ESS Advancer V12 goggles (military version) - REVIEW

NakedHedgehog

Category: Eye protection
Price: 115 - 140 Euro
Pros: No fogging due to venting mechanism; 3 lense types; prescription insets available; they look sleak!
Cons: Price; prescription insets sold seperately; more lense types would be nice, for those that want to fight in a pink world.

Overall: 9 out of 10 points

Review:
I recently bought the ESS Advancer V12 goggles (military) due to the change in mentality by airsoft sites of having to have fully sealed eye protection.

Initially I feared that this would now mean I either will have to do with Mesh goggles or accept the fact that I will be walking through a foggy haze.

I went for the two lense-type version, which included smoke grey and clear lenses. However there is a three lense version as well which also includes the amber tinted lenses for about 20 Euro more. All three lenses are also sold seperately.

Also sold seperately is a prescription inset, similar to the ones sold with Guarder's C-series.

There were three key features of this goggle that appealed to me.
1. They look more like glasses than goggles, which seemed to aliviate my fears of blocked "field of vision" due to the the wide frames found on some goggles.
2. They have a venting mechanism which should prevent fogging. Something the Guarder C4 glasses (my alternative choice) did not have.
3. They came with multiple insets and prescription inset.

The order arrived three days after placing it and just in time for the Saturday skirmish at HRTA.

The goggles are packaged in a robost carrying case along with the additional lense type(s), the ESS "no-fog-cloth" (which I've heard a lot of talk about on skirmish sites) and a sticker. The goggles work best if you do not place the sticker on the lenses!

The goggles themselves have a soft rubber-type rim that sits snuggly against your face. At first glance it didn't look as though it would be comfortable, but during the day of skirmishing I hardly noticed I was wearing any goggles at all.

An adjustable elastic strap holds the goggles in place on your head. It seems fairly adjusted, so no matter if you're walking around with a planet-sized object on your neck or have a head the size of a pin(head), these goggles should accomodate (note: might not accomodate pin heads and may not reach around a planet).
There are two quick-adjust slides on the strap, which you adjust by simply sliding them apart (narrower) or towards one another (wider). Very quick and simple.

Attached to the band is what ESS calls an "anti-reflective speed sleeve". In a warzone this means soldiers can quickly pull this across unworn goggles to prevent the sun glinting off them and causing unwanted attention from bullets.
What this means for us is that it comes with a cloth you can quickly wipe your goggles with and close them up to prevent them getting dirty and scratched when not wearing them. It also acts as a sort of soft cushion on the back of your head, adding to comfortability.
Additionally there are hinges in there somewhere that adjust according to the angle of the goggles. So they'll fit comfortably even if you have them angled upwards on a helmet.

I immidiately changed the lenses from the smoke grey to the clear lenses. Spare lenses come in a small hard-case pod which holds the spare lenses in place.
Trying to follow the instructions didn't work too well for me, but I figured it out fairly quickly. They are very easy to insert and take out! Something other glass/goggle manufacturers seem to struggle with getting right.
You simply open the lense (more on that below) and push the outer slide inwards and up. This releases the lense from the outer edge of the frame. Keep pushing upwards and the lense will snap out of the frame completely. To attach a new lense, just do the reverse.

After exchanging the lenses, I tried their "Adjustable Ventilation System" aka "AVS".
The way this works is elegantly simple. The lenses are held in place on the nose-side by a snap-on type hook. The lense has limited range of motion on this hook. Further limiting the extent of the opening of the lense is a the outer slide which at it's end has a small hook of it's own. This catches the frame preventing it from opening too far.
The gap it creates allows air to move inside the goggle, venting it and preventing fog-up.
Normally my goggles/glasses fog up at least a little bit. Depending on which ones I wear, they may end up fogging up quite a bit. With this ventilation system, not only did did it keep my face somewhat cooler, but it also kept the goggle lenses clear and fog-free.
To open the lenses you simply pull the lense outwards. Simple as that.

As I mentioned above, I wore these skirmishing the other day. At first I was a bit aprehensive about wearing fully sealable goggles, ventilation system or none. However, after wearing these for about 7 hours non-stop, these have been promoted to my first choice! They are comfortable, fog-free and work brilliantly. They do not interfere when taking aim, wearing hats, helmets, etc. They offer full eye protection with none of the drawbacks of regular goggles.
I read somewhere that they can withstand a shotgun blast from 10 feet. Which means your head will be mush, but your eyes will survive intact. So I think it's safe to say they'll withstand a 6mm bb

I'll give these goggles 9 out of 10. The one point is lost not due to price (I found it well worth the package), but due to the seperately sold (not included) prescription inset. These goggles are well worth the buy!

Technical specs:
100% UVA/UVB protection
Exceed ANSI Z87.1-2003+ and US Military .22 caliber ballistic impact test

ESS Website