All ye riders and motorcyclists, lend me your ears!

Summer is here and by the likes of it, it’s gearing up to be a scorchingly unbearable one. So what I’m gonna do is slap-on my ventilated riding gear – Mesh Jackets, Mesh Pants and Mesh Summer Gloves and my BluSnap to beat this heat and hit the road.

Wait. Blu what?

BluSnap is a wearable cooler for your helmet. You just snap it on and enjoy the ride as it helps you stay cool in traffic. When fixed onto your full-face helmet, it cools your head through a water-based cooling mechanism which uses a battery-operated fan to pump air through a wet air filter to direct cool air into the helmet. This, in turn, creates a microclimate inside your helmet which is 6-15 degrees cooler than the surrounding environment. In a nutshell, BluSnap is like a desert cooler for your helmet.

Normally, by the time I reach my destination, my hair is sweaty and my face, due to the constant opening and closing of my helmet visor at the traffic light, is so baked it would put Jesse from Breaking Bad to shame. In short, it’s suffocating and icky to ride in traffic with a full-face helmet. Not to mention the tiredness and burnout. Sound familiar? Now, thanks to BluSnap, created by BluArmor Helmets, I can kiss my helmet woes goodbye.

I’ve been using BluSnap for a few weeks now and I’d like to share my experiences.

Cooling – City Commute

Yes, it works! It was an absolute ‘breeze’ during my city commutes especially during stoppages. Once on, I felt a subtle draft of cool air on my face and around my head. The closed helmet visor ensured no loss of cooling. What a difference compared to before when my entire head would become unbearably sweaty or worse, when I’d open the visor for some air circulation, I’d be exposed to the elements, mainly dust which would stick to my sweaty face. Now, not only is my face dust-free but the cooler temperatures inside the helmet ensure a freshness and comfort I’ve never known before.

Cooling – Highway Commute

Once proved during city commute, I decided to test run BluSnap on a stretch of highway, where speeds are higher. And it didn’t disappoint! As I increased my speed, I switched off the fan on the device. As a result, the air got pushed in automatically because of the higher speeds. The subtle flow of cool air became cooler and the air flow, faster. The best part is that I wasn’t even using the device battery power to do this. The device was working on its own, assisted by the air flowing into it, due to high speeds of the motorcycle. While this device may be pitched for the folks from the two-wheeler user segment for the daily city commute, BluSnap packs quite a smart punch also for those who hit the highway for longer rides.

Simple Installation

1 minute. That’s how long it takes to install BluSnap. In case your helmet chin-bar is not rounded and not an exact fit to the device, a couple of Velcro strips are added to hold the device in place. As a norm, the funky colorful elastic band holds the device to the helmet. And, you get five different designs to choose as per your liking. I used it across multiple helmet brands – Daijya, HJC, SMK, MT to name a few. It worked fine with all of them.

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Once fixed, all you need to do is fill the water reservoir and charge the battery and you are good to go. One full charge lasted me around ten hours – that’s enough for a five-day working week, assuming daily usage of two hours. A reservoir full of water will give you around two hours of cooling. A knob at the bottom of the device switches off the water-flow into the filter while the helmet is not in use. The air filter is washable and can be used for six months with regular use. The product, replacement filters, and straps are available in their online shop. Basically, I like the simplicity of the product.

Room For Improvement?

I love BluSnap. It’s a simple device that does what it claims to do and does it well. However, being a seasoned rider and a strong advocate of anything that makes a rider’s life easier while on the road, I’d be very interested in seeing how the makers of BluSnap iron out the following observations.

• Size – Currently, it’s big and bulky because of which it tends to catch the wind, albeit slightly if you turn your head at high speeds but it’s manageable. Although it doesn’t block your view or cause discomfort due to weight, I’d have liked it to be smaller.
• Water Level Indicator – There is no water level indicator. So, there is no way to figure out if the water is over. I realized it was over when some fine dust crept in as the filter dried off. The workaround is to fill water after every two hours or so.
• Air Flow – There is no way to stop or filter the flow of air into the helmet. Even if the fan is off and you are moving, the air movement through the fan will suck in any ambient smells, too. So watch out while riding next to a drain or a garbage dump. But hey, this happens in regular helmet setup too.

At the end of the day, I would highly recommend this product to anyone who loves traveling by motorcycles, especially in the summertime. And at a price point near 2000 bucks INR, which includes a strap and an extra filter, this portable helmet cooler is the coolest thing bikers could want this summer!

Click here to purchase >> Blu Armor Helmets

Use code HELMETKAAC at checkout to avail a discount.

May the COOL be with you!!!