Thougts about masks fogging up

[Hank49]

Yea, The pressure could be a problem. If there was a pinhole that would allow the pressure to equalize, but then moisture could get between and that would be a big issue. I guess a seal diaphram could be used to help the presure.... But not sure if you could get enough enough equalization unless it was the whole glass panel that moved. Almost like a soft o-ring holding the panes apart, allowing them to be pressed closer togeather.

Now that may work but something about it does not sound KISS and therefore likely to be problematic.

Highflier

It's interesting to discuss, but I've never had a problem fogging that would make me consider buying a double pane mask. It would be heavier too.

 

[Hatul]

The most effective defog is McNett Sea Gold, a gel that you rub over the inside of the glass. I don't think you need double pane. If the Sea Gold does not work it means there's a coating you need to remove.

 

[Doc]

Double glass... meh.

Or toothpaste before every dive. That works great, but
nowhere near as "sexy".

 

[HJeffreyM]

Ok, here we go again...1 Tbs baby shampoo diluted in 1 cup of water. Place this mixture in a spray bottle available at any drugstore for about $1.50. Spray in mask. DO NOT RINSE OUT!! Put the mask on and don't take it off until the dive is over.

This will not hurt your eyes...even with contact lenses (I wear them) and your mask will not fog. It's cheap, it's simple and it does not require over-engineering a solution for a problem which does not exist.

This thread reminds me of a funny story I once heard about how NASA spent almost three million dollars creating a pen that would write in zero-G. The Russians brought pencils.

 

[LowDrag]

For anyone that might have a 2011 ScubaPro Polarized Spectra Mini ...DO NOT scrub it out with Softscrub. I tried that at the advice of someone and it ruined the mask. Luckily for me the person who gave me the advice had forgot which mask I bought and had the ability to replace it for me. I got a new 2012 ScubaPro Polarized Spectra Mini to replace it. I used a soft tooth brush and liquid dish washing soap to remove the coating mentioned. I think I need to hit again with more soap. Funny thing though, when I was in the shallow end of the pool for class my mask fogged like crazy but in the deep end it hardly fogged over at all...weird.

 

[Country_Diver]

Odd question... When I was younger, before I even thought about diving, I was at some type of theme park and they had an exhibition of Japanese pearl divers. If I remember correctly, I think they said they used tobacco juice to defog. While I don't think that chewing tobacco is a good idea before diving since it dehydrates you quickly, is there any validity in this theory?

 

[kimbalabala]

It seems like every time I dive (and I mean every dive not every dive trip) I seem to use something different. I'll use the gel for the first dive - the boat's spray for the second dive - etc - and the easiest way to fix a foggy mask, for me, is to flood just a little bit of water into my mask, shake my head around to re-coat the inside of the mask and it's all good again. I think I'll try that hair conditioner thing that someone mentioned - if I can remember to bring it ... ugh.

 

[fjpatrum]

For what it's worth, if you're actually having fog issues, it may be due to breathing technique. I found that I was letting little bits of air out of my nose when exhaling and it was causing my fog problems. When I find that happening now, I clear and then consciously make efforts to not exhale through my nose and the fogging stops.

Next to that, I've found my sunscreen also causes issues so I have to clean my mask every once in a while to get all of the sunscreen off the lens.

As for a specific design with double and triple lens, the air gap between lenses would probably cause issues with pressure changes unless there was a way to vent it, which would then make it completely useless as a fog barrier. I think you'll also find that windows have some gas other than air in them to help prevent the fogging and when that gas leaks out, you have even worse fogging issues.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

OTOH, I often exhale through my nose (not that I'm intending to, but I just do - shows up as a tiny stream of bubbles coming from my mask skirt throughout the dive), and my mask has never fogged, except for one time when I gave it the treatment and then didn't don it right away (all other times, I do don it right away). So I wonder if nose exhaling really does cause fogging?

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

For what it's worth, if you're actually having fog issues, it may be due to breathing technique. I found that I was letting little bits of air out of my nose when exhaling and it was causing my fog problems. When I find that happening now, I clear and then consciously make efforts to not exhale through my nose and the fogging stops.

Next to that, I've found my sunscreen also causes issues so I have to clean my mask every once in a while to get all of the sunscreen off the lens.

As for a specific design with double and triple lens, the air gap between lenses would probably cause issues with pressure changes unless there was a way to vent it, which would then make it completely useless as a fog barrier. I think you'll also find that windows have some gas other than air in them to help prevent the fogging and when that gas leaks out, you have even worse fogging issues.

I was under the impression masks with a purge will likely cause one to breathe out of the nose more just to clear the water out at a higher rate, thus increasing the humidity of inside the mask.

As for double glass, it could be easily done by seperating the two layers in a bellow or soft silicone, thus the 2 layers would squeeze closer as the pressure increases with minimal excess pressure on the panes.