Coated spectacle lens
A coated optical surface where the hazard is not the cleaner but the grit in whatever you wipe it with — and where a scratch is replaced rather than repaired.
What not to do
Mild abrasion is unsafe on Coated spectacle lens
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Including the abrasion nobody counts as abrasion: a shirt tail, a tissue, or a microfibre cloth carrying grit it picked up in a pocket.
Why we say this
Supported
Unsafe rather than avoid because the damage is irreversible and the manufacturer's remedy is replacement. The mechanism is the same trapped-grit one the glass association gives for windows.
Sources
Lens and Screen Cleaning: how to clean your glasses
Carl Zeiss Vision · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That dirt trapped in clothing scratches the lens and risks damaging the coating, that reusable cloths retain small abrasive particles that create minute scratches, and that scratches cannot be removed so scratched lenses should be replaced. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The what-not-to-use, cloth-care and scratch sections. Supports a narrower statement — our claim was reduced. This supports the ABRASION half of the lens question and not the chemistry half. The page read does not state that alcohol damages coatings, and CleaningHQ therefore does not assert it — which matters, because the demand batch carried exactly that claim from consumer sources and a manufacturer page recommending its own products is not evidence against a competitor's chemistry. The alcohol question stays open, and it is recorded as open next to an electronics answer that permits 70% isopropyl alcohol on a display.
Last reviewed by a person on .
In detail
A modern spectacle lens is a coated optical surface, and the manufacturer guidance read here puts the risk somewhere most people do not look for it: in the cloth. Wiping lenses on a shirt tail, a tie or a tissue is called out by name, and the stated reason is not the fabric but the everyday dirt trapped in it, which both scratches the lens AND risks damaging the coating. The same logic condemns a favourite microfibre cloth: reusable cloths retain small abrasive particles and can create minute scratches, so a dirty microfibre is a hazard rather than a safe default. Cloths are not to be washed above 40°C or with fabric softener. The consequence is what makes this material safety-sensitive rather than cosmetic. Scratches cannot be wiped away on plastic or glass lenses, and a scratched lens is replaced. There is no recovery step, so the whole answer is about avoiding one event rather than performing a technique well. One thing CleaningHQ deliberately does not say. The manufacturer page read does not state that alcohol damages lens coatings.
Properties
Sensitivity
- Heat
- Recorded
- Abrasion
- Recorded
- Porous
- Not applicable
“Not known” means CleaningHQ has not established this, not that the material is unaffected.
Why
- Coated spectacle lens is explained by Mechanical action and abrasion
Sources for this page
Sources
Lens and Screen Cleaning: how to clean your glasses
Carl Zeiss Vision · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That clothing and tissues are called out by name because the dirt trapped in them scratches the lens and risks damaging the coating, that reusable cloths retain abrasive particles that create minute scratches, that cloths must not be washed above 40C or with fabric softener, and that scratches cannot be removed and scratched lenses should be replaced. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The what-not-to-use, cloth-care and scratch sections. Supports a narrower statement — our claim was reduced. This supports the ABRASION half of the lens question and not the chemistry half. The page read does not state that alcohol damages coatings, and CleaningHQ therefore does not assert it — which matters, because the demand batch carried exactly that claim from consumer sources and a manufacturer page recommending its own products is not evidence against a competitor's chemistry. The alcohol question stays open, and it is recorded as open next to an electronics answer that permits 70% isopropyl alcohol on a display.
Last reviewed by a person on .