15 Mistakes I Made With My Progressive Glasses This Year


Leaving Them in the Car

One mistake that damages your coating on your progressive lenses really fast is to leave them in your car during summertime. The car easily heats up to a temperature so the materials of the glasses start to expand a little.

The problem here is the expansion for the lens material itself happens at another rate compared to the coating when it gets hotter and when it gets cooler too. What will appear in 99% of the cases after heat is little cracks on the coating.

leaving your progressive glasses in the car is a mistake

You can hardly see them at first but over time cleaning your lenses you need to rub over those cracks. Which is why they get more and more dominant until the coating starts to peel off. So just don´t make it a habit to leave your progressive glasses in the car. Also do not put them in the glove box. The temperature is too high everywhere in the car even if the sun hits it for just a few minutes during summer.

Putting Them in My Front Pocket for a Second

Also, one dumb habit is to put progressive lenses off for a moment and place them in your front pocket in for example a polo-shirt. Most of the times when I do this there really is not a reason for my action. But what happens afterward is a stress test for the frame and the lenses.

Oftentimes in those situations, someone wants to welcome me and hugs me. I always remember it during the hugging. because then there is little cracking noise in my front pocket. Maybe I should stop hugging people so intensely.

But even then if you bent over because you want to tie your shoes or to pick something up. They can fall out of your pocket and scratches on the surface are most likely the result. So remember do not place your progressive lenses in your front pocket. Grab your hard case and put it in.

Not Putting Them in the Hard Case

If I did not put them in the hard case right away once I get home they probably get scratched. Sometimes I come home and place them on a sideboard. The next thing that happens is someone throws the keys into the direction of my progressive glasses and the scratch was done. That is so annoying and totally my fault.

the picture shows Michael Penczek´s progressive glasses placed on a couch

The same is true if my wife or my kids carried something and they want to place it on the sideboard. Although the sideboard is actually pretty big I bet there is a chance of 99% that the carried box is standing partly on my glasses or squished between other stuff that was standing there.

Most of the time it is out of pure laziness. So why didn’t I just grab the hard case and put it in?

Giving the Progressive Glasses to My Kids

“I want to see how you see. Give me your glasses please I want to see with them”. Sometimes I trust my kids to not destroy my stuff. And oh boy did I regret it. First, they put it on their nose, then they run away. The next thing I hear is the sound of my glasses sliding over the floor. But fortunately, my kids will insure me that “nothing bad happened”.

The picture shows my progressive glasses behind my son

And when I get my glasses back after 60 seconds or so I realize that the refined subtle frame that perfectly holds the lenses such engineering masterpieces in front of my eyes are deformed in such a way that even I as an optician have a hard time readjusting them. And oftentimes after heavy twisting them they never will be the same as they were before. Sad but true.
Don´t give the lenses to them.

Going for Days Without Proper Adjustment

That is really a shame but even I as an optician have sometimes glasses on that sit crooked on my nose. Usually, my calendar is pretty stuffed and I love that but having a little problem that nags me just a little can last for days if I do not get the adjustment right. Oftentimes it is just a little action that one of the teammates should perform to make them fit perfectly but I tend to compensate that by rotating my head and replacing them on my nose all day long. Instead, I could just stop and get it done.

The problem really here is my concentration is not on point if my progressive lenses do not sit perfectly. My focus gets disturbed by the imperfect vision and that´s tiring. So do not think it is not a big deal and you can go a few days without readjusting them. It will probably affect your productivity and the quality of your work more than you think.

About 80 % of the information is visually based. So if your brain has to cope with suboptimal data, you will be intellectually impaired. Sounds nuts right? But as soon your visual acuity gets impaired your brain has trouble processing the data it is getting. So do not wait just get the setting of your progressive glasses fixed.

Wearing My Progressive Glasses in the Pool

I just go in for a few minutes with my youngest kid. Nothing wild will happen and my glasses will stay dry for sure.

Michael Penczek before he enters the pool

Usually, it takes just a few seconds until I have the poolwater on my lenses. The problem with the poolwater is chlorine. It attacks your coating. If you have your good progressive glasses on in the pool they will not last long. I see this problem with my clients too. After every summer we get to see the broken coatings on the surfaces of the lenses. So do not get into the pool with your progressives.

