Safety glasses are essential to keep your eyes protected while you work, but the constant fogging makes them impractical.
Whether you’re experiencing face-mask fog or the collection of humidity on your lenses, foggy glasses distract you from your work and make your tasks take longer.
Thankfully, there’s a solution. Non-fogging safety glasses protect your peepers without creating a haze you constantly have to wipe off with your shirt. We’ll give you the scoop on non-fogging safety glasses, explain how they work, and give you our top three pics for performance, protection, and style.
When foggy glasses get you down, we can help. The team at Stoggles understands the frustration that comes with safety eyewear that continually fogs. From anti-fog lenses to fast-acting anti-fog drops, we’ll cover the solutions you need to know about to protect your clear vision while still following the rules and using your personal protective equipment.
What Are Non-Fogging Safety Glasses?
Safety glasses are glasses that protect your eyes from debris, fumes, liquids, and any other hazard you might encounter while you work. These eyeglasses aren’t only for doctors and surgeons; they’re for weekend warriors and yard care kings (and queens) too.
Cool, But I Don’t Need Safety Glasses
Oh, but you do. You don’t have to be an orthopedic surgeon or a carpenter to benefit from wearing protective eyewear. In fact, the American Academy of Ophthalmology reports that nearly half of all yearly eye injuries happen at home.
At-home eye injuries happen during simple tasks like cleaning, home improvement, and yard work. The combination of chemicals, power tools, and (only slightly) less-than-expert-level know-how creates the perfect storm for an unexpected injury.
The Fogging Makes Them Useless
Yes. The pair you purchased for less than a buck at the home store and stuffed in your tool bag are not only scratched up, they’re ill-fitting, and they constantly fog when you’re wearing a face-covering or moving from a cool to a warm environment. We don’t blame you for not wearing them.
Fogging is one of the most cited reasons that people avoid using safety glasses, even when they know they should. Forgoing protective glasses isn’t worth the risk to your eye health, but wearing lenses that easily fog is also unsafe.
What Does ANSI Say?
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is the czar of all aspects of safety-related PPE. Working alongside OSHA, they develop guidelines for safety goggles, safety glasses, face shields, and any other kind of protective eyewear you can imagine. Until 2020, ANSI didn’t have much to say about whether or not a pair of safety glasses should be fog resistant or not.
After a year of living in masks, ANSI leveled up their rules for eye protection, creating a fog-resistance standard that’s included on protective eyewear that has the ANSI Z87.1-2020 certification (like every pair of Stoggles). To get this rating, eyewear must stay fog-free for an extended period of time (at least eight seconds), even in particularly humid environments.
What Are Non-Fogging Safety Glasses?
Glad you asked. They’re just what they sound like: safety glasses with specialized, anti-fog lenses. These glasses make it possible for you to protect your eyes without worrying about being disrupted by foggy lenses.
How Do Non-Fogging Safety Glasses Work?
Your lenses fog because warm air hits their cool surface, causing condensation. Whether that warm air comes out of your mouth into a mask from the temperature outside doesn’t matter, condensation will still form on the lenses.
Condensation is a collection of tiny water droplets on the surface of your clear lenses. Anti-fog technology works by minimizing the surface tension of the lenses, creating a non-scattering film of condensation on the surface of your lenses instead of water droplets.
That’s the super-sciency way of saying non-fogging lenses are treated with specialized chemicals that don’t allow them to fog up while you’re cutting the grass… in August… in Florida.
When To Use Non-Fogging Safety Glasses
Non-fogging safety glasses might not seem important to you, especially if you work indoors, perhaps without a mask. However, investing in a pair to have on hand will save you frustration if and when you need them.
Here are some situations that almost always require non-fogging lenses:
- Wearing a mask. When you’re dealing with fumes, fluids, flying debris, or airborne illness, you’ll be wearing a mask. Even form-fitting N95-style masks still allow some breath to pass from the top of the mask and fog your lenses.
- When you’re sweating. It may be a temperate 74 degrees inside, but if you’re breaking a sweat while you work, your safety glasses could fog.
- Working with hot liquids. Your glasses fog if you approach a pot of boiling water. If you’re working with hot liquids, the off-gassing will fog your lenses.
- Working outdoors. It goes without saying that working outdoors, in a humid environment, or moving from inside to outside repeatedly will create fog on your lenses. Fog-free lenses prevent you from taking your glasses on and off when you enter and exit a building.
Additionally, non-fogging safety glasses keep everyone more compliant. We’re all more likely to wear our PPE if it is comfortable, effective, and non-distracting.
