelievable residue...and it was custom mixed for those coatings. Even the optometrist had to work for about 10 minutes to clear the gunk after testing the spray. Mostly now, I just use lukewarm water and a microfiber cloth, and the occasional spritz of an LCD cleaner I have that doubles as a variant glasses cleaner. Surprisingly, I've found some LCD screen cleaners help remove the films left by soaps and poor cleaners...

[mutantpoptart]

The stuff that acually came in the bottle I use left residue on my glasses, and I would have to literally wash my glasses to get the gunk off.

[rimar2000]

I use white vinegar only, with success. It is always within easy reach, and serves on glass, plastic, acrylic, etc.

[mutantpoptart]

White vinegar is great for everything! I have a gallon in the kitchen for cleaning my coffee pot. Plus it's good on beans!

[rimar2000]

Every so often I get swish white vinegar for several minutes, it helps keep me relatively free of plaque teeth. We must not abuse, or dentin is ruined. I use vinegar for mosquito's bites, too.