Best Cleaning product for Binoculars (1 Viewer)

I have always just used a brush and alcohol and cotton swabs.

A employee at a store/repair shop told me:
Don't use Windex because it has ammonia....he did not elaborate.
Don't use alcohol because it leaves a residue.
The best thing for fingerprints is a tiny drop of lighter fluid on 100% natural cotton.

He was not specific but did admit there were several different solutions that one could make at home that would work well.

Yes, he did point to some bottles of special fluid that were for sale.

My question is, has anyone tried the lighter fluid?

Inquisitor said:

I have always just used a brush and alcohol and cotton swabs.

A employee at a store/repair shop told me:
Don't use Windex because it has ammonia....he did not elaborate.
Don't use alcohol because it leaves a residue.
The best thing for fingerprints is a tiny drop of lighter fluid on 100% natural cotton.

He was not specific but did admit there were several different solutions that one could make at home that would work well.

Yes, he did point to some bottles of special fluid that were for sale.

My question is, has anyone tried the lighter fluid?

Click to expand...

The usual alcohols will completely evaporate and leave no residue. However some commercial cleaners may also have detergents as well which would be left behind though readily removed with plain water.

High quality lighter fluid should be fine on the glass but might be bad news for the the seals and lubricants so use very sparingly. It is also very non-polar so removes oil and not much else. Low quality stuff may well leave an oily residue.

I don't know the answer to the ammonia question but it is also a common additive in dedicated lens cleaning products like ROR.

David

Inquisitor said:

I have always just used a brush and alcohol and cotton swabs.

A employee at a store/repair shop told me:
Don't use Windex because it has ammonia....he did not elaborate.
Don't use alcohol because it leaves a residue.
The best thing for fingerprints is a tiny drop of lighter fluid on 100% natural cotton.

He was not specific but did admit there were several different solutions that one could make at home that would work well.

Yes, he did point to some bottles of special fluid that were for sale.

My question is, has anyone tried the lighter fluid?

Click to expand...

I wish this guy had given his advice to poor Al Nagler, who designed the optics for NASA's Apollo Program and has produced some of the world's most sought after telescopes and eyepieces, and me, who has repaired a few thousand optical instruments. We might have been better-informed people.

Fact is: most of today's best selling lens cleaner is just the Windex formula, without Aqua Tint.

Windex was invented in 1933, and the same formula has been used by the non-"A" types since then.

From the book:

" . . . I found three cleaning solutions to be the most practical.

1. The first is a light ammonium hydroxide mixture, known to the more scientific among us as NH4OH. To make this chemical at home, you start with 4 ounces of household ammonia, to which you add 16 ounces of rubbing alcohol, and add 1 tsp of dishwashing liquid. After this, add enough water to finish filling a 1-gallon container.

To those lacking in spare time, or don’t care about besting their neighbor’s secret formula, I would recommend buying it off the shelf; it’s commonly called Windex®. Windex has been around since 1933 and has been part of the S. C. Johnson family of products since 1993. The chemical giving Windex its blue color is called “Aqua Tint.” It’s not necessary, but originally filled an important marketing role; it showed homemakers they were buying something more than water. If you have to have blue liquid and Aqua Tint is not readily available—and it won’t be—you may use a few drops of blue … food dye."

Pecos Bill (That's PAY Cos for the tourist trade and PAY cus for the natives) :eek!:

Baader Optical Wonder Fluid is very good, it leaves very little residue. I also have Fujifilm cleaning fluid but it's not as good as Baader as it leaves a residue.

dandare said:

Baader Optical Wonder Fluid is very good, it leaves very little residue. I also have Fujifilm cleaning fluid but it's not as good as Baader as it leaves a residue.

Click to expand...

What is there about either that makes them better than Windex?

Bill

WJC said:

What is there about either that makes them better than Windex?

Bill

Click to expand...

A good question, but one that has not been answered
completely for the other solvents, even Windex.

--------
But if we are on the subject of people doing their homework,

According to Windex's Wiki entry, the contents in the patent are:

--water
--isopropyl alcohol
--ethylene glycol monobutyl ether
--sodium laural sulphate (the detergent)
--tetrasodium pyrophosphate
--ammonia
-dye
-perfume

The ethylene glycol monobutyl ether helps a lot undermining glazed stuff.
Generic Windexes often use "butyl cellusolve" instead because this function
is so important (like, for the tear-crust at the EP edges).

So the 'popular home formulas for "Windex" are missing a few things.


----------------------------------------

I sometimes avoid Windex for external cleanings
and use 91% isopropyl when it looks like the
slower evaporation rate and very high film strength (due to detergent)
might push outside contaminants around and under the eyepiece
surface element.

Nothing is perfect for everything.

-------------------------
And what of the Baader fluid in question?

http://www.astro-physics.com/index.htm?products/accessories/cleaningproducts/cleaningsystem

They claim a special ability to remove biofilm, like mold. Probably related to their
other enzyme-based product, some super-duper NASA enzyme plus stuff.

So....maybe, if I had an especially gnarly job. When Windex doesn't remove the
tendrils, instead of Bon Ami.

OPTIC_NUT said:

A good question, but one that has not been answered
completely for the other solvents, even Windex.

--------
But if we are on the subject of people doing their homework,

According to Windex's Wiki entry, the contents in the patent are:

--water
--isopropyl alcohol
--ethylene glycol monobutyl ether
--sodium laural sulphate (the detergent)
--tetrasodium pyrophosphate
--ammonia
-dye
-perfume

The ethylene glycol monobutyl ether helps a lot undermining glazed stuff.
Generic Windexes often use "butyl cellusolve" instead because this function
is so important (like, for the tear-crust at the EP edges).

