The visor on your snowmobile plays a critical role in allowing you to see clearly and adjust to variable lighting conditions you might encounter on the trail. But those benefits go out the window if you can’t keep the visor from fogging up.
I’ve been snowmobiling for most of my life and have years of experience riding and working on these awesome machines. I also have a ton of experience using various snowmobile accessories, and I know how to keep fog out of a visor.
I’ll explain how to keep a snowmobile helmet visor from fogging up in this post. If you have ever dealt with a foggy visor, you know how much of a pain this can be. Luckily, there are some easy ways to keep everything nice and clear.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Initial Thoughts
Seeing clearly while you ride a snowmobile is super important. Not only will you have a better time on the trails, but you will also be much safer when you have a full range of vision and can see everything coming your way.
When your sight is limited, your safety suffers. That’s why a foggy visor can be such a dangerous thing. You want to do everything you can to keep your visor from getting foggy. It’s simply not safe to ride with a fogged-up visor.
Why is Your Snowmobile Helmet Fogging?
Well, excess moisture inside and around your head is the main culprit. This moisture condenses into water droplets that cling to the visor and block your vision.
It can be caused by working hard and building up a sweat or because your helmet doesn’t have adequate airflow and doesn’t allow heat to escape. Either way, you want to try and fix the issue as soon as possible.
How to Keep Snowmobile Helmet Visor from Fogging
There are several different ways you can help prevent or limit a snowmobile helmet visor from fogging up. It’s a good idea to know these, so you can deal with the issue if it ever happens to you when riding.
1. Use a Heated Helmet
If you want to have good peace of mind that your visor isn’t going to fog up, then a heated helmet will help you out. This style of helmet uses battery-powered heat to reduce the chance of your visor fogging up.
Heated helmets provide you with all of the safety and comfort features of regular helmets, but the heating element acts like a defroster that reduces moisture from building up inside. Just know that these helmets are some of the most expensive you can buy.
2. Get Anti-Fog Lenses
You always want to ensure that any helmet visor you choose is treated with an anti-fog product. This is a special coating that is applied to the visor that helps moisture wick away and prevents fogging.
Nearly all helmets you can get for snowmobiling have this feature, and you don’t need to pay extra for it. But if you choose a cheaper helmet that’s not from a known brand, make sure that the visor has an anti-fog lens.
3. Use a Dual Pane Visor
A dual-pane visor is another way you can prevent fog from occurring. Just like the name implies, this style of helmet has two visors stacked on top of one another. This design helps reduce the chance of fog by reducing condensation.
Dual-pane visors can cost a bit more than a standard helmet. But they are cheaper than heated options and offer an extra layer of defense against fogging. If you get a dual-pane visor with an anti-fog coating, you’ll have even less chance of fog.
4. Get a Well-Ventilated Helmet
Ventilation is a key feature for helmets when it comes to fogging. If a helmet is not properly ventilated, heat and moisture will build up inside it and have no way to escape. This results in condensation, which then leads to a foggy visor.
Look for helmets with ventilation features built in to help reduce the chance of fogging. This could include built-in airflow vents or even breath deflectors that allow your breath to escape through a tube rather than hit the visor.
If you know that you run hot and have a lot of body heat, sometimes good ventilation isn’t enough to prevent fogging. But it’s a good step that will help limit how much fog builds up.
5. Use and Anti-Fog Product
There are also anti-fog products you can apply to your visor to help limit the chance of fogging. These come as a spray or a gel that you wipe on both sides of your visor, and they work by preventing moisture from building up.
In my experience, these products have been hit or miss. Rather than buy a fancy product, I like to bring baby shampoo with me and rub this on the lenses. You’ll need to wipe it off with a wet rag to get clear vision, but it does a great job of reducing fog.
Final Thoughts
Dealing with a foggy visor is not fun. It can be an ongoing problem that can prevent you from enjoying your time on the trails. It can also be a significant safety issue, so you need to do everything you can to limit fogging.
If you follow all of the advice in this post, you should be able to ride fog-free. You might need to play around with each suggestion until you find something that works, but one of the tips is sure to help you see clearly.
About Chaz Wyland