Running, jumping, diving, rolling, sliding, are all very common in paintball. Moving generates heat, and heat is a paintball mask’s mortal enemy.Single pane lenses are a pain.
They fog up very easily, and in the game of paintball, having a fogged up lens will greatly hinder your ability to play.
You might as well be playing with a sack over your head, and guess where to shoot.
It’s quite suspenseful to play paintball without being able to see, you almost expect to be wasted any second.
You go from, “Where are they so I can shoot them?” to, “Where are they so I don’t get wasted??!!!”
Anti-Fog Protection For Paintball Masks
Anti-fog sprays and gels can help for a little bit, but reapplication is usually constantly needed to keep your lens fog free.
The solution to all your fogging troubles? Pick up a thermal lens. Thermal lenses have two lenses that seal air in between them to prevent fogging. It’s crazy to not get one. The difference of playing with a thermal lens to a single pane lens is incomparable. A thermal lens will help prevent fogging much better than a single pane lens.
There are some people, and playing conditions, that can overcome even a thermal lens’s ability to fight away fog. When this happens, I recommend picking up some anti-fog gel. I like anti-fog gel over anti-fog spray. From my personal experience, C-Clear anti-fog gel has worked better and longer than any anti-fog spray I have tried.
Applying anti-fog gel, such as C-Clear, will clean your lens, prevent fogging, and fill in minor scratches. You can apply it to both sides of your thermal lens and have excellent fog protection. Using both a thermal lens and anti-fog gel, I have never had my mask fog up while playing.
If you want even more fog protection, you can buy a fan for your mask (if you have a mask that a fan will fit in). Although fans are sometimes referred to as “noisy,” I’d much rather sacrifice my quietness for a mask that I can see out of.
Let’s review the levels of fog protection in paintball
- Single pane lens = HORRIBLE at preventing fog.
- Single pane lens with anti-fog/spray or gel = It’s OK…
- Thermal lens = GREAT fog protection, most players won’t need anything more.
- Thermal lens with anti-fog gel = EXCELLENT fog protection for hot or cold playing conditions and long games.
- Thermal lens with anti-fog gel and a fan = AMAZING. Most people won’t need this much to stop the fogging. If your mask STILL fogs up even when using all of this, you must be shooting out steam out of your eyeballs or something.
And that’s all there is to it!
Have fun!