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Owners of UV coated plastic lenses take note –
The last time I got glasses, I let the salesman talk me into the UV/Anti-Glare coating, which I’d never had before. After time, the coating began to develop tiny, really fine scratches, which kept building and building. They got so bad, I was going to get new glasses — until a friend recommended Armour Etch, a glass etching cream you can get at art/craft stores like Michael’s or Dick Blick. The way it removed the coating, leaving me with a perfectly unscratched lens, was phenomenal!! I do experience a little more glare without the coating, but I can live with that — having the scratches was driving me nuts! Instead of having to spend $100+ on new lenses, I got away with spending a little over $10!
While definitely NOT for use on glass lenses – this method seems worth a try, just be sure to test on a small area first. (I’ll let you know how my test turns out) – Armour Etch on Cool Tools
16 thoughts on “How To – Revive scratched plastic lenses”
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I have seen acrylic-scratch-removal products commonly available for car headlights, a product that fills the scratches.. of course, it likely does not have the exact properties that the anti-glare coat is formulated for. but i can’t imagine whether the difference would make the problem better or worse.
i’m sure it would work great on non-coated plastic lenses, but has anyone tried it on the anti-glare treated ones? just curious
Suntan lotion. It has a bunch of microabrasives as a base to the lotion and removes those coatings from all lenses, not just plastic.
Kellin: coincidentally I discovered this while trying to figure out how to remove those scratch removal products. Those btw are nothing more than floor wax. Get a big bottle for $5 rather than pay $15 for that tiny thing they offer. It does work but you do need to be willing to do it more than once.
when i worked at a wall-mart vision center as an optician we would often use the very same product and charge around 5 dollars to do it. dilute the solution with water in a bowel and let the lenses sit in it for a few minutes. sadly, when the powers that be learned of this technique they forbid its use despite the customer loyalty it brought to us.
there are two styles of anti-reflective coatings on lenses. one is the coating by itself and the other is the coating with a teflon seal. without the seal the coating scratches so easy its embarrassing, but the lens is not scratching, just the coating. so remove the coating. with the sealed lens the coating is now scratch resistant again. lenscrafters sells this version as their featherwates complete and i have not tried to remove that coating so not sure if it will work on them but if you get those tiny, fogging scratches you don’t have that lens.
I guess I’ll go get my turkey baster… The things I do for my projects.
ehrichweiss: Thanks for clearing that up. I thought I had seen a product that was made from an acrylic resin though, that was longer-lasting. It’s very likely I’m mistaken though, I haven’t looked into it too much. I have used epoxy resin to fix cracks in headlights and my lenses before, but they weren’t the anti-glare kind. Now I wish I had a pair of those to play with.
Great! Armor Etch works well and I was able to buy it in the Netherlands. Srubbed it slowly in with an old toothbrush and after 5 minutes rinsed all off. there’s still one spot left, but that’s the result of a previous frustrated attempt. I guess I was already gone through the coating and sratced the lens. Btw, I heard that to prevent the coating from deteriorating, you must not use hot water or soap containing acid (such as lemon) for cleaning. just use alcohol.
Wow. I had a go at this, a little skeptically, with a pair of high-index glasses with a beat-up teflon antiglare coating. It worked very close to perfectly. Amazing.
I need somed help. These are helpful. If not I am going to the optometrist and insist that they try something until I have my regular exam in a few weeks.