Because I wear glasses, ordinary safety glasses don’t work well for me. I looked into getting some tactical sunglasses fitted with prescription lenses, but was told that the lenses would probably be at thickness limit. That’s a common issue when you have wide face-wrapping lenses – the thickness of the sides get a little unmanageable.
I will eventually figure something out, but in the meantime I wear safety goggles instead of glasses. Goggles typically fit over my glasses, offering adequate protection while still allowing me to see.
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A couple of years ago I wrote about Dewalt, Radians, and Uvex goggles. Since then, not much has changed. I still wear Uvex Flex-Seal goggles on occasion, but I tend to favor Radians Cloak and Dewalt Concealer goggles. These are all still the best safety goggles I have ever work or otherwise come across.
Although I prefer Radians Cloak goggles, I find that Dewalt Concealer goggles have become my practical favorite. The two goggles are very similar in styling, but the unfortunate truth is that the Radians Cloak goggles are too hard to find at a competitive price. The Dewalt goggles are made by Radians and are functionally identical, and they’re easier to buy.
There are two reasons I tend to prefer the Radians Cloak goggles over the Concealer goggles they make for Dewalt. First, I sometimes prefer the feel of the Cloak goggle’s neoprene head strap vs. the elastic cloth head strap of the Concealer goggles. Neoprene straps tend to move less on my head, although cloth or fabric straps grab less. Second, the Dewalt branding is a little loud on the Concealer goggles. But, to be fair, it could be worse.
If the Radians Cloak goggles were easily available for $12 with free shipping as the Dewalt Concealer goggles are, I would buy them instead.
So why are these my favorite goggles?
- Comfortable fit
- They fit over my glasses with little interference
- Compact frame
While I would like to say that the goggles are easy on, easy off, they sometimes snag my lenses when I’m taking them off. On the positive side of things, the goggles are a little more compact than other other-the-glasses goggles, making them easier to pack away in a toolbox and easier to wear under a face mask when additional protection is needed.
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The rubber molding around Cloak and Concealer goggles is a little on the stiff side. It’s flexible and comfortable, but not perfectly conforming. Because of this, I might don Uvex Flex Seal goggles when I know I’m going to be working with finer particles or splashable chemicals. The silicone seal of those goggles is softer and a little more perfectly conforming around the side arms of my glasses.
Flex-Seal goggles are available with neoprene or cloth head headbands.
Buy Now: Dewalt Concealer Goggle | Uvex Flex Seal Goggle (via Amazon)
Before anyone asks, I have yet to find goggles that don’t fog up during use. Concealer and Flex Seal goggles definitely fog up a little slower than the cheap crappy goggles I wore in high school and college science lab classes, but they do fog up. 3rd party treatments sometimes work well, but I have found that the best anti-fog practice is to swap goggles when it’s safe to do so.
Do you have favorite safety goggles? Let me know. Discussion of favorite safety glasses would also be fitting.
Adabhael
Thanks for the update. Your 2010 post on goggles is one of my favorites, because it led me to try both the DeWalt Concealer and Uvex Flex Seal goggles, and give up on cheep goggle awfulness forever. Like you I would have preferred the Radians to the DeWalts, but could not find them at a reasonable price.
For my particular face/glasses/use combination, I ended up liking the Flex Seal best. The more compact size of the DeWalts was nice both in my tool bag and on my face, but I found I found they caught the corners of my (admittedly square) glasses a lot more often than the (slightly) larger Uvex ones. As you mentioned, the soft, silicone seal on the Uvex does well for splash and fine dust which is relevant to most of my goggle use. For impact-only situations I wear prescription safety glasses with side-shields; I put up with goggles fogging only when I have dust or splash concerns. The Flexible Seal does tend to get folded in if I am not careful putting them on, particularly while wearing gloves, and it attracts more dust than the foam on the Concealers. I also found the particular shape of Uvex vents did better at keeping fine dust entering from odd angles (e.g. overhead work). These are minor gripes, and both brands blow cheap perforated plastic “safety” goggles out of the water.
In the end, the deal breaker for me was that the DeWalts did not completely seal against my cheeks on either side of my nose, I could see light down there when wearing them, and the dust off a sander or circular saw flew right up and in. As a result, the Concealers never seamed to interface properly with my half-face dust mask. I guess the extra “ventilation” meant they fogged less, but ultimately I passed them along to a friend with a less prominent proboscis, and he loves them. Moral of the story: try a few on and see if they fit! I found out later that the Uvex and are probably more comparable to the Dewalt Concealer/Radians Cloak models (e.g. both have elastomeric rather than silicone seals) but have not had a chance to try them.
My current hunt is for a smaller-size goggle for my wife. The DeWalts were too wide for her face and we’ve not found a retailer with anything smaller to try on. Do you or Mrs. ToolGuyd have any wisdom to share? Otherwise I guess we’ll order something and return if they don’t quite work.
Adabhael
Sorry, must have missed a tag on those links!
Steven B
I bought the dewalt goggles for winter cycling…bad idea, definitely didn’t work. Fogs in about 3 min.
I used to work in a chem lab and those goggles never really fogged. They had dedicated vents at top.
For winter bicycle commuting, I went with cheap ski goggles, the foam seal was ideal. I assume if you’re working with fine dust washability is key. However, I’d never hesitate to grab the chem goggles (you can find them at any college book store) if I needed general protection.
Chris
I never wear goggles usually but glasses all I wear are dewalt contractor pro glasses, smoke or silver mirror finish… Use the silver mirror as my sunglasses too. Great fit and look awesome
Bruce
If you need a respirator and eye protection. Spring for the full face respirator. The air is drawn across the glass before use resulting in fog free performance. It’s worth the price.
SteveR
Bruce–Are you referring to a supplied-air respirator in your comment? I used one like that in my years with a Federal agency, and they’re great. The air passing through keeps your face cool, as well as giving you some fresh oxygen to breathe. To be most effective, they should be custom-fit to your face size by an individual licensed to do that, and checked (by the user) for air-tightness prior to each use.
The downsides are that :
1) They make you look like The Fly;
2) You can’t have facial hair, other than a small mustache (a beard interrupts the full facial seal needed);
3) The supplied-air device (which is attached to your hip) is battery-powered, so it must be faithfully recharged overnight.
4) As you noted, they’re expensive (but worth it if you value your lungs).
Larson
Ordered a pair after seeing this post, love them! Thanks
Frank D
Received my unit from amazon …
Can’t use them!
Initially it looked good, if perhaps a bit snug at the temples, then I notice thumb size gaps on the bottom, between my nose and cheeks. Exactly where stuff has bounced / blown into my eyes with or without respirator.
My face is plain old normal, no particular features; never had any issue with any snorkeling or diving masks, ski goggles etc … so this poor fitment and execution is a real surprise.
Off to order a full size 3M mask.
Owen
After reading others experiences I bought Bolle Atom goggles, they seem to do well at not fogging up. If I wear them for long duration with breather mask & sweating a lot, they kind of smear up & you can still see though them, but not like problem of fogging.