I swim in a chlorinated pool, and while I rinse my goggles with tap water after every swim they have built up a hazy layer (kinda like soap scum) on the inside that is making it harder to see.
I’ve tried soaking them in a vinegar/water solution (per Keifer’s site), and cleaning them with baby shampoo; no dice.
What has worked for others? Has anyone used their ultrasonic cleaner?
Polish them with Silvo inside and out, spit inside to swim.
The anti-fog coating might have become “hazed” as well–at least that’s what happened on a pair of Speedos that I like. I wound up polishing the coating off the lens using Cat Crap. I wouldn’t use that stuff on a lens that has a good / intact coating though.
The solution is toothpaste. One of my swimming coaches put me on to this. It is mildly abrasive. I just put some on my finger and rub in in the inside fairly hard. Then just rub it out under running water. I always rub spit on the inside of my googles before swimming and it works well. Sometimes have to renew the spit after 30-60 min but have never had to do that in a race. The one time I fogged in a race was ironman puerto rico when I had almost new googles and figured then wouldn’t fog and didn’t do the spit treatment.
Why not just chuck 'em. With extended chlorine exposure, my strap starts to fail, the grommet around the eye piece starts to harden and leak, you name it. I’ve worn the same goggles for many years and just replace them when they start to wear. When buying them, I use Kiefer and get a whole bunch so I can take advantage of the discount. I can’t say this works for everyone but it works for me. Pushing off the wall with a brand new pair of goggles and the ability to see everything is a good feeling.
John
Hi,
I had similar with my predators and was going to chuck them so as a last resort I tried the following :
• Ran the hottest sink of water I could, added a large dose of dish soap.
• Let them soak for 10 mins or so.
• Used neat dish soap on a natural (soft) bristled brush - really agitated / scrubbed it well around the lens.
• Repeated the soak and scrub a few times and then rinsed.
It worked really well ! They have probably been through that cycle three times now (due again soon …).
They don’t seem to have suffered in anyway from this type of cleaning.
Worth a try - what’s the worst that could happen ?
WD 
Hi,
I had similar with my predators and was going to chuck them so as a last resort I tried the following :
• Ran the hottest sink of water I could, added a large dose of dish soap.
• Let them soak for 10 mins or so.
• Used neat dish soap on a natural (soft) bristled brush - really agitated / scrubbed it well around the lens.
• Repeated the soak and scrub a few times and then rinsed.
It worked really well ! They have probably been through that cycle three times now (due again soon …).
They don’t seem to have suffered in anyway from this type of cleaning.
**Worth a try - what’s the worst that could happen ? **
WD
Yeah, this is the point I’m at. I have a replacement pair, but these still seal great with almost no strap pressure so I’m trying to save them (Aquasphere K180s BTW).
I blow inside the goggle and wipe off the steam with a lens cleaning cloth. That’s it. It literally wipes the plastic clean. I clean them before every race.
The haze is the “anti-fog” coating. That stuff gets damaged, regardless of the formulation.
Here’s what to do:
Solution? Save your money and look into some $4-10 goggles without A-F. To avoid fogging, put the goggles on dry (dry face after showering; dry goggles). When the goggles do fog, either dip them or lick them (at the wall between repeats), or stop, float, and dip/lick (OW). When the goggles get scratched, or when the straps break, or the seal gets flattened, buy another inexpensive set, or raid your stash. I’m always excited and motivated by a new pair. When I’m spending $4-10, it doesn’t hurt.
Triathletes’ motto: if it’s expensive, it must be better. It’s a mindset from the cycling (“gotta buy DA electric shifters!” “That set of Zipps is going to save me 5:00 over 112.” “Tubeless or graphite clinchers?”, etc etc etc). Aside from technical suits, expensive does not equal better.
Keep in mind that pool swimmers are in the water far longer per day/week than most triathletes. They can’t be wrong wearing their cheap goggles. They only wear their $40-60 goggles at meets, bc those are so fragile and expensive. Even so, there were just as many Olympic medalists wearing $4-10 goggles as those wearing $50+.
Goggle suggestions follow. Because these are inexpensive, you won’t mind spending a few $ finding the right pair, or tossing those when those break (expensive goggles break just as frequently). Keep in mind thatbpol swimmers wear these for long training days, and so do OW Olympic medalists in their 10k races.
Swedish goggles (or any of the clones from TYR, SwimOutlet, Kiefer). These can come with a thin gasket, as well. $4 ($12 for mirrored). Worn by Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Ous Mellouli (pool and OW gold medalist), Sarah Sjostrom, Matt Grevers, Thomas Lurz (OW swimmer)
Speedo Vanquisher or clones from Arena, TYR, SwimOutlet. $10-12. Missy Franklin, Simone Manuel
Water Gear Competition I. $4 (The original version was called “Hind Compy,” starting in the 1970s.) Most swimmers in the 1970s-80s “Animal Lanes,” i.e., 18,000m daily, 6 days per week) wore these. I wore these during my 57:xx, 57:xx, and 55:xx IM swims in 2008-10, when I was a late 30s AG.
