Anti-Fogging Treatments for New Masks. (a comparison of techniques)

[lowviz]

@Johnoly,

I found this recently. Pass it on to your contacts: Pullulan - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

Anyway, I'm presently stuck waaay down another rabbit hole. I was just going to do a predictable 'rocket thing' with rocket candy to follow the 'volcano thing', but that morphed into a static rocket-motor rig. Stay tuned.

Patience...

 

[lowviz]

Anyway, I'm presently stuck waaay down another rabbit hole. I was just going to do a predictable 'rocket thing' with rocket candy to follow the 'volcano thing', but that morphed into a static rocket-motor rig.

It's all just a 'hold my beer and watch this' vid unless we learn something.

Getting close to shock diamonds. Messing with the length of the divergent cone. really. Almost...

Patience.

My very most fav aircraft:

 

[Boston Breakwater]

It's all just a 'hold my beer and watch this' vid unless we learn something.

Getting close to shock diamonds. Messing with the length of the divergent cone. really. Almost...

Patience.

My very most fav aircraft:

View attachment 619542

Hah.. Awesome. Mine too.
Cheers.

 

[lowviz]

OK. This just in:

Many in this thread have expressed concern with soaking a mask in household ammonia solution. Here is on of my old masks that I just took out of a four month submerged ammonia soak in a closed MAKO mask box. It was sacrificial, but survived handsomely!

I cannot fog that puppy! (No defog was used) Really hard to photograph, but notice that the lens is covered with water droplets. However, the initial 'white fog' never happens. The water crawls across the glass. Water sheeting can be overcome with excessive attempts at fogging, the pic above is what you get. I can still see through it.

A lot of good people sent me new masks to support this effort. They are all going into a four month soak and then be sent back to their owners for evaluation. I will write this up after their input.

 

[Dan]

It looks pretty scratched up.

 

[lowviz]

Yeah, wreck diving and generally just looking for stuff does that...

 

[gqllc007]

OK. This just in:

View attachment 664872

Many in this thread have expressed concern with soaking a mask in household ammonia solution. Here is on of my old masks that I just took out of a four month submerged ammonia soak in a closed MAKO mask box. It was sacrificial, but survived handsomely!

I cannot fog that puppy! (No defog was used) Really hard to photograph, but notice that the lens is covered with water droplets. However, the initial 'white fog' never happens. The water crawls across the glass. Water sheeting can be overcome with excessive attempts at fogging, the pic above is what you get. I can still see through it.

A lot of good people sent me new masks to support this effort. They are all going into a four month soak and then be sent back to their owners for evaluation. I will write this up after their input.

Did you soak the whole mask or just let the ammonia on the lens? The ammonia doesn't ruin the silicone of the mask? Also what about the little plastic readers on the masks? Can they handle the ammonia?

 

[stuartv]

OK. This just in:

View attachment 664872

Many in this thread have expressed concern with soaking a mask in household ammonia solution. Here is on of my old masks that I just took out of a four month submerged ammonia soak in a closed MAKO mask box. It was sacrificial, but survived handsomely!

I cannot fog that puppy! (No defog was used) Really hard to photograph, but notice that the lens is covered with water droplets. However, the initial 'white fog' never happens. The water crawls across the glass. Water sheeting can be overcome with excessive attempts at fogging, the pic above is what you get. I can still see through it.

A lot of good people sent me new masks to support this effort. They are all going into a four month soak and then be sent back to their owners for evaluation. I will write this up after their input.

The question that is unanswered here is what is the condition of the plastic (buckles, etc.)?

The ammonia soak works well for treating the glass, but I am reluctant to trust my Mako mask now, after fully soaking it for 1 week(? IIRC). The glass is good, but the plastic buckles have turned white in areas a couple of times since. And with the other masks that I soaked that actually did break, I am afraid my Mako mask is a time bomb. I worry that it will break at the worst possible time during a dive.

It may be that different masks use different specific types of plastic in their construction. Some may be highly susceptible to damage from ammonia and others may be impervious. But, *I* have no way to tell whether any given mask is susceptible to ammonia damage, or if it HAS been weakened. So now, any mask that has soaked in ammonia is suspect, in my mind.

 

[RayfromTX]

Y'all can probably remove the lenses to do the soak. Most masks I see and all that I own have lenses that are removable. I didn't know this until I dropped one and the retainer piece was knocked loose. On my next entry the lens fell out and I had to take it up on shore and reassemble it. When you do this it is highly critical that the surfaces be perfectly clean. A grain of sand can cause a problem. 200 hours on the mask since then. I took it back apart and cleaned and reassembled it in better conditions after the dive where I did the beachside fix.

 

[Divrtim]

Toothpaste and spit. I have more life time experiences using these. It's probably is helpful not to chew. Dont skip the deco stops.