Secret to defogging a scuba mask with a lighter.

40-Year Commercial Diver Reveals the Secret To Defogging A New Scuba Mask.

Before you take to the water, it is helpful to have a scuba mask anti-fog plan before you start the preparation application. You spend a lot of time and money diving and you don't want to miss any aquatic action under the surface.

As a PADI and SSI Instructor and commercial diver, visibility can be paramount in safety while watching students and potential entanglement in a boat salvage. Here are my forty years of experience and what you will need to do to reduce fogging and prep your mask before you dive. Wash your hands with soap. Try to touch the lenses as little as possible. Oil from your fingers may get on the lenses.

 Now here is the secret!  There is a layer from the factory on the lenses that causes fogging. This layer needs toothpaste and a lighter. You'll need an abrasive like whitening toothpaste and in some cases a lighter. Until you remove these layers chances are your mask will fog in certain conditions of humidity, and temperature. Sometimes just physical exertion on a surface swim or walk to the site. This layer is usually from the latex in the production part of the mask that needs removal.

No need to buy a commercially available mask scrub from the dive store. Many cleaning products, non-whitening toothpaste or kitchen cleansers make an excellent scuba mask scrub preparation solution.

Some abrasive kinds of toothpaste to try; are Crest Pro-Health, Crest Extra Whitening, Ultra Brite, Crest MultiCare Whitening, Ultra Brite Advanced Whitening Formula, and Colgate Baking Soda & Peroxide Whitening. Also, great kitchen abrasives to try are Ajax, Comet, and Soft Scrub. First, pick your mask-cleaning abrasive toothpaste or kitchen abrasive. Use a toothbrush (Oral B is great too) and your abrasive, scrub. Spread the toothpaste/abrasive on the inner and outer lenses of your mask. Make sure the lenses are completely covered and scrub vigorously with the bristles.

Use a lighter to burn the production layer and apply a commercial Anti-Fog.

Tempered glass coatings need to be removed with a lighter! I purchased an Atomic Venom and used several scrubs. I even donated my wife's sonic care head for the mask scrub, but nothing worked, not even Soft Scrub and Comet. Don't put the lighter anywhere but on the lenses and very carefully burn the lens and you will see a black dusty carbon removed. Every new mask I purchase I burn off the layer on the inside of the mask carefully with a lighter. I then clean with an abrasive then apply defog.