They’re simple, cheap, and so utterly vital, that safety goggles are a must for when you’re working on your car with even the most basic hand tools. They protect one of the most important parts of the human body: the eyes.
Made up of the retina, choroid, sclera, and the all-important pupil, the eyes are the most fascinating and advanced part of your face. Working in conjunction with your brain and blood supply, you really want to do your best to protect them.
This is especially when working on your vehicle. It can involve sparks, intense dashes of light, heat, and if you’re working underneath, bits of corrosion, detritus dislodged by your spanners, and dust. All of these can permanently damage your eyes if you’re not careful, so a set of safety goggles is essential before any work can be performed.
The best safety goggles at a glance:
Editor’s pick: NoCry Over-Glasses Safety Goggles – buy from Amazon
Best for durability: Dewalt Safety Goggles – buy from Amazon
Best simple goggles: Radians Mirage Sleek Goggles – buy from Amazon
With all that in mind, safety goggles come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. So, we’ve sorted out the best ones in every budget and ranked them in each category.
The best safety goggles 2024
Editor's pick
Rrp: $28.99
Rrp: $28.99
They are resistant to fogging and scratching, have UV protection, and according to NoCry, can resist impacts of up to 260mph - presumably from very tiny items. It's a suitable set of goggles for anything from car D.I.Y to medical lab sessions.
Pros
- Fits over prescription glasses
- Durable quality and materials
- UV and high-impact-resistant
Cons
- Storage in the dedicated case is recommended to keep them at their best
Best armed goggles for grip
Rrp: $16.99
Rrp: $16.99
The rubber arms offer a great deal of grip around your ears, which is a neat bonus if you have to look down fairly often.
Pros
- Anti-fog goggles
- Scratch resistant
- Offers UV protection
Cons
- Won't be secure enough for some without a strap
Best for durability
Rrp: $12.99
Rrp: $12.99
The DPG82-11 has built-in ventilation, an anti-fog lens, and soft rubber surrounds designed to fully seal your eyes from any potential hazard when working on your vehicle.
Pros
- Durable build quality
- Full protection of your eyes
- Anti-fogging lens
Cons
- Bit uncomfortable and sweat-prone
Best simple goggles
Rrp: $4.49
Rrp: $4.49
They won't fit over prescription glasses, nor fully cover the surrounds of your eyes, or offer UV protection and strong impact forces like the others. But for simpler jobs that just need the most basic of eye protection, these are a great go-to.
Pros
- Lovely and simple
- Affordable money
- Easy enough to store
Cons
- Won't offer the be-all-and-end-all of eye protection
- Won't fit over prescription glasses
Best wide-angle goggles
They're not designed to cover prescription glasses, sadly. They're a bit slim and tight for that. However, for the money, they represent great value for a pair of dependable goggles.
Pros
- Offer great eye protection
- Anti-fogging pair
- Pretty good value for money
Cons
- Doesn't cover prescription glasses
- Are perhaps too slim for some
Best budget strap goggles
It's surrounded by an adjustable strap, which makes wearing this more secure and comfortable, but doesn't quite boast the extra protective features of other options. This is probably best for lighter work.
Pros
- UV resistant
- Adjustable strap
- Ventilation holes built in
Cons
- Is a bit compromised next to competitors
Things to remember with safety goggles
Do you wear glasses?
This is a hugely important aspect when considering safety goggles. If you permanently wear glasses during the day, you will need a set of goggles designed to fit around them, so you can see what you’re doing. If however, you wear contact lenses as well, it may not be so much of a requirement for you. Car D.I.Y is precision work, so you need to be able to see clearly.
What tasks are you going to perform?
Car jobs vary in risk and degree. But a pair of safety goggles should protect you from a variety of harmful things. From dust, rust droppings, and sparks from an angle grinder, a good pair of goggles should be capable of doing it all. However, if you’re doing anything intense with metal filings or chemicals, we don’t recommend you wear simple slip-on-slip-off goggles. There’s quite a bit of room for elements to seep through into your eyes, so we would point you towards a strap type with a full rubber surround, sealing your eyes in.
With that said, when underneath your car, a pair of simple goggles will be good enough for inspections. This is just so you don’t get bits of metal, dust, or rust falling into your eyes, which will be incredibly harmful. With specialist tools however, including torque wrenches, a more secure set is preferred.
Aaron Hussain is a commercial content writer at Bauer Media writing for Parkers and CAR. He is obsessed with classic cars and anything with a fascinating story to tell.
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