How to Clean Binoculars & Their Lenses

Reviewed by Dayna Hatmaker
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Dayna Hatmaker

Dayna is a professional optician and has been working in this profession for 7 years. She truly understands her customer's optical needs and recommends the best product. She got her optometry degree from the University of Waterloo. Other than this, she loves golfing, fishing, boating, and hitting the gym.

How to Clean Binoculars & Their Lenses

Being familiar with the cleaning techniques of your binoculars is a must to expand the shelf life of these products and get explicit images. It is indispensable for you to cleanse the surface lenses, interior, and exterior of the binoculars, as the dirt may have gotten stuck due to outdoor movements.

Distinguishable questions would have arrived on your mind, like the process and the things required to clean the binoculars and their lenses to uphold the retractable coatings in place. Also, how frequently should you clean it?

This article clarifies every potential solution with a cleaning kit and without cleaning equipment. Let’s get into it quickly.

How To Clean Your Binoculars

1. Read Owner’s Manual

Referring to the owner’s manual is the first thing you should do before starting the cleaning procedure. The manual recommends the distinct ways to get your binoculars and their lenses dust-free. It consists of all the information, such as which products and chemicals we need to prevent damage.

You must clean the coating with utmost care as it easily gets destroyed if rubbed harder.

It is the perfect way to know everything about cleaning them in a fairway. 

2. Get a Blower Brush

Not ready with a cleaning kit or a solution for removing debris from lenses? There is another option you can choose to clean a lens without having a piece of proper equipment. Using a soft cloth could help you wipe off the dust to some extent, but it may probably damage the surface of the hard particles stuck onto the lens.

I recommend getting a blower brush to start blowing debris from the binocular’s interior, exterior, or lenses. This process could also be accomplished using your breath; however, it may prevent dust & debris from staying due to our breath’s moisture. Buying blower brushes is the best option for your binocular lens cleaning.

3. Using Fine Hair Brush or Tepid Water

Another way to clean the lenses is with an excellent hairbrush to clean the dust area without even leaving any scratches or destructing the coatings. 

If the binoculars contain more dirt, you can carefully clean the stubborn dust bags with tepid water. You should avoid washing the surface of the lens or binoculars using your household cleaning solution as it may be harmful to the lenses, which may further damage and extract off the coatings.

4. High-Quality Microfiber Cloth

Suppose you find it difficult to clean the lenses using a blower or a fine hairbrush. In that case, you should clean the binoculars and their lenses with a superior-quality microfiber cloth. You should clean the lenses very gently, and these clothes would aid you as those are designed intentionally for cleaning cameras or binoculars.

Always ensure that the cloth you are supposed to use is very neat. You must store the microfiber cloth somewhere it could not contact dust particles. Keeping it in sealed plastic could help save it ultimately from catching debris.

5. Cleaning Kit

Well! The above ways to clean the lenses are too quick. Still, one of the best ways to cleanse your binoculars is using a cleaning solution designed explicitly for binocular lenses or cameras. It is pretty crucial to apply slight pressure while rubbing the binoculars.

You can easily find the binoculars cleaning kit in the market, and the contents include an air blower, lens pen, microfiber cloth, and clear lens solution.

An air blaster helps you remove the dust or debris from the binoculars, lenses, and other cameras. Whereas, lens pen is a small retractable brush that enables you to clear off the dust from the surface of the lens very quickly. The microfiber cloth is a very soft cloth that shields your lenses to leave any scratches or marks on the lenses.

Let us discuss the step-by-step guide to clean your binocular lenses with a perfect cleaning kit.

Step 1: Blow Dust Particles

First of all, you need to tilt your binoculars in one hand and an air blower on the other. Here you have to use an air blaster to remove all the dust and debris from the lenses. This process hardly consumes any time and does the work instantly.

Step 2: Lens Pen

If you want to remove excess dirt from the lenses, then you would be required to use a lens brush that is very soft and gentle. Similarly, you have t hold the binoculars and perform the same process as Step 1 to get rid of the excess dust particles and then move on to step 3.

Step 3: Use a Microfiber cloth and Cleaning Solution

The foremost step is to wipe the lenses and binoculars using a microfiber cloth and a solution available in the cleaning kit. Be rest assured, this cloth is super soft and won’t damage any of the binocular components.

All you need to do is, spray a microfiber cloth for wiping the lens’s surface area. It would not take more time and repeat the process with the other lens. YOu must avoid pressing too hard on the lenses.

Cleaning Binocular’s Body

It is equally important to take care of the binoculars’ exterior similar to the lenses. Here is how to clean the body appropriately and avoid using the incorrect solution.

Step 1

As we did with the lenses, initially, you have to air blow over the entire body of the binocular with the help of air blaster to clear any dust and debris present on the body.

Step 2

With a soft microfiber cloth, you can gently wipe off all the binocular parts, including the barrels, eyepieces, and focusing mechanism. It will be easier for you to hold the binoculars upside down to let the dust fall from the surface of the lens. Be careful while wiping the lens surface.

If you want to clean the spots on the binoculars’ exterior, you can use a soft cloth with warm water, and perhaps you can use a mild cleaner. Be careful and avoid doing this trick with your delicate lenses.

Conclusion

Follow the best options explained in this article to keep your binoculars tidied. Never attempt to open your binoculars, as it will obliterate the theme and may probably misalign the components inside the binoculars.

It would be better to coordinate with the manufacturer to get the binoculars cleaned deep inside.

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