Why is spit such a good defogger?

[Vtdiver2]

I've tried spit many times, with no effect whatsoever. Give me Sea Gold any day!

I've been told that some people's spit lacks a certain enzyme that makes it work as a de-fogger. I was told that it was pre-dominantly women that couldn't use spit. Next time I see the DM that told me, I'll ask where he got his info.
Please don't shoot the messenger :comeandge just what I was told
Chris

 

[cummings66]

Spit works for me as well. I've been told though that you do risk pink eye from using spit, don't know if that's true or not.

In the end, spit has been the best I've used so far.

 

[gecko3s]

I like spit because if for some reason or another I have to take my mask off before I descend but after I'm in the water, I can just spit in it again, rather than worrying about carrying around a bottle of goup...

 

[Ledznvrdead]

I was recommended a combination of baby shampoo and water that you can spray on the lense. Any comments?

 

[H2Andy]

yup... that would work

that's all lens defogger is

and the baby shampoo means "no tears" :14:

but that's a lot of trouble to go through when you
can just spit in your mask... plus, it's just so darned manly

 

[jepuskar]

Protein layer heh? I'm not even going there.....

 

[Damselfish]

Spit works for me, better than most (all?) of the defoggers I've tried.

 

[spectrum]

Well nothing stops condensation. Warm moisture from your face inside a mask with chilled lenses will form condensation. What the spit, ant-fog or whatever does is to keep the condensation from beading up and forming fog droplets on the lense. Rather the condensation runs down the lense in an unnoticable sheet of water. And can eventually become aparrent in the base of the mask. This gets to be more of an issue as your waters grow colder.

The lense treatment simply prevents the droplets from forming. Letting the moisture slide off as a sheet of water.

Pete

 

[gcbryan]

Regardless of what you use, spit, commercial cleaner/defogger, shampoo, it all does the same thing. It cleans your lens so that nothing adheres to it. As said in the post above, condensation just slides down to the base of the mask.

 

[wetrat]

Maybe it's psychological. Don't spit in it next time but just "visualize" that you did, see what happens. Gotta say though, urine sure doesn't work!

I'll tell you what though, pee sure does a good job in jelly stings. And there's always someone willing to pee on you on a dive boat!!