Hi one and all. Just been told by the optician that I need glasses for reading and close work. Went to Tesco for a free check-up, I can trust them, right?

So, going to need to carry specs, and as well as reading, use them for spannering, I’m a some-time bike mechanic.

Any hints or tips? What sort should I get? Keep ’em in a glasses case? Chain round the neck for working?

I’m a pretty grubby mechanic, so are any that I use for work going to be knackered with oil and filth in no-time?

All advice welcome,

APF

Use them for reading. It helps.
Do you really need them for spannering? I’m sure you’ve been doing just fine without.

Got mine when I hit 40 (some time ago now – cough). Did my eye test at specsavers, the eye test is fairly straightforward.

Get a few pairs and don’t spend too much, I lost my £200 ones and now have a range inc a few £3 pairs from superdrug ! When I first got mine I always very precious about them but fact is reading glasses are “lower tech” than long range ones so whilst getting better lenses does help cheaper ones are ok and expensive frames are just for show so depends how fashion conscious you are. I wear “retainers” for sports sun glasses but you will look 100 years old if you do it for “readers”

So get a few cheap pairs for work, try and keep lenses clean (use proper cloth and clean with cheap alcohol from chemist). I have cheap pairs as I find it convenient to leave glasses where I need them (eg on boat to read small scale charts in poor light), a pair at work (office) and then one “decent” pair for smarter situations (doesn’t look cool to get £3 glasses out to read menu in fancy candle lit restauarnt with your loved one !

I’m a pretty grubby mechanic

Pay a little extra for the protective coating. Well worth it. Don’t go for a neck chain unless you want to look like Larry Grayson, or are old enough to just not care. You can always push them onto your forehead.

Any reason you can’t also use contacts?

i need specs for reading and in low light – i end up just wearing them most of the time – as generally life involves reading or low light situations.

most new spec wearers fanny about taking them on and off before realising its just easier to leave them on all the time – pick a pair that suit your face and leave them on – then if your not taking them on and off you dont need to touch them when spannering and they wont get grubby.

The more i wear mine the better i find my eyes are afterwards – ie if i wear them continuously for a week i dont struggle so much if i have forgotten my glasses to read stuff – but this deteriorates quickly without them.

£1.99 ready readers from most chemists and discount shops, get several pairs and keep them in various places like the car, the workshop etc.
You’ll probably find they are only needed for very close up work and anything that’s further away than it would be if you are reading a book will be out of focus.
I found improving the lighting helped massively, I only need my reading glasses now when it’s a bit dull.

I required glasses for reading sometime ago.

Tescoo where I am are great, much better than the local optician who was more interested in up selling everything.

My thoughts after a while they will be a right PIA. On, off, on, off balanced on the end of your nose or top of your head. Been there done all that.
I now wear one contact lens. Much much better. One eye does the reading the other looks into the distance, took a while to master the putting in and taking out of lens causing much to the amusement of mrs b.

Get contact lenses if you can.

rockhopper – the infocus out of focus thing will be cause your using ready readers….my girfriends dad was the same – got his eyes tested recently after years of ready readers refusing there was anything wrong – he is like a changed man now …. can actually see things without searching for his glasses – doesnt need to take them off all the time etc.

I’d be tempted for 2 for 1 deals, posh pair and work pair

they do various cord etc retainers, or at the very least learn (*and you will) to not lay them down where you stand/kneel/sit etc ……….. if you have a top pocket fold and hook 1 leg in there

depending on lens thickness/frame you may find weight an issue, possibly exacerbated by sweat (*sorry):
– plastic lens are lighter, suggest you get anti scratch coating on these
– titanium frames are lighter, bendy and chuffing expensive, but infinitely adjustable(*unike rigid plastic frames etc that don’t bend as you want)
– nose bridges perform differently – I don’t like the two small side of nose pads – they’re ok but are small, my sports specs have a soft plastic full nose wraparound (helps a lot when you get a ball in the face)

it may help to have them fitted so you can wear normally and ‘well down your nose’ – this way you can look through and over the top by adjusting head position, which is how I deal with wet weather fractal vision biking

*take a woman you trust with you when you’re buying them as it is definitely the case that certain frame styles/shapes ‘fit’ certain face shapes and some don’t ………..

If your face spends time in close proximity to hard things or you have to work in confined spaces then consider plastic frames. Metal frames tend to scratch easily and can look tatty in a very short time. Hard & anti-reflective coating is worth it. Don’t be tempted to wipe them on any old bit of Cloth available or even kitchen towel-they will scratch, invest in a few micro fibre cloths. If you only plan on buying cheapie off the shelf ones then forget all this-they only cost a few quid a pair.

my sports specs have a soft plastic full nose wraparound (helps a lot when you get a ball in the face)

What glasses for teabagging?

trail_rat
most new spec wearers fanny about taking them on and off before realising its just easier to leave them on all the time…
…The more i wear mine the better i find my eyes are afterwards – ie if i wear them continuously for a week i dont struggle so much if i have forgotten my glasses to read stuff – but this deteriorates quickly without them.

