If you have problems with your Oculus Quest 2 lenses fogging up, particularly when exerting yourself, you are far from alone. This is one of the most common challenges we hear. Fog forms when there is a temperature difference between your warm body and cool outside air, so you need to either increase air flow or decrease the temperature differential. Here are some options we use and that other users swear by to get rid of fogging:
- Replace the original faceplate with a faceplate that has vents to allow air to circulate. We like the VR Cover (https://vrcover.com/) which is soft and comfortable, and has vents that allow hot air inside the headset to escape. We haven’t had any fogging issues using this faceplate. (We’ve heard that it doesn’t accommodate eye glasses well, so that’s a consideration if you need them to play.)
- Tilt the headset up to allow air to enter from the bottom. You could also try inserting the eyeglass spacer that came with your Quest to increase the space and allow air to circulate a bit more.
- Use a neck fan or direct a floor fan upwards toward your face while you play. This could either give you an additional benefit of cooling you off during intense play or be super annoying.
- Warm the headset before you use it. You could try placing it on your forehead or placing it in a warm location [Be Careful if you choose a sunny spot to warm it up. Make certain there is NO chance the sun will hit the lenses or they can quickly be ruined.] for a few minutes before use. Some users use a hair dryer or space heater to gently warm the headset for a few seconds before using it…but don’t do that for too long or put the heat source too close as we don’t know what effect high heat has on the device.
- Some users swear by the use of antifog wipes, but since Oculus warns not to use liquid on the lenses, we don’t know if this would damage the lenses. Proceed at your own risk.
- We’ve heard a couple of suggestions to rub a solid bar of soap over the lenses then remove with a dry cloth to give a long-term anti-fog solution. We haven’t tried this one either but given that we do use dish soap in our scuba masks to avoid fogging, the concept makes sense to us and seems safer than using a liquid (if you’re a diver you might now be thinking you could try using saliva, but, well, the liquid warning holds for this too).
- Unlike the above tips which give temporary solutions that you have to re-do every time you use your headset, this company has developed a permanent anti-fog coating that you apply to the lenses. We haven’t tried it so can’t comment on it, but it seems promising. https://www.advancednanotechnologies.com/nanotechnology-products/anti-fog-coating/
- Some DIYers have drilled small holes into the top of their faceplate and report that this completely eliminates fog. If you try this, be sure you drill into the removable faceplate and not into the headset itself!