----------------------------------------

I sometimes avoid Windex for external cleanings
and use 91% isopropyl when it looks like the
slower evaporation rate and very high film strength (due to detergent)
might push outside contaminants around and under the eyepiece
surface element.

Nothing is perfect for everything.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your "homework." BUT, "new and improved" is, as often as not, sales hype. And, why does an optics cleaner NEED fragrance. Also, what do you suppose is the difference between the original "Aqua tint" and the new "Liqua Tint"? (food color is food color, and not needed in any case.) I was referring to the formula used from its inception. Had you done further homework, using more than one site, you would have come across the following:

--February 1, 2015

--"New 'original formula' is disappointing to say the least."

--"I'm 64. I've used Windex since the early 1960s. Original Windex with Ammonia D (for "distinguished") in the aerosol can was an outstanding product. Since then, Windex --has been letting me down. I recently cleaned the inside of my car windshield and I had to do it three times to get what I thought was a "streak-free shine." It looked good --UNTIL I drove into the sun. WOW! The windshield, according to my wife, looks even worse than before I "cleaned" it. Not only is it extremely streaky, it is covered with ------large hazy patches. I will have to try and clean it again.

--I also cleaned some mirrors around the house. They look pretty good close up. But from across the room, they are all quite streaky.

--I am sad that the fine product I grew up with has become just another average window cleaner. I will now try to find a new product that will do what I was hopeful your new "original formula" would do but did not. After more than 50 years, I bid you farewell.

--No, I do not recommend this product."

I thoroughly understand one upmanship, but, I had more than enough of that over at Cloudy Nights.

So, I will leave this conversation, which has been going on unabated for years, for those with nothing better to do than reinvent the tricycle. I tried to help; but I will gladly leave it to those who are forever seeking complex solutions to non-existent problems. :t:

Cheers,

Bill

Just fact-checking. Kinda like Galileo thinking the Pope sounds a little glib.

So it looks like your quotes
where someone is personally cranky about the performance on a car windshield
are supposed to trump a patent.....um, OK.
Windex is not indicated for hot windshields especially, because the ammonia flashes off.
That rather cranky review is the basis for your counter??

Here it is, the cranky review, at the Windex site as well:
http://www.windex.com/en-US/Products/Pages/original-glass-cleaner.aspx

Note.....no ingredients mentioned...at all.
Conditions? Not mentioned.

Other high ratings? You do not mention those.


The main point is...you asserted you knew what Windex was,
and even if it isn't the patent....you do not actually know.

I'm fact-checking, not one-upping. I am not lord of Windex.

-----------------------------------------------------------
From the
Windex MSDS sheet, what's in Windex now
that they must declare ingredients for safety sheet:

--Hexyloxyethanol (low-evap replacement for the ...ether)
--Ammonium hydroxide
--Isopropyl alcohol
--water

Detergent does not have to be added to the MSDS in the qtys. used.

--------------------------------------

Interesting you consider a single bad product review some kind of key technical documentation.

The Internet can cut both ways, but cherry-picking comments is not science.

I went for Typos suggestion of the ROC droper, bought it to clean y Vanguard EDI and my pal had is own cleaning solution.
So I kept mine for my new Vanguard EDII 8x42, only cost me £300 Because I sold my pristine EDI for £100 quid, still with box and receipt and only bought them in May last year, bargain.

Damian

typo said:

The usual alcohols will completely evaporate and leave no residue. However some commercial cleaners may also have detergents as well which would be left behind though readily removed with plain water.

High quality lighter fluid should be fine on the glass but might be bad news for the the seals and lubricants so use very sparingly. It is also very non-polar so removes oil and not much else. Low quality stuff may well leave an oily residue.

I don't know the answer to the ammonia question but it is also a common additive in dedicated lens cleaning products like ROR.

David

Click to expand...

ROR ingredients from the MDS posted on their web site:

Ammonia 26° = 0.775%

Sodium Chloride = 0.830%

Isopropyl Alcohol = 4.266%

Liquid Soap = 9.011%

Distilled Water = 85.118%

I have used The ROR cleaner extensively and have been very pleased with the streak/residual free results.

The premoistened Zeiss cleaning cloths also do an outstanding job on most oils and grimes, but couldn't help when one of my kids left a greasy pizza print on the anti-glare screen of our TV. Fortunately ROR easily removed it with only a few wipes.

I have yet to find any oil, grease or grime that either of these two couldn't remove effectively. Note that both of the above will leave slight streaking when the cloths are very moist. Fortunately they evaporate quickly and if you continue to rub in light circles until it's almost dry will leave the cleaned surface streak and blemish free.

I don't trust the lens pens not because they don't work. I don't use them because the risk is too high that I may have missed a tiny piece of grit which the lens pen will then rub onto the AR coating and probably scratch it.

Long before Modern Photography folded, Herbert Keppler recommended the Microdear microfiber cleaning cloths as the thickest, softest and most absorbent available. I have close to 100 different brands on hand, and this is still the best one to date. I buy mine from Amazon - see the link below - wash it in hot water without any fabric softeners. Do not dry it in the dryer, it's better to hang it up to dry after squeezing as much water out of it as possible.

http://www.amazon.com/Microdear-Microfiber-Deluxe-Cleaning-Cloth/dp/B0002E3WGI/

Gotta go now as I see a speck of dirt on one of my lenses....

Lars,

Thanks for that. The Newpro MDS didn't give the amounts. The "liquid soap" concentration seems very high at 11%, not far off the levels used in washing-up liquid concentrates. I've found ROR works really well but surely that's going to leave a residue that will play havoc with hydrophobic/lipophilic coatings? I imagine it would be readily washed off with water or alcohol though.

David