Non-fogging lenses can also boost work performance and increase your ability to focus on your task. Plus, safety glasses are designed to enhance peripheral vision.
When you’re ready to put aside your reckless woodworking ways and opt for serious eye protection that won’t fog up, we’ve got the top three options you should consider.
What Should I Wear?
Clear anti-fog lenses are essential for essential people, and in case you were wondering, all people are essential to the team at Stoggles. It’s why our impact-resistant, blue light blocking, UV protectionpolycarbonate lenses also come with enough fog resistance to keep you seeing clearly in an Amazon rainforest.
Quick Fixes
Stoggles ship lightning fast, but if you’ve got a DIY project that has to be done before your Stoggles arrive, you can use anti-fog drops to keep your lenses clear. These drops offer a temporary solution to keep you safe until your high-quality, anti-fog Stoggles arrive in your mailbox.
Three Best Non-Fogging Safety Glasses
You’ve got options for non-fogging lenses. These are our three top picks that get the highest marks for form and function.
1. Blue Light Protective Non-Fogging Safety Glasses
Combining two different functions, these glasses are for the techie-turned-lawn pro. Ultra-lightweight polycarbonate frames feature anti-fog lenses and are naturally UVA and UVB-blocking, so you never have to switch specs for your day job.
Available in numerous different colors, these glasses are the perfect combination of style and safety because—let’s be honest, other safety glasses aren’t exactly “on-trend.”
2. ANSI Z87.1 Non-Fogging Safety Glasses
The American National Standards Institute determines the standards for safety glasses and other protective eyewear. If you’re going to wear non-fogging safety glasses, they should meet these standards to ensure you’re completely protected while you work.
Look for the ANSI Z87.1 certification on every pair of safety glasses you purchase, and you can be assured that they’ve been tested to meet the highest level of industry safety standards.
Anti-fog technology ensures these glasses never fog, while ANSI certification ensures you’re as safe as possible while you work. Get all of the safety of over-the-glass (OTG) goggles with none of the fashion faux pas.
3. Prescription Safety Glasses
Have you ever attempted to wear a pair of safety glasses over your regular corrective lenses? It’s not comfortable, not effective, and it can seriously impede your vision.
If you wear corrective lenses, consider investing in a pair of non-fogging safety glasses in your prescription. Whether you need single-vision lenses, progressive lenses, or readers, you can customize your fog-free safety lenses to get a snug fit for crystal-clear vision that never fogs.
Need prescription glasses? Not to worry.
Just upload your bifocal prescription on our website, and we’ll customize a pair of stylish and protective Stoggles just for you. You’ll get impact protection, fog resistance, and protection from harmful UV rays all wrapped up in eyewear that is unapologetically on-trend and perfect for your work environment or for home use.
Best Anti-Fog Safety Glasses
Stoggles are dipped in fog-resistant lens coating at the time of manufacture, providing you with one of the best solutions for fogging currently available.
We also offer Stoggles wearers the comfort of lightweight frames with top and side shields (as opposed to wraparound designs, which is a real barrier when considering prescription lenses). Plus, our saddle bridge design eliminates the need for adjustable nose pads and other nose pieces.
The Stoggles Difference
Sure, you can grab a pair of non-fogging safety glasses practically anywhere, but if you want a pair you’ll actually consider wearing, Stoggles is your solution.
Our safety glasses combine the perfect elements of uncompromised safety, exceptional performance, and stellar style to give you safety glasses so comfortable and effective you’ll wear them every day.
No matter what your task, Stoggles safety glasses protect your eyes with lenses that fit securely, never fog, and keep you safe, all while ensuring you look good, too.
All the safety, plenty of style. Kind of like buying an SUV instead of a minivan.
Blog on Fog
You already know you need protection against splashes, spills, splatters, and debris. Now, you know you need protection against glasses that fog. Trust the team at Stoggles to protect your eyes with the best anti-fog coatings available.
Safety glasses only work when you actually wear them, and if your safety glasses fog, chances are you won’t want to wear them at all. The most effective safety glasses have lenses that have been treated with chemicals that don’t allow them to fog when you wear them.
Stoggles offers protective eyewear — a new category in the eyewear world — with non-fogging lenses that keep you looking fresh and seeing clearly. Our non-fogging lenses are customizable by frame fit, shape, and color, allowing you to stay safe (and stylish) while you work.
Sources:
Clear the Fog to Decrease Eye Injuries | Occupational Health & Safety
How to Keep Your Glasses From Fogging Up While Wearing a Mask | Cleveland Clinic