It’s winter—or at least what passes for winter here in the San Francisco Bay Area—and it’s chilly, foggy, and occasionally rainy. If you’re a year-round rider like me, you’ve probably done your share of swearing inside your helmet because of a fogged faceshield or glasses.

It turns out the problem of faceshield fogging is pretty easy to solve: there are inserts that do a great job, or you can just pop the thing open and let some air in, as long as it’s not raining. Opening the faceshield can also keep your glasses from fogging—as long as you’re cool with being cold—but as soon as it starts raining, everything falls apart. If you open your shield to keep your glasses from fogging, rain runs down the inside of your shield and all over your glasses, and within minutes you can’t see a damn thing.

After enduring a near-blind, pitch-black night ride up Highway 1 from Morro Bay in pouring rain a while back, I vowed to solve this problem. So after disappointing results from the anti-fog home remedy of dish soap on my glasses, I went out and bought a bunch of anti-fog products.

I’ve been testing four products for the last few months, in everything from dry weather to fog and rain: Cat Crap, Clarity Defog It, MotoSolutions FogTech and finally, OptiFog prescription anti-fog lenses. The good news is, these products actually work pretty well—but not perfectly.

These all work in the same basic way—by adding a thin film on your lenses that keeps water in the air from condensing into tiny droplets, or fog. You can see this layer in action by applying one of these products and then holding your glasses over a steaming cup of tea. After a bit, if you look closely, you’ll see a transparent, almost oily-looking layer on the lens surfaces. This is what happens instead of fogging.

The downside of this layer is that it can cause some haziness. It’s generally not a big deal, but if you’re riding in extreme conditions it can become a problem. These products also tend to exaggerate ‘haloing’ around lights when riding at night. In both cases, it’s not as bad as badly fogged glasses—but still less than awesome.

Cat Crap

Cat Crap is one of the original anti-fog products—it’s been hanging around the litter box for a while. It also has the best name of the bunch: “Hang on, fellas. I gotta put some Cat Crap on my glasses before we head out.”

Application (crapplication?) is a two-step process. You rub a bit of crap on your lenses with your finger, and then buff it out. It took me a couple tries to get it just right—at first there was way too much haziness. Once I figured out the right amount of buffing, resistance to fogging was pretty good—but Cat Crap still suffers from the most haziness and haloing of the three general-use products I tried. I also found it needed to be re-applied frequently, generally every day or so.

Effectiveness Longevity Haziness Ease of Use Price Overall Rating ★★★★ ★★★ ★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ (3.6)

You pay: under $10

You get: ½ ounce of crap

This stuff is: paste

Other options: spray

More info

Clarity Defog It

Clarity’s Defog It anti-fog cloths are a cool idea: a reusable cloth that you wipe down your lenses with as needed, much like you would clean your glasses with a lint-free cloth.

Application is easy—simply wipe down your lenses for 10-15 seconds. After use, you’re supposed to stow the cloth in the included cases to keep it clean for reuse, but unfortunately, the cloths seem to dry out pretty quickly—meaning the three cloths really don’t last that long.

Performance is tops, though—as good as any of the products I tried, with less haziness than Cat Crap or the OptiFog lenses. They’re also very easy to use. Although Defog It needs to be reapplied frequently (as do all of these products), the only thing keeping these from being my go-to anti-fog product is the fact that the cloths dry out quickly—effectively increasing the cost per use quite a bit.

Effectiveness Longevity Haziness Ease of Use Price Overall Rating ★★★★ ★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★ (3.8)

You pay: $10-$15

You get: 3 reusable Defog It cloths in a plastic case

This stuff is: little “dry” wipes

Other options: liquid

More info

MotoSolutions FogTech

FogTech is the best of the bunch: easy to use, effective and reasonably long-lasting. Application is also among the fastest: squirt a bit of solution on one of the included applicator cloths and quickly paint a thin layer on your lenses. No buffing! The solution dries quickly and is essentially unnoticeable.

