The Best Anti-Fog Remedies for Swim Goggles — Triathlete

When I began coaching for triathlons 15 years in the past, I’d by no means participated in an organized swim observe, worn fins, or witnessed any of the tradition’s, er … eclectic habits. So think about my shock when the man in a teeny-weenie Speedo began spitting into his goggles. Not well mannered little ptooeys, however nice large throat-clearing loogies. Hmm, I believed, that is going to be fascinating.

I quickly discovered that goggle expectoration is much from uncommon – simply one of many techniques determined swimmers make use of to maintain their lenses clear. Some swear by child shampoo, others by toothpaste, shaving cream, dish cleaning soap, and even hand sanitizer. At my pool, a lot of the athletes purchase anti-fog sprays or wipes. But after I requested for recommendation on prime manufacturers and greatest practices, all of them shrugged their shoulders. No one actually had a assured opinion.

Which is why Triathlete assigned me the vital activity of testing anti-fog therapies. There’s a dearth of dependable efficiency information on the market to information purchasing choices. In reality, we scoured the interweb for indicators of precise comparative testing – and couldn’t discover something legit.

With this weighty activity on my plate, I secured samples of seven main anti-fog merchandise commonly marketed to swimmers and triathletes (and acquired one bottle of child shampoo). Then, as detailed beneath, I put every remedy by means of 5 cycles of condensation testing.

Anti-fog merchandise at a look

Why your swim goggles get foggy

For these of you who fell asleep in Tenth-grade physics, right here’s a remedial lesson in goggle thermodynamics, simplified to 4 steps. (Want to go deeper? Check out this interview.)

Step one: You placed on goggles whereas standing on a deck or shoreline the place the ambient temperature might be 70 levels F or hotter. The lenses and gaskets entice a small quantity of 98.6℉ air, in addition to the perspiration vapor that naturally emanates out of your eyes and pores and skin.

Step two: You soar into water that could be as chilly as 50 levels F. Even in hotter water, there’s nonetheless a large hole between the temperature and humidity of the air inside your goggles versus the circumstances exterior.

Step three: The differential between the cooler exterior temperatures and the hotter inside temperatures causes the perspiration vapor to start condensing.

Step 4: The tiny drops of condensation cluster in teams, creating the foggy circumstances. Blurriness is then made worse by the diffraction of sunshine by means of the drops, which distorts imaginative and prescient and might result in glare in vivid ocean settings.

Swimmers usually make issues worse by rubbing the lenses with a finger, utilizing cleaning soap to wash them, and wiping them with a fabric. These actions will all speed up the breakdown of the hydrophilic coating that comes on all new goggles. This reduces their effectiveness, probably resulting in fogging after just a few weeks of regular swimming as a substitute of the same old a number of months.

Best observe: Rinse and dry your goggles in faucet water after a swim, strive to not contact the lenses together with your fingers, and retailer them of their authentic case or bag to maintain them free from mud and oils.

Best Triathlon Goggles of 2026: Testers swam almost 100,000 yards to judge main fashions in our current roundup, together with a pair with excellent built-in anti-fog properties.

How anti-fog goggle therapies work

The factory-applied and after-market coatings that we depend on for crystal-clear imaginative and prescient underwater are chemical substances referred to as surfactants. Their energetic elements could embrace exotic-sounding compounds equivalent to propylene glycol butyl ether, fluorocaliphatic oxyethylene, magnesium lauryl sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine, decyl glucoside, sodium cocoyl isethionate which might be derived from natural sources (equivalent to coconut) or inorganic emulsions (equivalent to silicon). While these chemical substances are broadly utilized in shampoos, detergents, and different family merchandise, they will trigger irritation for folks with delicate pores and skin, so it’s sensible to evaluate the elements when you have a situation equivalent to contact dermatitis. And it ought to go with out saying, however by no means spray them in your eyes.

To forestall fog, these compounds kind a hydrophilic (water-loving) movie in your lenses that prompts these tiny beads of condensation to merge and unfold out in a transparent layer somewhat than growing into separate clusters of droplets.

When it’s time to use an after-market remedy

Even with cautious upkeep, goggles would possibly develop condensation issues after only some dozen swims. But the primary signal of fog is just not essentially a sign that it’s worthwhile to purchase an anti-fog spray or wipe. In our expertise, all goggles – even brand-new ones – are prone to fogging within the first jiffy of a swim, particularly if you’re leaping into chilly water on a heat day. The preliminary temperature differential causes this early fogginess and can usually dissipate because the microclimate round your eyes reaches a greater stability.

