Essilor Transitions Crizal "cracking"?

I came across this board quite by accident while researching options for my new glasses, and since you appear to be a smart bunch, maybe someone can satisfy my curiosity :)

I've been wearing a set of Transitions Crizal for the last 3 years, and have been relatively happy with them. I have however noticed what appears to be a very fine grid of hairline "cracks" when the lens is viewed from the back - and these have progressively worsened as the lenses aged.

My guess is that these are microfine cracks in the AR coating because of heat expansion of the lens material, but this is obviously just a guess...

Does this happen to Crizal coatings (or any AR coatings for that matter) when exposed to heat? Could the heat from e.g. a BBQ cause this to happen or from washing under too-warm water?

I'm considering getting similar lenses for my new spectacles and would therefore like to know what caused this and if it is because of misuse (e.g. can be avoided) or simply because of old age.

Thanks a stack!

Hi SGS,

All we can do is speculate since we cannot see the eyewear, the description of the lens could come from a number of sources. It has been 3 years and if there was a workmanship problem, I would think it would have shown up in the first 3 to 6 months of everyday wear.

Since you were happy with your current lens choice I would stay with a that choice when I went in for replacement and be sure to speak with the optician about lens handling, proper cleaning, storage etc. It could be something very innocent and simple in your daily routine that can be avoided.

Your eyecare professional may be able to determine what caused the pattern of crazing you detected.

best regards,
Jim

We had similar issues with Transistions/Crizal lenses not once but 3 times in similar situations....menaing burning Fall leaves, campfire and bar-b-que. Only in our situation this occured in a less than 1 month old glasses. We lost each of these patients although we redid their lenses for them at no charge.

Are the lenses high index? Most High Index lenses I have seen will do this in time (usually a lot less than 3 years) whether they have AR or not. It's the hard coat deteriorating, not the AR.


Chip

I am known in my neighborhood for grilling .... I grill up to 10 lbs of wings at a time, let alone full grill racks of chicken and ribs. Hanging over the grill for long periods of time (as long as the Old Milwaukee holds out) few flash fires and flares to battle too.

I must be lucky because I have yet to damage any eyewear (all Transitions with just about every combo of premium AR on different materials):)

I did see a pattern described much like SGS reported on my mother in laws Transitions with AR...but she was cleaning them with Windex! Her damage was on both sides of the lens along with some missing patches of AR and HC down to the lens substrate. " All of a sudden my glasses are cloudy" Is how she described the problem.

My father in law picked up a 5 gallon institution size jug at COSTCO and just about anything in the house that needed cleaning was Windexed that summer.
Jim

Jim, have you ever tried boiling your wings for approx 25 minutes prior to grilling.....then roll in BBQ sauce and brown them on the grill.....Cooks them and keep them juicy prior to the grillin'.......

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Originally Posted by Jim Schafer

I am known in my neighborhood for grilling .... I grill up to 10 lbs of wings at a time, let alone full grill racks of chicken and ribs. Hanging over the grill for long periods of time (as long as the Old Milwaukee holds out) few flash fires and flares to battle too.

Jim

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Quote:

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mullo wrote

"have you ever tried boiling your wings for approx 25 minutes prior to grilling.....then roll in BBQ sauce and brown them on the grill.....Cooks them and keep them juicy prior to the grillin'......."

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Hey Mullo,
I have never tried that with my wings. Looks interesting and I will give it a shot.

I try to get fresh, never frozen wings, cut the flappers off, separate the drumette from the forewing and brown them on the grill (gotta have grill marks) sprinkled with pepper and garlic salt. They are about half cooked at that point. I then put them in a roaster or two with about a splash of beer and Louisiana Crystal Hot Sauce...one small bottle per 5 lbs of wings.

That goes in the oven for a about 2 hours at 325°F (162°c), basting every half hour. By then they are falling off the bone.

Thanks for the tip....Happy Grilling!
Jim

Jim,
When is the next BBQ at your house?

Did you ever read the life of Huey P. Long? Post on barbeque sound a lot like some of his fillibusters in the Congressional Record.

Too much heat is bad for AR lenses. We had a patients Crizal Alize lenses craze while he was grilling over high heat. This is the only time I have seen this happen. One of the opticians I work with was careless with a frame warmer and Crizal Alize lenses and crazed them.

We sell lots of AR and these are the only 2 times with Crizal we have seen it craze. We have seen cheaper AR lenses craze over the years.

It does sound like your coating is going bad. Do you leave them in the car in hot weather?

I have crizal lenses that underwent an intriguing variation of stress cracking due to moderate heat from a barbecue:angry:. The temperature didn't feel any hotter to the facial skin than a summer day in Seattle, nevertheless it was apparently enough to craze frontal surface of my one of my lenses. It is intriguing though because the crazing isn't simple cracks on the surface, characteristic of other AR coated lenses I've worked with. It appears the "cracks" are actually linear "wrinkles" formed by the coating. When observing them from a deep lateral angle, there are no reflective facets indicative of a hairline cracks as is common to ESC of many plastics. Instead, there is a micro "warbling" of the optical image immediately approaching and retreating from the lines. Macroscopically, the effect would be similar to one putting water on a piece of glass and laying saran wrap over it without trapping any air. The saran wrap could then be moved around to wrinkle on the surface with water underneath forming a mesh of opticaly distorting linear menisci, except that on the lenses the "wrinkles" are approximately .001" high, with a similar radius of meniscus on either side. I would speculate it is partly because of my -3.5 sphere that my lenses crazed at the optical center where the local mass (and total heat capacitance) are the least. Only one lense was affected and the affected area has an approximate 8mm radius about the optical center. I'm curious if anyone has had success trying to polish off or buff out the surface anomalies.

I did see Emerl Lagasse Boil something he was going to bar-b-que in Zatarans then put it on the grill. If you didn't know he was a Yankee you could tell because he did not apply B-B-Q sauce until after removing from the grill. For some reason people from the North cook thier meat then apply B=B-Q sauce. Southerners cook with the B-B-Q sauce applied before and during cooking on the grill. Some border states can go either way. Seems there is a technique in Memphis called dry barbque, where further South wet barbque is the norm.

Chip