One mistake with my progressive glasses was to wear them in the pool

You could switch to really cheap spare glasses without coating. They do not cost more than 50 bucks and your progressive lenses would be safe. So get a spare pair.

Opening the Oven Door while wearing them

If the heat from the oven hits the surface of your progressive lenses the coating expands immediately. The base material not. And in just one second your coating is ruined. I highly recommend not looking straight into the oven if you are about to open it.

Ordering the Wrong Coating

I wanted to get an achromatic coating on my progressive lenses and tested a few of them. They are branded as “no flex”, coatings and sometimes the marketing even says there are no mirrorlike effects whatsoever. So in my unsuccessful attempts to get a good no flex anti-reflective coating I thought yeah maybe things have changed and ordered another pair. And this is what I got.

Ordering the wrong anti reflection is a mistake. On the left side you can see the acromatic coating and on the right side the standard AR on my progressive lenses

In my humble opinion. It looks awful. It looks like no anti-reflective coating. But just look at the picture and see for yourself. I highly recommend not to get an achromatic coating. Just stay with the normal anti-reflective coatings.

Not owning a spare pair of Glasses

Not owning a spare pair of progressive glasses when you really rely on your lenses is a no go. Me personally I can go without my glasses. But I miss my blue blocker very much while working long hours in front of a screen without them. That’s why I got two pairs of progressive glasses so I always have one at work and one at home.

Not having my Sunglasses with me

I would not consider myself very light-sensitive but I usually regret forgetting my sunglasses while driving. I can only recommend having a pair of polarized sunglasses with you if the sun hits your eyes from an unfavorable angle. You can have them with a progressive lens set up which is specially designed for driving. The mid-distance part is way bigger. Consider them if you drive a lot.

Blaming My Progressive Glasses Instead of Getting My Eyes Checked

Although I am constantly using measurement devices I sometimes forget to get my eyes checked regularly myself. When I drove at night a few weeks ago I thought there must be something wrong with my progressive lenses. All the traffic lights showed those starburst structures. And the visual impression I had was far from brilliant. Of course, it must be the glasses, right?

Wrong! It was me. My tear film really was not stable at all. My eyes were drying up and it took a few days for me to realize that. It was not really constant and in the daytime, I did not have any issues. Blaming my progressive glasses for a few days did not solve the problem anyway. After a few sessions with my warm eye mask, the tear film got more stable and the problems went away.

Leaving My Glasses on the Couch

In most cases, I try to not lay down on the couch watching TV. Because as soon I realize it four hours are gone. But watching TV with my progressive glasses really is not all that comfortable. I don’t want to sit upright. So I take them off. To be relaxed. And as soon I am relaxed the next thing I notice is someone buried my glasses under them.

Don’t be like me. Secure them in a hard case and get single vision glasses for watching TV. It is more comfortable and your progressive glasses will last a good bit longer. You are welcome!

Snap Shutting the Hard Case

It is always better to be conscious of the things around us and in our hands. Some of the hard cases hinge really snap shut powerful. If the frame is not placed correctly the snap can cause damage. Afterward, the frame will probably need an adjustment.

Forget to take My Glasses off Before Wrestling With My Kids

While playing with my kids I am totally in the zone. I try to tackle their weaknesses as hard and as quickly as I can. Sometimes there is no time to take my progressive glasses in a secure place before I wrestle with them. Especially not when they try to use the element of surprise to their benefit! I definitely need to be more cautious about my glasses here. Because last year two of my glasses got crushed.

Not carrying a Microfiber Cloth With Me

This situation is really not ideal for your progressive lenses. While I am en route and I notice dirt on my lenses my positive flow comes to a halt. I really need to clean my lenses in those situations but if no kleenex and water are within my reach or even a microfiber I sometimes (God forgive me) got to rely on cleaning my lenses with my shirt.

Knowing this will probably result in micro scratches is not a good feeling. But the short sweet relief of heaving crystal clear vision outweighs my wish for having no scratches on the lens surface. So be prepared and go out with a microfiber in your hard case.

I guess that sums up the things I didn’t do well with progressive glasses pretty much. So thank you for reading. I hope you have a great day.

Recent Posts