I am not going to disagree with you but in MY case / experiance, it’s not just the antifog coating.
If it was, why would A) I need to clean it off every few months (the af wouldn’t keep coming back would it ?) and B) why would it also get on the rubber / silicon parts ? (It’s much easier to clean off those parts though just by stretching / rubbing as I am not worried about scratching them).
WD
I am not going to disagree with you but in MY case / experiance, it’s not just the antifog coating.
If it was, why would A) I need to clean it off every few months (the af wouldn’t keep coming back would it ?) and B) why would it also get on the rubber / silicon parts ? (It’s much easier to clean off those parts though just by stretching / rubbing as I am not worried about scratching them).
WD
Agreed. It is not just the AF coating. It comes back every few weeks of heavy swimming, always from the outside in on both goggles.
This stuff works great, along with a soft cloth.
Keep them in a plastic case. I just use the one they came in. I don’t rise or wipe them, and I try to keep them from getting water on the inside. The case seems to keep them from getting scratched, which IMO is a bigger issue.
Yes, this is the crap I am referring to in my post above :
The photo captures it quite well but what it doesn’t show too good is that the rubber parts are also matt and coated with the same crap.
(Much to the annoyance of the other half) I have long eye lashes and you can see where they clean the lense.
I always thought this was an accumulation of dried chlorine and other people’s hair gel, deodorant, p1ss etc.
I will give mine another clean and see how they come up
WD
There is no such thing as dried chlorine. The chlorine in the pool is delivered in a liquid solution (Sodium Hypochlorite, 12%; the remaining 88% is water, brine, and other stuff) or solid (Calcium Hypochlorite; the portion that is not chlorine is calcium chloride, a salt). If anything is drying on your goggles, it’s probably the salts from the pool, though that is highly improbable. If you see small stalactites hanging from the backstroke flags or the ladders, then maybe the pool has too much calcium in it, but unless you see that, there is something else clouding your goggles.
The best explanations are scratches to the goggles from hands or stuff in your bag, or the A-F coating bubbling off. All lenses are polycarbonate, which isn’t the hardest plastic out there.
Again, inexpensive goggles are the way to go. Same polycarbonate lenses as the more expensive ones, but you don’t mind if they break or cloud and you have to chuck those.
OK, well regardless of theory, this was before :
These are my tools :
This is after :
20 min process but only five mins of work.
Are they perfect ? No.
Are they a massive improvement and pretty good for two year old pool goggles ? Yep
I could have made the second picture look much better but I tried to be as fair as possible. Maybe another scrub would have helped but to me it was unnessasry, to look though the goggles now you would think they are new (I have a new spare pair for comparison).
It’s maybe the fourth time (possibly fifth) those goggles have gone through that process. Other than that, after each use they are rinsed under the shower and then stored in the microfibre bag they came with. Other than my eyelashes, nothing touches the inside of the lenses until they get a deep clean as per the above.
Please consider I am not trying to be argumentative here, I am just posting up my circumstances and experiences. Hopefully it’s of use and the OP will also see a worthwhile improvement …
WD
Thanks. I have exactly that condition with my goggles. Scrubbed them with dishsoap and they came out sparking (used a more abrasive brush though).
PS: Those Zoggs are great goggles (I use them for OWS).
The best explanations are scratches to the goggles from hands or stuff in your bag, or the A-F coating bubbling off. **All lenses are polycarbonate, **which isn’t the hardest plastic out there.
Again, inexpensive goggles are the way to go. Same polycarbonate lenses as the more expensive ones, but you don’t mind if they break or cloud and you have to chuck those.
There is some truth in your post, but the bolded part is not accurate. Larger lens goggles that I assume you are referring to as “the more expensive ones” generally use a different plastic that is more flexible than Poly Carbonate. Poly Carbonate is a pretty stout plastic, but it is still plastic. Both lens plastics are still generally multiple times stronger and lighter than glass.
The more flexible lenses work just like the Poly Carbonate ones do though. There is an anti-fog coating applied or embedded on the lens to pretty much every goggle sold. It does not last forever and does need to be reapplied from time to time. You can get around this with many methods that swimmers have used forever. I would stay away from toothpaste though. The abrasive nature can cause tiny scratch’s on your lenses. It works great on glass dive masks, just not the best solution for plastic.