See, I reckon this is what killed my eyes.
Naive kid with short sighted prescription, 15 years later, I can’t see beyond my nose without ’em!!!

well sample size of 1. i have worn specs since i was 5 and my prescription has been getting less corrective over that time.

But once you get to a certain age your eyes deteriorate naturaly anyway – as my fathers finding out.

That is fantastic, thank you all.

Looks like:

Cheapy pair(s) for work.
Nice pair for out and about.
Good cleaning cloths.
Don’t leave ’em lying around.
Wife to help choose (do the choosing really 🙂 )

Thanks

APF

Hints and tips?

Don’t try to break a piece of wood by jumping on it whilst wearing expensive Paul Smith glasses.

Actually, they may have saved my sight, but damn, they were expensive.

(Last Saturday content above).

👿

most new spec wearers fanny about taking them on and off before realising its just easier to leave them on all the time – pick a pair that suit your face and leave them on – then if your not taking them on and off you dont need to touch them when spannering and they wont get grubby.

This is very true – although I’d definitely get two pairs, with something a bit smarter for home use.

I like Bruneeps idea, I bloody hate my reading glasses, steam up, never where I want them etc, so i’ve pretty much stopped reading. Can you get reading contacts? It’d be like having a bionic eye.

Fair enough.
I put mine down to laziness based on how quickly they deteriorated.
Prescription unchanged in about 10 years now, so I’m contemplating “lasers”!

I like Bruneeps idea, I bloody hate my reading glasses, steam up, never where I want them etc, so i’ve pretty much stopped reading. Can you get reading contacts? It’d be like having a bionic eye.

I use 1 contact in left eye. +1.00, took a while to get right strength as they kept giving me same as my glasses +1.75.

local optician said that I needed for both eyes, but I just wasnt working. I was advised to go to Tesco by someone. Spoke to the man there and told me they were talking tosh, only reason they wanted me on 2 was to get me on a £20 month contract. So he gave a lens for left eye which is the dominant one, after a couple of weeks or so playing around with strengths I am sorted. Pay £12 for 3 months supply.

I’m new to glasses too, only need them currently at work for computer/reading. Can anyone recommend a decent cleaning cloth and solution?

local optician said that I needed for both eyes, but I just wasnt working. I was advised to go to Tesco by someone. Spoke to the man there and told me they were talking tosh, only reason they wanted me on 2 was to get me on a £20 month contract. So he gave a lens for left eye which is the dominant one, after a couple of weeks or so playing around with strengths I am sorted. Pay £12 for 3 months supply.

The giuy from tesco carry out a full exam? yes….the optician could be talking tosh, no….tesco man working on different info or actually the one talking tosh….

Incidentally its AGAINST THE LAW for tesco to supply lenses different to those prescribed by a qualified optician, so I would be very interested to know which branch as it needs repoting and stopping…..

The giuy from tesco carry out a full exam? yes….the optician could be talking tosh, no….tesco man working on different info or actually the one talking tosh….

Incidentally its AGAINST THE LAW for tesco to supply lenses different to those prescribed by a qualified optician, so I would be very interested to know which branch as it needs repoting and stopping…..

It’s nae like he was taken off stacking shelves to see me. The man is a qualified optician. It’s a shop within a shop Yes full blown eye test prior to lenses issued. He was way better informed than the girl at the other optician who was just randomly giving me 2 lenses at a time saying that it may not be possible for me to wear lenses.

Remember glass prescription and contact prescription are not the same, contacts sit on the eye.

So is it against the law for me to buy contacts other than those prescribed? I could go online and buy any variation I want without so much as a by your leave.

CL’s and spex prescription may or may not be the same. It depends how bad our eyes are as to wether they match or not.

It’s not against the law for you to buy a different contact lens spec, but it is for a vendor to sell you a different spec. You could buy whatever the hell you wanted, not the brightest idea, not something I’d advocate, you may be fine or opposite end of the scale you may blind yourself.

didn’t mean spec T666DOM, the original post infers different prescription which is against the law, and yes alot of the ‘online’ shops deliberately sell out of Jersey so they can circumvent the law

Can anyone recommend a decent cleaning cloth and solution?

Your shirt, and your breath.

They sell out of jersey so they can avoid the VAT (until that loophole was closed recently!)

Decent size lenses that way you keep more muck out of your eyes. Fellow vehicle tech so know the problems, have had no issue either with a quick spray with brake cleaner to degrease them when you get the inevitable splash on the lens, that is with plastic lenses as well.

Just be aware the first time you turn your head and knock them, it really hurts your nose, and you will feel like you could knock Tyson out with one punch.

Don’t open the oven door, shave, over exert yourself, or move to somewhere warm from somewhere cold whilst wearing them. Very hard to see anything when they are completely steamed up. 😉

molgrips – Member
Can anyone recommend a decent cleaning cloth and solution?
Your shirt, and your breath.
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Nah – scratches the hell out of glasses, moreso if they have any specialist coatings on them.

Only if your shirt is dirty.

It’s nae like he was taken off stacking shelves to see me. The man is a qualified optician

Yet he works in a Tesco. I’d rather trust someone who graduated with a 1:1, charges accordingly and works for a proper optician/