The best water repellents to help you see clearly in the rain

This test was performed by the team at our sister title RiDE Magazine – the biker’s champion that guarantees useful advice on buying a new or used motorbike, thorough testing and tips on which bits of gear to buy, from helmets to suits and gloves to boots and more. You can find them on Facebook, Instagram, and in print.

While wind can often be your friend when it comes to clearing water from the outside of your helmet visor when it’s raining, it can often use a little help, especially if you’re picking up spray from vehicles in front of you on a wet road, rather than in heavy rain itself. Of course, a wipe with a finger will help clear your vision but if the roads are dirty or salty, this can actually make things worse.

A water-repellent spray applied to the outside of the visor can help whatever moisture there is around — actual rain or spray — be dispersed and give you a clear view of the road ahead. It will work with whatever aerodynamics you have available — whether from your screen or simply the oncoming windblast — to clear water as fast as possible.

The best water repellent products at a glance:

• RiDE Best Buy: NikWax Visor Proof
• RiDE Recommend: Ipone Visor Rainoff

However, some work more effectively than others and some for a longer time. Some are easy to apply and others not so much while some feature huge, prominent and frankly, terrifying warnings for a product that is designed to be applied just a few millimetres from your eyes while others appear no more dangerous than a cold cup of tea.

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With so many on the market, we felt it was about time we assessed which work and which don’t and how potentially harmful they could be.

Best water repellent products

The RiDE verdict

There are three tiers of products here. The first tier aren’t particularly effective nor long-lasting. The second all have a bit of something going for them but there are two top-tier stand-outs here.

The performance of the Ipone spray was superb; water run-off was virtually instant and it lasted far better than any of the others — 15 washer blasts. If outright performance is all you are interested in, then it’s the choice for you. However, it’s overall scores were knocked back due to its makeup and ingredients — as confirmed by the warnings on the bottle, it’s not nice stuff. But on the basis of its performance, and the third-lowest cost-per-100ml, it is well deserving of a Recommended triangle.

Achieving the same numerical score is the Nikwax Visor Proof. It’s performance was only slightly shy of that of the Ipone — water run-off marginally slower and it withstood 12 blasts before the treated and untreated sides of the visor appeared the same. However, it’s makeup, ingredients and much more environmentally friendly approach mean that, combined with excellent performance and the second-lowest (by just £0.19) cost-per-100ml, the Nikwax is a very deserving winner of a Best Buy triangle.  

How we tested them

 Ease of use We applied each product to half a clean, untreated helmet visor as per the supplied instructions and using any cloth that was included with the product. If none were supplied, we used a new microfibre cloth for each product. We also looked at how much was needed to provide adequate coverage.

 Effectiveness To ensure consistency, we bench, rather than road, tested the products. We applied water from a set distance using a pressure washer in a single burst and gauged how effectively the water ran off the visor when we shut the water off. We also looked at whether any water left on beaded or spread.

 Longevity After the initial water application, we sprayed the entire visor for a set period of time repeatedly to assess how well the treatment lasted and how its effectiveness changed. The score here is based on the number of sprays it took until the treated and untreated sides behaved the same.

 Toxicity We considered the ingredients in each liquid, any warnings displayed on the bottles, packaging or available data sheets and the odour of the products themselves as we applied them. Some clearly showed ingredients and warnings; others needed some effort to find.

Five things to look for…

When considering buying a bottle of rain repellent

Application

A small spray bottle (all sprays here are pump) is easy to apply the product with and is also easy to tuck away in a pocket, your luggage or under the seat if you’re going on a long journey and might need to re-apply before the end.

Ingredients

The products can generally be alcohol or water-based; water-based versions may have a shorter effective window of use, for obvious reasons while some riders may not favour the use of alcohols.

Capabilities

Some of the sprays may include an element of visor-cleaning action as well as water repellence — useful if you only want to carry one bottle around with you, for example.

Compatibility

Some products designed for use on glass may work just as well on plastic visors — in the short term. However, they may eventually make the plastic brittle but it is more likely a visor would become scratched in general use long before this would be an issue.

Environmental impact

Some of the products here make much of the fact they are biodegradable, animal-friendly and contain no ‘harmful’ ingredients. Others less so and cannot be disposed of on the ground or in sewers, for example, as they affect them adversely. Check to see which you’re happy using.

How does it work?

More products tested by MCN

How does it work?

Most sprays work by creating a hydrophobic layer on the outside of the visor; this lowers the surface tension of the water and prevents it ‘clinging’ on to the plastic and makes it easier to remove. The products also fill in the microscopic peaks and troughs in the material to further reduce the adhesion at the surface.

Related: Best motorcycle waterless washes

While for a long time, products for glass were tentatively used on plastic visors, many disapproved, claiming that they would eventually make the plastic brittle. However, the chances are that a visor would need replacing long before it would be in danger of becoming damaged by glass-based products. But now, there are plenty of water-repellent sprays for plastics and in particular, helmet visors so you don’t need to worry about causing problems further down the line.

It’s also worth noting that products that are effective on helmet visors will also be effective on bike screens – this could be useful if you have a large standard or aftermarket screen that you end up looking through rather than over.

How MCN tests products

At MCN, our team of expert journalists have decades of experience gained over hundreds of thousands of miles. We don’t test our kit to destruction; we use it exactly how you do, in the real world and in all conditions. That means we can deliver impartial buying advice you can rely on.

Each of our writers has an in-depth understanding of the needs of today’s biker… because they are one.

If you can’t see a review against an item on this page, it’s because we haven’t tested it yet. These items will only be included if we think they’re important and relevant in the market, and rest assured, we will be working on bringing you a review as soon as we’ve done the miles.

To find out more, head to our dedicated page explaining how we test motorcycle products.

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