Cleaning and prep of your new scuba diving mask... Defog secret recipe.

[diverintheflesh]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

The initial post in this thread is intended to be satire and should not be followed or used as guidance in the care and preparation of your dive mask. The posts that follow do however included many useful and effective tips for preparing and maintaining your mask. The community of members does a good job of moderating for the quality of the advice given on Scubaboard and that has once again happened here. Moderators do not fact check content but due to the potential for harm if this post is taken as legitimate we are posting this warning for unsuspecting members. It is also the reason that this post has been moved to different forums as we sought a way to best handle it without undertaking more invasive measures. This message seems like the best approach. Marg, SB Senior Moderator

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I made a video on how to clean, prep, and remove the silicone from the inside of a new mask and wanted to get some feedback from everyone to see what they thought.

I also tell everyone my secret defog recipe that cleans VERY well...

#maskdefog #defoggingmask #maskscrub #scubamask #maskcleaning

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[Dan]

Wow, so complicated & scary with wire brush drill!

I just burn the silicone coating off on both of my masks, like this guy did, easy peasy


And put a drop of baby shampoo on the inside lens, rub it around with index finger to make a thin coat and rinse the excess layer with water before going to dive. That's it! You are good to go diving without fogging. Also, don't exhale through the nose while diving, except if you want to drain water leaking into the mask. Exhaling through the nose while diving will put steam into the mask & flushing out the baby shampoo coat off the lens & fogging up the mask eventually.

 

[DevonDiver]

Burning definitely works. I finish off with a Mr Clean Magic Eraser thingy... Excellent results, which you can see demonstrated below:

 

[diverintheflesh]

Wow, so complicated & scary with wire brush drill!

I just burn the silicon coating off on both of my masks, like this guy did, easy peasy


And put a drop of baby shampoo on the inside lens, rub it around with index finger to make a thin coat and rinse the excess layer with water before going to dive. That's it! You are good to go diving without fogging. Also, don't exhale through the nose while diving, except if you want to drain water leaking into the mask. Exhaling through the nose while diving will put steam into the mask & flushing out the baby shampoo coat off the lens & fogging up the mask eventually.

I don't know... fire and silicone rubber seem precarious. I think the power drill and water are safer.

 

[Dan]

I don't know... fire and silicone rubber seem precarious. I think the power drill and water are safer.

It seems that way at first, but if you watch the video, you see that he doesn't stay in one spot for very long, may be for fraction of a second and move to another area as soon as the fog clear out. I have done it myself on 2 of my brand new masks. No problema

 

[Pkishino]

yeah, anytime people come ot buy new masks here we tell them to use whitening paste first few times OR let us burn away the silicone for them for free. If youve never done it before you might hesitate but it's very very easy if you see it done once. You only need to do it once and the mask never fogs up after.. Even if I don't spit in it it doesnt seem to fog up any more

 

[npole]

Last point not true.. my currently mask from Aqualung has to be burnt every single diving day (I usually do it a day before or in the morning) or it will fog up no matter what. Now it is six months old.
A old mask from Cressi I have some story: burn or fog .. and it is almost 10 years old (!).
Another mask from Cressi I have .. 3 times were enough, and it won't fog up anymore (you still need to spit into it).

So not every mask (and silicone) is the same, probably certain masks (especially the new ones with a very soft silicone) have the tendency to release more silicone, or they have special mineral glasses that accumulates more easily the oils and residue from the respiration.

I always have someone who come to me to say: you didn't it right! ...to two of those guys, I gave my mask for a week to try, they come back to say: "Sorry, you're right..."; so now every time someone comes with the same story (you don't do it right...) I forward them to those two guys from the "Do it right Party" to confirm that I do it right... but my mask loves the foggy.

 

[Pkishino]

hmm, interesting, I know we sell Cressi but the ones we tried with didnt have that issue so far... fingers crossed.
Most I dive with and myself all use low volume frameless masks (like the scubapro/noc/poseidon etc), very thin volume, single glass pane. Got a new SP frameless end of august, tried one dive before burn=>even with spit it fogged a bit, after one burn session=>no hint of fog (pool,warm water,cold baltic sea)..
anyway, have you tried the same AL mask model ? maybe it was just your sample?

 

[npole]

The ones I'm using are both low volume (especially the first): Aqualung Reveal X2, Cressi Air Crystal... the old one, I don't remember the model. Next I think I want to try a frameless, a Hollis M1 or such.

 

[Dan]

I got two of these frameless Atomic UltraClear masks 3 years ago. Just burnt the silicone coating off the inside surface of the glass lenses once. That's enough.