Paintball

[Cunha]

They cost a few dollars a piece at regular stores, so try and find some bulk place if there arent any costco's near you.

[grande]

Paper towels work just fine. They might scratch your lense but youre replacng it anyway before the scratching gets to the point that it starts to disturbe you. If you have no water and only towels to clean it then spit/lick your lense after wiping the most paint off and then shine with a fresh papertowel.

[ceojetbroadband]

I use a new sponge that has household dish washing soap and a very little amount of watter. Paper towels to dry it off as well. I too would replace the lens every year. A good thermal lens will be good for a year if cared for. After that the thermal part seems to not work so well.

[PJ]

Water/soapy water spray on lens to get the majority of the gunk off, paper towel to *blot* majority of water off, t-shirt or something soft to get rest off. If I'm in a hurry I'll just sling the lens while holding it to get the remaining water off. This still leaves some small water trails on the lens, but it lets you get back to the game quickly.

[Railgun]

Plexus is often used on a lot of plastics so I'm pretty sure it's OK for our lenes other than maybe the inner anti fog liner on "thermal" lenses.

Another option that I've switched to for my motorcycle faceshields is Pledge. Now again I would not use it on the softer inner liner of a double layer thermal lens but on the outside where the scratches and paint goop hits I'd have no problems with a final in home cleaning with a spritz of Pledge and wiping off with a clean lint free cloth.

If you use powdered clothing detergent then forget about cleaning your lens cloths in the wash. Powedered detergent has a lot of grit in it that tends to logde in the fabric. If you use liquid detergent then a freshly laundered soft cloth is the way to go.

Paper towels as mentioned above are quite abrasive. Aviod whereever possible. Although occasional "soft" use to clean along with some water won't do terrible things and the oils and waxes in the Pledge can often fill in some minor dulling of a LIGHTLY scuffed lens.

[Cunha]

Im telling you, for paintball..

Spray bottle to shoot off paint goop and shell and really all paint so there is just water left

Micro fiber towel from costco (or elsewhere) to dry

it is the best, leaves you with a perfect lense and does not leave micro scratches that end up with you and a hazy lense.

Avoid paint on the inner lense, but the same technique applies.

Everything else "works" but not half as well. You can also mix alcohol or something else to speed drying but its not necessary and just means your less likely to want the residue on your face.

[Robertsr]

Microfiber cloths are showing up at Dollar Tree's all over the place. Have at 'em folks!

On the cleaning front, I use a plain water/70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol 50/50 mix. It really cuts the goo like nobody's business. On the inside of the lenses, it's only pure water.

[Azzy]

When I ran a photo developing lab back in college, the techs and reps for Konika told us to clean the zoom lens on our one machine (the $40,000 lens) with an old 100% cotton tshirt.

Dont see why an old clean one is any worse off than microfiber.


Then again, Vents come in a microfiber bag, so it isnt all that hard to wipe the things off with it.

[MondoMor]

Normally I just scoop some warm, soapy water from a sink onto the lens face and use my (clean) hands to "scrub". It almost always air-drys spot-free.

This summer I was dumb and let my brand new thermal lens soak in water for a couple of minutes. When my brain switched back on, it was too late; water was in the space between lenses.

So I experimented; I poked two holes in the foamy insulation and drained the water, wedged the holes open, and put one end of the lens over a heating duct. Convection eventually drew dry air through one side and out the other, at which point I cut open a packet of desiccant (Silica Gel) and poured some inside. It sat for a week.

I played with it several times after that, with absolutely no fogging. It never got above 20F the last game in November. Every time I clean it, water fills the inside and I repeat the procedure.

Next year when I get my new lens, I'll be less dumb, but at least I know if the dumbness returns I don't have to toss a perfectly good lens.

[Azzy]

One of the upsides of Vents lenses, thermal versions are sealed.