Friday, November 6, 2009

Some questions about Trufocals (now called Superfocus) answered from my own experience thus far

(Edit: TruFocals are now called Superfocus) In my last Trufocals post, an anonymous commenter asked some questions, which I will here answer in the context of my Trufocals experience thus far.

The questions were:
  1. How heavy are they to wear?
  2. How well do they fit?
  3. How easy/difficult are they to clean & how would one clean the inner membrane should one get dust or other contaminants on it?
  4. How is the overall quality of the materials?
I'll answer questions 1 & 2 together:
I was surprised when I first picked my Trifocals up out of the box, they seemed much lighter than I had anticipated. They come with a certificate so that you can take them to an optometrist to get them professionally fitted - which I did right away. There are sort of instructions on the certificate which explain to the optometrist what they can and can't adjust in order to achieve a good fit. Basically they can adjust the nosepads with their special little pliers, and that's about it. My optometrist also adjusted the ends of the arms so that they held to my ears better, otherwise they would have slid off of my face.
Honestly, I think I need to go back for an adjustment because after long wear, my ears are a little sore, and the sides of my nose where the nosepads sit are also sore. (See the Edit below)
They are a little heavier than my wire-framed bifocals and my faux tortoise shell prescription reading glasses and maybe that's why my nose is sore - or, like I said, maybe I need a readjustment with the fit. (Edit: I found out why my nose and ears were sore. It wasn't the glasses, it was the neck-chain with the little rubberized ends that I had put on my Trufocals so that they would hang around my neck when I took them off. It wasn't a good fit for my glasses and caused the problems. I finally took the chain off today and, voila! No more nose or ear pain.)
Question 3:
They are just a tad more involved to clean than my other glasses. Here are the instructions that came with my Trufocals:
Caring for your TruFocals is also easy. Like conventional glasses, TruFocals should be cleaned regularly. Always use a soft cloth and rinse first with tap water to flush away any dust or grit (which can, if rubbed into optical surfaces, cause scratches). Mild soap may be used when appropriate.
... When inner surfaces need cleaning, simply remove the front lenses by pulling them forward, and cleanse with mild soap, water and a soft cloth.
They note that this is the only approved way to clean your Trufocals - which, I suppose, may have implications for the warranty.
They also warn to keep sand out of the focusing mechanism when at the beach. If you should get sand in there, then a blast of compressed air (from the pressurized dust-off cans you can buy in office supply stores) will clear the mechanism.
I don't have any problems taking the front lenses off and cleaning them, but I'm always nervous about cleaning the inner membranes. I do everything very gently. So it's a bit more involved than with regular glasses.
Question 4:
The overall quality of the materials seems to be very good. They seem to be sturdy and well made. The only thing I might say against the materials, is that perhaps the arms seem a tad light compared to the rest of the frames. But I haven't had any problems with the arms, and I'm sure that they were designed to be light to help lessen the overall weight of the glasses since the front part of the frames with the lenses includes stainless steel.
And there is one comment which I read in another user's review that I agree with. The lenses themselves are a little on the small side. It'd be nice if they were maybe a bit bigger.
I also want to add that the Trufocals people have been very nice so far. They even called me to make sure my glasses had arrived safely, to answer any questions I might have had, and to let me know that they are just a phone call or an email away if I have any problems or questions. They even read one of my posts and emailed me with the answers to some hypothetical questions I had posed. You can find the questions with their answers here, the answers are in red.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi ICQB,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions in great detail. Now, if just my own Trufocals would get here soon...can't wait!

ICQB said...

Hi Anonymous!

The waiting's the hard part - hope you love them when they finally get there!

Anonymous said...

I think I'm too old for bi-focals at this point - they only work for two distances, and I need a lot more than that. I have more pairs of single vision eyeglasses than I can count, in every room of the house.Sometimes when I can't get the right magnification, I pick up two pairs and combine them! I get teased a lot by family members. Whenever I've tried progressives, they've bugged me because there's so much more unclear than there is clear - I'm a very visual person and I take huge amounts of information in all at once visually - wearing progressives are like sipping a malted milkshake through a coffee stirrer. It completely ruins the experience of seeing. I recently went to a local (non-chain) shop for new bifocals, and they took 2 weeks to come in and are completely messed up. One eye is blurry at anything beyond ~6 feet, the other eye is blurry at anything less than ~4 feet. So just about anywhere I go, my vision is blurry. Horrible. And these guys want me to trust them with making up a pair of progressives for me? Uggh. I hope I can get my $ back so I can buy Superfocus (Trufocals) eyeglasses.

ICQB said...

Hi Anonymous!

I agree about the progressives - seems like there's too much you can't see. What will be true with Superfocus, though, is that they will only be as good as the prescription. Make sure the prescription you give them is top notch. You will be able to see well, but you will also be twiddling the little focus knob a lot if you are a vigorously visual person. Good luck!!