The recommended solution is to not ever touch the inside of the lenses. When you touch the lenses it can smear or scratch the anti-fog layer and cause it to breakdown faster. When the goggles begin to fog, you can reapply the anti-fog coating. This is best done by rinsing your goggles and allowing them to dry, then putting a few drops or sprays in each lens. Roll the lens around to achieve complete coating of the inside of the lens. Then allow it to dry for at least 30 minutes to an hour if not over night. It allows the anti-fog coating to set on the lens.
Always rinse your goggles and keep them in a case. These are all instructions straight from the engineers.
There are other methods to clean your goggles and to keep them from fogging but the official solution is above. No goggle is immune from fogging. The better you take care of your goggles the better they will last.
(promotional message) it is still good to replace your goggles from time to time though…
Jake
To the contributor who wrote about not being argumentative, I get that, and thanks. I’m also not trying to be argumentative.
I guess I just remain very surprised that items that are proven over and over to function so well need to be “improved” upon and the costs raised, as is the case with swim goggles. I see it as a phenomenon in swim goggles, mostly, because there are definitely clear advantages to more aero bikes or lighter components/frames, and there are better shoe materials all the time (yet I still only get a few hundred miles out of my runners).
The goggles pictured are $50 (!!!). I’ve worn basically the same three types of goggles for the last 30 years (either Hind Compy/Water Gear Competition I or Speedo’s short run on that mold; Speedo Sprint; or some version of Swedish goggles). Prices on those have remained relatively constant over the years, $3-12 (12 for mirrored Swedish). In those 30 years, which included my most yardage-intensive club and college years in which I swam 2500 km or more per year, I cycled through maybe 4-5 pairs per year, for an annual goggle budget of no more than $50, which covered those 2500km (for big meets like NCAA, I’d take two pairs with me to the blocks, in case I’d suffer a “mechanical,” and even so, the total value would be less than $10. No one I know ever bothered or cared about the minimal fogging (even during 10k workouts) and bc these had no A-F coat, there was less to go wrong. I have three pairs in my locker now, and I paid a total of $29 for those. A few years ago, when I swam 1000k in a year, which included lots of OW races and training (not bad for 42), similar equipment.
I guess my questions are these: why pay $50 for a pair of goggles, an investment that requires bringing out a brush and dish soap when those get schmutzy? How are these same carefully protected and washed goggles better and higher functioning than $5 goggles that some people wear for many hours more per week? If you have $5 goggles that have minimal fogging, last through grueling 8000m workouts on all kinds of face shapes, and can be tossed without any tears of those break, why would anyone pay $50 for one pair? If I swam 1000km in one year with no more than 4 different pairs of goggles and the total value was <$30, what is the total cost per meter swam? Why not buy the inexpensive, but completely functional, proven technology?
In an earlier post, I noted that some Olympic medalists make it to the blocks or the OW venue in <$12 Swedish mirrored (or $4 non-mirrored) goggles. You’d think that in a sport with $300 swimsuits and the apex of achievement and pressure, that these cheapie goggles are out of place.
I’ll also note: i have yet to see anyone show up to a World Cup, world championship, or Olympic OW race in anything other than Swedish, Speedo, arena, or TYR goggles, which is to say that they don’t train in Zoggs/AquaSphere/Roka/ etc etc either.
No argument here. You make a fair point. But why not try to improve upon a proven technology? To make a product appeal to a wider audience? Not everybody likes a smaller socket goggle.
I would venture that on a pure running website there are purists that ask the same question about max cushion shoes. Some athletes chose comfort and performance over minimalist.
There is a benefit of wider vision in a bigger lens goggle to be far wider and better optics than the smaller two piece goggles. This helps in the open water or in the pool. MP wore a goggle this summer that has a curved lens. A technology innovated for larger lens goggles but now in a smaller two piece goggle. A great innovation.
Everybody has a different preference. There is a lot of swimming outside of the most elite levels of competitive swimming.
Jake
I I know everyone’s circumstances are different but for me, I have good reasons to be on the zoggs …
I have two pairs of polarised (dark grey and bronze lenses), price wise each was less than £20 (they can currently be bought for £18).
I have sensitive eyes, I have large eyes. I can wear the zoggs ‘very’ loosely without discomfort and without leakage. I haven’t found a smaller / cheaper goggle that I can do this with – I have spent more than one pair of polarised zoggs trying to find a suitable cheaper goggle.
Both pairs were presents from family – I feel less guilty being a little more extravagant on gifts from them than items I buy for myself (so long as I stick within guidelines on what we spend on each other lol).
My grey lensed pair (from the photos) get hammered. They are the only pair I use in the pool and they double up for sunny days in open water. I swim early morning when the sun is low and the polarising really does make a marked difference. I only use the bronze pair in open water and only on dull / cloudy days.
The grey pair have just passed the two year mark so at sub £20 and 5 mins of bi annual maintenance I don’t exactly feel like I have been ripped off …
WD