I tried FogTech on a pair of glasses with an anti-reflective coating first, and it was way too hazy. I emailed MotoSolutions to see what they said, and the owner responded to my email within 15 minutes, saying that the solution doesn’t work on some anti-reflective lenses and that I could send my bottle back for a full refund. We exchanged a couple of emails and the level of customer service and attention for an under- $20 product impressed me. Needless to say, I didn’t return it, but rather used it on a pair of glasses with no anti-glare coating.

Performance is very good—on par with Clarity’s Defog It, but you get a lot more applications per bottle. As with the others, the product has to be reapplied a lot more than the manufacturer indicates, but clarity is good, with limited haziness and haloing. As a result, FogTech is currently my go-to anti-fog for daily use.

Effectiveness Longevity Haziness Ease of Use Price Overall Rating ★★★★ ★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★

You pay: $10-$20

You get: 1 ounce bottle of FogTech and three tiny applicator cloths

This stuff is: liquid

Other options: wipes—even camo!

More info

OptiFog Prescription Lenses and Activator

Since what I really wanted was for my glasses to be as awesomely fog-free as the Pinlock faceshield on my helmet, I decide to spring for a pair of anti-fog prescription lenses. These things aren’t cheap, and while your vision plan may entitle you to a discount, it’s not likely to cover the lenses. So they better be good, right?

Wrong. After dropping a significant chunk of cash on these fancy anti-fog specs, I was bummed to find that I’d still have to use an “activator” to make the magic happen, making my expensive anti-fog glasses no more convenient than pretty much any old pair of glasses and a bottle of FogTech. Even worse, the lenses are very susceptible to scratches and got pretty thrashed in short order—not exactly the golden ticket for a sport like motorcycling.

Prepping the lenses is much like applying FogTech. Squirt a few drops on a lint-free cloth and wipe it on—no buffing. If the performance of the lenses was amazing, I might be able to convince myself that the high price and generally crappy experience was worth it, but the OptiFog lenses are no better than any of the other anti-fog solutions I tried. While resistance to fogging is close to FogTech and Defog It, these lenses have a high level of haloing and haziness, and still require reapplication of the activator every couple days (Editor’s note: Opti-Fog claims the activator should be good for a week, and a 5 ml bottle–$10—should last about 6 months).

Effectiveness Longevity Haziness Ease of Use Price Overall Rating ★★★★ ★★★ ★★ ★★★★ ★ (2.8)

You pay: depends—frames and lenses are likely to set you back $200-$300 or more. Your vision plan may help—but don’t count on it.

You get: another pair of prescription glasses, a tiny (.17 ounce) bottle of Activator and a lint-free cloth.

This stuff is: prescription lenses and a liquid activator.

Other options: you can pick whatever glasses you want, but the lenses and activator remain the same.

More info

Product Comparison

Here’s how these products stack up against each other:

Effectiveness Longevity Haziness Ease of Use Price Overall Rating Cat Crap ★★★★ ★★★ ★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ (3.6) Clarity Defog It ★★★★ ★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★ (3.8) MotoSolutions FogTech ★★★★ ★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ OptiFog Lenses+Activator ★★★★ ★★★ ★★ ★★★★ ★ (2.8)

My Way (On the Highway)

It’s possible to achieve effective anti-fogging performance on glasses inside a full-face helmet, but unlike faceshield inserts, which are largely a “do it and be done with it” affair, keeping your glasses from fogging requires frequent reapplication of the product. In extreme conditions, it may be necessary to reapply more than once a day, although an average commuter should be able to get a couple of days per application out of most of these products.

My current anti-fog system consists of a Pinlock shield and a pair of glasses I reserve for riding. I chose Transitions lenses with no anti-reflective coating, so I could ride with the same glasses day or night. I generally apply MotoSolutions FogTech every day or two. With this setup, I can ride with my shield completely closed, with no fogging of my glasses and good visibility in rainy weather.

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