Forced Air Helmet

#1

It is time for a new helmet. Actually it is time for new everything. When you get all your stuff at one time it all seems to expire at the same time. Anyway, my current helmet is a Simpson full face, no face shield model. It has a very large eye port opening with sun visor but no face shield. I like it a lot but can’t seem to find the same model. Now for the question. I am very pron to getting very hot in the car. I now have a DIY cool shirt system and it is awesome. How about a forced air helmet? I am looking at the Pyrotech model:

http://www.helmetcity.com/page/HC/PROD/autosnellsa2010/proairflowforcedair

Do these help much? Is it worth the hassle of being attached to the tube? Will it affect the radio broadcast?

Thanks for any input.

#2

If your cheap like me go here. They have SA2005 helmets on closeout. I wish this sale was going on when I bought my bell BR1 top air from OGracing. I definitely wish I had a helmet with a removable liner.
http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=IPRS&Category_Code=SI

#3

Sometimes the closeouts are false economy as you save 1/3 the price but it only lasts half as long. Now this assuming you get the full 10 years out of a helmet. I have gotten close to that out of the last one with careful use and cleaning.

So, what about the forced air part? worth it?

#4

If you do some searching here you’ll find a thread where I plumbed force air thru my coolshirt cooler. It was a lot of work to get, at best 8deg of cooling. The chilled air is nice, but I expected better than 8deg (under optimum conditions). I was thinking that I might next try putting in an air-water intercooler and see if that doesn’t create more cooling. I’ve also been keeping my eyes open for an easy way to insulate the air hoses.

Getting this right is not Infantry simple. Every OEM solution I’ve seen for chilling the air is crap. Lots of surface area at the water interface, not much surface area on the air interface.

You have to be able to control the amount of air flow. Less air is colder, but you won’t feel a trickly. More air isn’t as cold and it will also bother your eyes.

Force air keeps your visor from fogging up, and that’s nice.

In summary, force air is nice. But the toil/benefit ratio is low.

I have an Impact top air helmet. DeVinney has a Stand21 side air.

#5

Does not just the affect of the air flow help? I currently have a NACA duct in the passenger window with tube pointed at me. When the air is flowing, even hot, it is much nicer then not. I was hoping the forced air flowing into the helmet would remove the heat from within the helmet. I did not plan on running the air through the cool shirt cooler.

#6

[quote=“Ranger” post=61708]DeVinney has a Stand21 side air.[/quote]After 2-3 seasons of occasional use, the stub on the helmet that the air hose connects to has broken loose. Bummer.

I have used the air feature a decent bit. The Stand21 helmet has vents in the top padding and one that blows air to your nose and mouth. I don’t use the cool box designed for the blower any more. It consisted of a loop of PVC - seriously, PVC - through the cool box. Morons. Anyway. My biggest concern has always been that in the event of a fire the blower would fill your helmet with smoke. My solution - not yet implemented - was to have a blower kill switch connected to the fire pull. That way, if I pulled that before I killed master power, the fan would stop pumping smoke.

Cliff’s notes? It was great on the grid but I didn’t notice a major difference on track once I had air moving through the cockpit.

PS - No shield? Srsly? Sounds like a big risk to your eyes. Keep your shields down, folks.

#7

I was hoping the blowing air would be enough to keep sweat from dripping into my eyes while sitting in grid. I usually wear a pair of willeyx’s that I have to wait until about 10 seconds from going on track to put on. I kept a cloth jammed in the door panel to wipe the sweat off my brow while sitting in grid.

My father soldered up a nice copper heat exchanger for something. Its to big for inside a cooler but the idea is the same. I can maybe get a picture of it next weekend that show how he built the ends which go from one large pipe to four parallel small ones.

Five years for a helmet is good enough for me anyway. I don’t know if there is a difference in the rating between 2005 and 2010.