Defog Your Dive Mask for Good
A foggy dive mask is the worst! So don’t suffer during your Maui vacation. When you scuba dive in Lahaina or snorkel in Kaanapali, a well-prepared dive mask is essential to your ocean experience! A fog-free mask also makes you a safer scuba diver or snorkeler. In contrast, a foggy mask blocks your view underwater making it harder to see hand signals from your dive buddy. It’s much more difficult to see sea life too. Luckily, this scuba blog details our expert tricks to prepare your dive mask and save yourself from frustration!
Many divers have a method to best prepare a new mask for scuba diving or snorkeling. Most people say using toothpaste before every dive is the magic cure. While regular white toothpaste helps (NOT the gel kind!), these alternative ideas can defog your new dive mask for good.
4 Defog Tips
Tip 1: Choose the Right Scuba or Snorkeling Mask
Before defogging your mask, you need a suitable dive mask that fits your face. When shopping around, it is essential to try a variety of brands and skirt sizes. Every face is different, so scuba manufacturers make many dive masks at various prices. Most professional divers recommend you go for the middle-of-the-road option. Don’t buy the cheapest or the most expensive scuba mask.
A good dive mask with a soft silicone skirt should cost $80 to $125. You can use your face size to choose the best-fitting brand and model because every scuba mask gets made differently for different face sizes. Banyan Tree Divers Maui recommends that divers with smaller and narrower faces use the Tusa Freedom Ceos or Scuba Pro Spectra Mini. After testing many different brands for smaller faces, Tusa and Scuba Pro are at the top of the list for comfort, fit, and price!
It’s important to try on different masks in person at your local dive shop. When testing a mask, you want to hold it up to your face and inhale through your nose to see if the mask skirt sticks around your face. If you get an excellent seal and like the feel of the mask skirt, you can then use the strap to ensure the mask is easily adjustable. Whether you buy a clear or black silicone mask is purely based on personal preference. But, masks with a black silicone skirt help to cut the sun’s glare, which is great for underwater photography in shallow ocean environments.
Tip 2: Rub Diamond Magic on Each Lens
The best dive mask defog is called Diamond Magic.
The holy grail of defog! But be careful not to scratch your lenses. Diamond Magic normally gets used with stainless steel, but unbeknownst to many moonlights as the best dive mask defog. This stuff works but you need to apply it correctly. First and foremost, you only want to use a small amount. It’s easy to use too much. If you drop too much, wash it all out, fully dry the lenses, and start over. Once you start using a small amount, gently rub the paste onto the inside of each lens, while mostly avoiding the silicone skirt. If you leave the paste on the silicone too long, it might start eating away at the silicone.
The key here is not to use too much pressure while rubbing on each lens! Let the paste sit for 12 hours and gently remove everything with warm water and your fingers. If you accidentally get too rough Diamond Magic can easily scratch your new lenses!
Once you are done, use an old toothbrush to clear any remaining paste from the corners and edges, and then let your mask soak in water for a few hours. You do not want any of this stuff to get in your eyes!
Tip 3: Burn Your Dive Mask
If you don’t have something like Diamond Magic you can burn your dive mask with a lighter. Yes, this is the scariest part of preparing your brand-new dive mask. All new tempered glass lenses have a factory layer of protective silicone that causes each lens to fog when exposed to heat, such as heat from your face.
Do not attempt to burn a mask with plastic lenses!
People out there will tell you not to attempt to defog your mask with a lighter. So it comes down to how comfortable you are with handling fire. As a dive instructor who has to prepare lenses for new dive masks every year, I can attest that this method works.
Steps to Burn Lens:
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Remember, each lens gets very hot after burning your scuba mask, so let the glass cool down before moving to Step 3. Be careful here! Glass tends to break when exposed to sudden changes in temperature!
Tip 4: Rub Toothpaste on Each Lens
This could be your best option, but you may have to apply this toothpaste method 3 or 4 times. All you do is rub regular white toothpaste on each lens of your dive mask. The toothpaste has lightly abrasive properties which help to remove the factory coating. Rub the toothpaste around for at least one minute. Before rinsing and rubbing off the toothpaste, some scuba divers firmly believe in setting your dive mask aside for at least 12 hours!
When you want to remove the toothpaste from your new favorite mask, rinse your snorkeling or diving mask with warm water and baby shampoo. If you use regular shampoo or soap, leave no soapy residue that could later burn your eyes.
If any excess from burning your dive mask gets onto the silicone skirt you can use a toothbrush and water to remove the discoloration. However, better yet rubbing some Diamond Magic on the silicone works great! But then take it right off. Once your scuba diving or snorkeling mask gets thoroughly soaked and rinsed, you can happily scuba dive, snorkel, or whatever!
But, regardless of how you fix your new dive mask from fogging, you still need to defog each lens every time you use your mask. We recommend you use one of the following methods before you go scuba diving or snorkeling:
3 Best Ways to Prepare a Mask Before Scuba Diving
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Final Thoughts About New Dive Masks
A properly fitted and well-prepared dive mask is the most critical component of your scuba diving locker. Take the time to prepare your new scuba mask, because it is the only way to enjoy your countless future dives! You can protect your dive mask by securing it to your BCD before entering the ocean.
And once you put it on your face, leave it on your face!
Aloha and HAPPY DIVING