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WHEN BUY 3 KITS
A screw falls out of your glasses at the worst possible moment. It always does. You're at work, out for the day, halfway through a meeting, and suddenly one lens is loose or your frame is held together by optimism. You squint through the rest of the afternoon, or you spend ten minutes on your hands and knees looking for a screw smaller than a grain of rice.
It's one of those problems that feels minor until it happens, and then it's genuinely disruptive. The good news is it's entirely preventable. A proper glasses repair kit costs a few pounds and takes about thirty seconds to use. The better news is there's now a way to keep that kit permanently attached inside your glasses case, so it's always exactly where you need it.
This guide covers what to look for in a glasses repair kit, how to use one properly, and how to make sure you're never caught out without one again.
What Is a Glasses Repair Kit and What Does It Actually Do?
A glasses repair kit is a compact tool for replacing the tiny screws that hold your frames together, specifically the hinge screws that connect the arms to the front of the frame. These are the screws most likely to loosen or fall out with regular use, and they're small enough that finding a replacement at short notice is genuinely difficult.
A basic kit includes a small selection of screws in different sizes and a miniature screwdriver. The challenge has always been handling screws that are almost too small to see, let alone pick up and thread into a tiny hinge hole while your glasses are in pieces.
That's where the SnapIt Screw design is different. Instead of a loose screw you have to balance on the tip of a screwdriver, each SnapIt Screw has an extended feeder tip, a longer handle section that makes it easy to hold, drop into the hinge hole, and screw into place. Once it's in, you snap the tip off cleanly with your fingers. No tweezers, no squinting at tiny components, no losing the screw on the floor halfway through.
Do Glasses Repair Kits Work on All Types of Frames?
Most of them do, with a few exceptions. The SnapIt Screw Standard Repair Kit comes with five sizes, “XS, S, M, L, and XL” which covers the vast majority of adult and children's frames including prescription glasses, sunglasses, and reading glasses.
The size range is the key thing. A kit with only one or two screw sizes will work for some frames and not others. Having XS through XL in a single kit means you're covered regardless of the frame manufacturer or style.
The main exception is frames with no screws at all, rimless styles held together by tension or specialist fixings. For those, a standard repair kit won't apply. But for the overwhelming majority of everyday frames, a five-size kit handles the job.
What to Look for in a Glasses Repair Kit
Not all kits are equal. Here's what actually matters:
· Size range: Five or more sizes gives you a realistic chance of finding the right fit. A kit with one universal screw is a false economy.
· Ease of use: Tiny screws are notoriously fiddly. A kit designed to make handling easier, like the SnapIt Screw feeder tip design is genuinely more useful than a standard loose-screw kit, especially if you're doing the repair in poor lighting or without reading glasses to hand.
· Screwdriver quality: It needs both Phillips and flat head ends to cover different screw types. A double-ended screwdriver in the kit saves carrying two separate tools.
· Portability: Pocket-sized is the point. If it's not small enough to live in your bag, coat pocket, or glasses case, it won't be there when you need it.
· Refillability: Ideally you want to be able to replace individual screw sizes rather than buying a whole new kit every time you use one. SnapIt Screw sells refills by size for exactly this reason.
How to Replace a Screw in Your Glasses
It's simpler than most people expect, especially with the SnapIt Screw system:
· Choose the right size hold the SnapIt Screw up to the hinge hole to check the fit before committing. The size guide on the included lens cloth (XS to XL colour reference) helps narrow it down quickly
· Drop it in the feeder tip gives you something to hold, so you can guide the screw into the hinge hole without needing tweezers or a steady hand
· Screw it in use the included double-ended screwdriver to tighten it down. Phillips or flat head depending on your frame
· Snap the tip off once the screw is secure, snap the feeder tip off cleanly with your fingers. That's it
The whole process takes under a minute once you've done it once. It's the kind of thing you can do at a desk, in a car, or standing in a corridor, no specialist tools or eyewear knowledge required.
What Can You Use to Tighten a Loose Screw on Glasses?
If the screw is still in place but just loose, you can often tighten it with the flat or Phillips head end of a small screwdriver, which is why the double-ended screwdriver in the SnapIt Screw kit is useful even before you need a replacement screw.
If you don't have a screwdriver to hand, a fingernail can sometimes do the job on a flat-head screw in a pinch. A small coin works occasionally. These are emergency measures though, proper tightening with the right screwdriver head stops the screw working loose again quickly.
If the screw keeps loosening after tightening, it's usually a sign the thread in the frame hinge is worn. In that case, replacing the screw with a fresh one is the better fix, and the SnapIt Screws come pre-treated on some sizes to hold more securely once in place.
The Problem With Most Glasses Repair Kits And How to Solve It
Here's the honest issue: most people buy a glasses repair kit, put it in a drawer, and then can't find it when they actually need it. Or they have one in their bag but it's loose at the bottom, the screws have scattered, and the screwdriver is somewhere else entirely.
Having a kit is only half the solution. The other half is making sure it's always in the right place.
That's what the SnapIt Screw Case Companion is designed for. It's a slim holder that sticks into the lid of your existing glasses case using a strong 3M adhesive strip, the same kind used on professional fixings. The repair kit sits in a secure elastic loop, held snugly in place so it doesn't rattle or shift.
You don't need to buy a new case. It retrofits into whatever case you already have. Peel the backing, press it into the lid, and your repair kit has a permanent home right next to your glasses. Wherever your glasses go, the kit goes too.
It's a small thing, but it's the difference between having a repair kit and actually having it when you need it.
Is a Glasses Repair Kit Worth Buying?
At £5.99 for the Standard Kit and £3.99 for the Case Companion, the combined cost is under a tenner. A single visit to an optician to have a screw replaced, if they'll even do it while you wait, typically costs more than that, and that's assuming one is nearby.
For anyone who wears glasses every day, a repair kit is just sensible. It's the kind of thing you buy once and keep for years, topping up individual screw sizes with refills as you use them. The Case Companion means you stop relying on remembering to pack it and start knowing it's always there.
If you want to cover everything in one go; repairs, cleaning, anti-fog, and case storage, the SnapIt Screw Complete Care Kit bundles all of it together for £19.95. Two repair kits, the Anti-Fog Lens Spray, the Lens Cloth, and the Case Companion in a single box. It's also a solid gift for anyone who wears glasses and tends to be unprepared for the small things that go wrong.
What Type of Screwdriver Is Best for Fixing Eyeglasses?
You need a small precision screwdriver, the kind used for electronics and optical work, not a standard household one. Eyeglass hinge screws are tiny, and a regular flat-head screwdriver is far too wide to fit properly in the screw head.
Most frames use either a Phillips (cross-head) or flat-head screw, which is why the SnapIt Screw kit includes a double-ended screwdriver with one of each. That covers both types without needing to carry two tools.
In a pinch, a very small flat-head jeweller's screwdriver will work for flat-head hinge screws. Anything larger and you risk slipping and scratching the frame.
Never Get Caught Out by a Loose Screw Again
Pick up the SnapIt Screw Standard Repair Kit and add the Case Companion to keep it permanently in your glasses case. Both delivered across the UK in 1–2 days.
Or if you'd rather sort everything at once, the Complete Care Kit has you covered repairs, cleaning, anti-fog, and case storage in one box for £19.95.
