Most hockey leagues require facemasks, making it mandatory for you or your child to have a visor (also called a face shield) or cage attached to the helmet. Since you’ll likely wear one throughout your hockey career, knowing how to put a visor or cage on your helmet and take it off is important. This guide to installing and maintaining your hockey facemask walks you through the basics of hardware, attaching, removing, cleaning, and how to identify if a different brand’s cage or visor will fit your helmet.
How to Install a Hockey Visor
Whatever hockey visor you buy should include the hardware and installation instructions in the box. Today’s attachment designs are usually by clips or screws, so as long as you have a power drill or screwdriver at home, you should be able to install the visor easily.
Plenty of videos exist online demonstrating how to install hockey helmet visors, as well. There’s a good chance you’ll find a video that shows you how to install your particular visor on your helmet, especially if your shield is a major brand like Bauer, CCM, or Warrior. Pure Hockey has videos on how to install the Bauer Concept III and the CCM FV1 face shields on our YouTube channel.
If neither instructions nor videos are available to you, don't worry. Helmets are designed logically, and they’re made for easy visor installation.
The most complicated aspect of installing your visor will likely be attaching the visor clips that hold it on the helmet. Typically, visors attach at both temples with pairs of screws. Some visors come with their own clips or bracket mounting systems, so you may need to remove the screws in the helmet to use the visor hardware. But it's easy. Get out your cordless drill and proceed with confidence.
- Remove screws.
- Fit visor to helmet. If your face shield has a clip system, you need to fit the brackets to the designated spots where the screws were, as you’ll be clipping your visor into the brackets and not screwing it directly onto the helmet.
- Loosely screw on the visor or brackets. Adjust forward or backward to attain proper fit.
- Tighten the screws once you have your proper fit to secure your visor in place. If you have a bracket system, you’ll clip your visor into the brackets.
How to Remove a Hockey Visor
Removing the visor from your hockey helmet is as simple as unclipping it from the brackets or unscrewing it from the temple or center screws. All you need is a power drill or screwdriver to get the job done.
How to Clean a Hockey Visor
Use a cleaning product specifically designed for hockey visors, like GearHalo Visor Spray. Be sure to follow the instructions from the manufacturer. Some players remove their face shields from their helmets then hand wash their visors with a very mild soap like Dawn or baby shampoo. Alcohol wipes, Windex or any ammonia product, and sunglasses cleaners all contain harsh chemicals that may damage the protective coating on your visor.
How to Defog Your Hockey Visor
Fogging is a persistent issue with hockey visors. The last thing you need is to be swiping at the inside of your visor to see the flow of the game. Air circulation is critical. Many of the larger visors—those over four inches in length—include vents. Vents help keep your visor from fogging up, but there are a few other helpful tricks to keep your visor fog-free.
Use an anti-fog spray. These solutions prevent water from condensing on a given surface. Most players spray the inside and outside of the visor before the game and experience little to no fogging after application.
If you're in a pinch, household products may also work—applying baby shampoo, Dawn dish soap, and even furniture polish may help your visor resist fogging. Remember to buff your visor clean and wipe it with a fine microfiber cloth, something similar to the cloth used to clean eyeglasses. Anything rougher may scratch your visor.
How to Put a Cage on a Hockey Helmet
As with a visor, putting a full face cage on your hockey helmet should be a relatively easy DIY job. A cage attaches to your helmet in a few simple steps, usually with screws at the top of the cage, side clips, and J-clips near the jaw included in the box with the facemask. Some newer helmets feature a snap system for the cage in addition to screws, so double check that your cage is compatible with your helmet. Because there are several types of cages in different designs, your best bet is to follow the installation instructions for your particular cage or find a video online that details how to attach your brand and model cage onto a helmet. As long as you have a Phillips head or flat head screwdriver, you should be good to go.
Your hockey visor and helmet may be the most important pieces of protective equipment you or your child will wear. Luckily, they're remarkably simple to manage. The visor is easy to install and even easier to maintain. Keep your helmet in a bag when you're not wearing it to protect your facemask.
Do Bauer Visors Fit CCM Helmets and Vice Versa?
Not all hockey visors fit all helmets, although some provide a compatible fit with other brands. Some CCM visors will fit certain Bauer helmets and vice versa, and some Warrior visors are interchangeable with CCM and Bauer as well. You’ll need to carefully read the product description to see if your visor is compatible with your helmet. If you can’t find the information, contact our customer support team for assistance.
Are you in the market for a new hockey helmet or facemask? Shop our full selection of facemasks, visors, and helmets online; or, if you’re still unsure which one might be right for you, visit a Pure Hockey store near you for a full assessment from our staff.
If you’re shopping for other gear, too, be sure to check out our other so you can purchase with confidence.