Instead, you’ll understand it’s time to start out treating your goggles when the lenses keep cloudy all through a swim. This signifies that the manufacturing unit coating has worn off and wishes assist.

How we examined anti-fog goggle merchandise

Scoring goggle therapies in a pool would contain too many variables to supply truthful and goal outcomes. Outside air temperatures and humidity would possibly change in the course of the course of a swim, and the identical factor goes to occur inside a pair of goggles. It would even be nearly not possible to repeat the precise period of time the goggles spent below or above water from one lap and spherical of anti-fog remedy to the subsequent.

To reduce these variables and create a extra managed testing atmosphere, I arrange a mini-laboratory in my kitchen. My purpose was to observe an analysis protocol that simulated the circumstances that trigger fogging (temperature differentials and humidity) and may very well be constantly and repeatedly utilized to every product. The key parts:

• Ambient temperature: Because condensation occurs extra readily when the water exterior your lenses is cooler than the air inside, I set my home thermostat right down to 70 levels F, the place it remained all through testing.
• Heat and humidity: To mimic the thermal and moisture circumstances inside your goggles, I wanted to create a supply of warmth and humidity that may very well be saved at a gentle temperature. To do that, I heated a pan of water on my stovetop till it was producing mild steam (however not boiling), then monitored it constantly with a liquid thermometer.
• Goggle interface: To channel the warmth and moisture straight into the lenses, I reduce a goggle-shaped part out of a stiff plastic sheet that went on prime of the pan like a lid. My check goggles match snugly into the cutout, eye-side down, which trapped the nice and cozy, moist air and minimized leakage by means of the gaskets.
• Test goggles: Fog plagues lenses whose hydrophilic coatings have worn off, so I chosen an outdated pair of goggles whose clear lenses would make condensation simpler to identify.

With these items in place, I put every product by means of 5 testing cycles, finishing a full spherical earlier than transferring to the subsequent product. The course of:

• Clean: To strip oils, mud, and any residual anti-fog remedy, I washed the lenses of my outdated goggles with dish cleaning soap.
• Apply: After the lenses dried, I utilized the product based on the producer’s directions. That often meant 1-2 squirts per lens for a sprig, and one thorough wipe per lens for a towelette, adopted by a number of minutes for the remedy to dry and remedy.
• Test and observe: Placing the goggles within the lid, I used a stopwatch to time how lengthy it took for condensation to look.
• Repeat: Once condensation was seen, I eliminated the goggles from the lid, then rinsed and allow them to dry. Without cleansing the lenses or making use of extra anti-fog remedy, I then repeated the check 4 extra instances, recording the time-to-first-mist every time.

My purpose was to judge two crucial efficiency traits: the preliminary effectiveness of a remedy and its sturdiness throughout a number of rinse cycles. Why did I cease at 5 cycles of testing per product? Because we all know that many swimmers reapply anti-fog therapies each few swims as soon as their goggles get outdated, and since producers sometimes advocate reapplying them on the same frequency. But extra to the purpose, not one of the merchandise prevented fog for greater than three cycles, making extra cycles pointless.

The outcomes of our anti-fog testing

Every remedy within the check succeeded at its most important activity: stopping fog from forming within the first cycle of testing after software. Each time, my lenses had been fully clear after 10 minutes, a threshold that made me assured you may full a exercise or race with out blurriness.

But efficiency different after the primary cycle, as soon as I’d rinsed and air-dried the goggles. Most of the merchandise had been unable to stop fog of their second cycle, which suggests you would want to reapply them each time you swim. The exception, and clear winner, was the Frog Spit Spray, which saved fog at bay by means of three full cycles. Its sibling, the Frog Spit Wipes, had been almost as efficient, staying clear for 2 cycles and a part of a 3rd.

The better of the remaining was the Foggies Towelettes, which stayed clear the longest in its second cycle. The remaining merchandise – JAWS, Arena, Speedo, and TheMagic5 – adopted in shut order. Interestingly, child shampoo (in a 5-to-1 shampoo-to-water answer) was neck-and-neck with these 4.

In real-world circumstances, the small time gaps between the runners-up are inconsequential sufficient that I’d advocate selecting between them primarily based on worth and availability. But that’s solely after you strive Frog Spit, my prime decide and the very best worth (other than child shampoo) from a price-per-application perspective.

What makes our opinions totally different? Our testers really use the factor. Lots. Learn extra about Triathlete’s gear evaluate course of.