Best glasses lenses on a budget

DarrenLee02

I wonder if anyone has recommendations for best glasses lenses (regular in my case) while still mindful of price. I have glasses from Glasses Direct and I feel that they aren't very good quality lenses, they're clouding over a bit after a couple of years. I'm wondering if Boots or Optical Express, or Specsavers might be better quality. It might be a case of 'you get what you pay for'?

Spoonie_Turtle

I can't vouch for them personally (just because we don't live near enough one with an optician) but Asda are well regarded for low price/high quality.

Slinky

Never had a problem with Glasses Direct lenses personally. In fact I'm wearing a 10 year old pair at the moment whilst waiting for a new prescription to be made up. Did you pay extra for any of the protective coatings?

DarrenLee02

Slinky said:

Never had a problem with Glasses Direct lenses personally. In fact I'm wearing a 10 year old pair at the moment whilst waiting for a new prescription to be made up. Did you pay extra for any of the protective coatings?

I'm pretty sure I did. Your lenses being 10 years old may validate what we suspect, which is that quality tends to go down over time. Your 10 year old lenses are probably far better quality than my 2 year old ones. The term these days is ensh*tification.

DarrenLee02

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I can't vouch for them personally (just because we don't live near enough one with an optician) but Asda are well regarded for low price/high quality.

I just looked and they don't have an online store. I too don't live near enough to a branch with this service. I'll bear them in mind, they weren't even on my radar.

Undervalued

DarrenLee02 said:

I wonder if anyone has recommendations for best glasses lenses (regular in my case) while still mindful of price. I have glasses from Glasses Direct and I feel that they aren't very good quality lenses, they're clouding over a bit after a couple of years. I'm wondering if Boots or Optical Express, or Specsavers might be better quality. It might be a case of 'you get what you pay for'?

I use SelectSpecs online and have had lots of their budget lenses (including varifocals) and find them excellent. I do however treat them carefully and only clean them with Zeiss lens wipes.

Slinky

DarrenLee02 said:

Slinky said:

Never had a problem with Glasses Direct lenses personally. In fact I'm wearing a 10 year old pair at the moment whilst waiting for a new prescription to be made up. Did you pay extra for any of the protective coatings?

I'm pretty sure I did. Your lenses being 10 years old may validate what we suspect, which is that quality tends to go down over time. Your 10 year old lenses are probably far better quality than my 2 year old ones. The term these days is ensh*tification.

The lenses in another pair of 7 year old glasses from Glasses Direct are Transitions lenses, the ones that change colour in sunlight. These are made by Essilor, so if you were going to be buying this type of lens, it wouldn't matter which glasses supplier you bought from, the lenses would be coming from the same (UK) manufacturer. I worked for them briefly for a while, I don't recall there being anything different in the manufacture of lenses whether they were for an expensive or budget frame supplier.