how do you keep your mask from fogging up?

[menemsha43]

I like with the baby shampoo/spray bottle technique. The only time my mask fogged on my most recent trip was when I put sunscreen on my face before the dive.

 

[themenz]

I'm curious why some people have fogging problems and others don't? I only did a quick scrub with tooth paste for a minute or two when new, and just spit/rub/rinse before each dive, and haven't experienced any fogging problems? I would think cold water diving would be more prone to fogging than warm. Do some people just have better spit or something?

FS: Jason's Spit, $50 ounce.

I assume you glue your favorite snack to your nose to get the juices flowing?

I have studied this a bit with some fairly good tests. I believe it is hard for many of us to pinpoint one cause or a single cure for fogging because of all the variables. The weather, water temp, how much someone sweats or breathes moisture, the type of mask, how long they dive, the defogging solution used, how that is applied. We all are different and every time you dive conditions are different. This makes it very difficult to take one person's experiences and say that will work for the next guy.

All things being equal, colder water will condense more of the water vapor onto the mask surface and do it quicker. The opposite is true also. If the mask lens is warmer than your breath, you will not get fog, period. Sledders (snowmobiling) sometimes use heated helmet lenses that they plug into their machines to eliminate fogging. Expensive and somewhat inconvenient if you dismount with your helmet plugged in.

Spit is a surfactant. That means the chemicals in it cause water to spread out. Soap does the same thing. So if you have a nice thin layer of soap on the lens, the water droplets that condense on the cooler lens will spread out and allow you to see thru the lens with minimal distortion.

The problem with spit or soap (or glycerin) is that they are not particularly strong surfactants. As your fog gets absorbed by them, they tend to get washed off or pulled into the droplets. Eventually the protection quits. Exactly when that happens depends on all the variables mentioned above.

There are much more effective surfactants out there and those are what you find in some of the better anti-fogs. We use a silicone based surfactant that is self spreading. That means as it absorbs water, the surfactant continues to spead itself on the lens and not be absorbed. Eventually it will wash off, but it lasts much, much longer than spit or soap under tough conditions.

 

[Dyno Bill]

Personally, I spit in it. I have also found that taking a leaf from a green suculant and juicing it and applying the juice to the inner lense works really well.
Bill

 

[Uncle Pug]

Eventually it will wash off, but it lasts much, much longer than spit or soap under tough conditions.

I realize that we are competitors in the anti-fog industry and of course you feel your product is better than mine... however we here at Uncle Pug have developed a new and improved version of the UPS that is absolutely tenacious!

I say developed because I've had a sinus condition ever since getting a snootful of wood dust earlier last week. Now, for a limited time only, we are blowing out our stock of UPSS (Uncle Pug Super Snot.) Currently it only comes in green but we are hoping white will be available soon.