A Buyer’s Guide to Choosing the Best Pepper Spray for Women
Pepper spray is a non-lethal self-defense item that’s legal to carry across all 50 US states. It has been difficult to monitor its effectiveness, but a 1999 study suggests that basic pepper spray is 85% effective against an assailant.
Pepper spray has come a long way since its inception in the 60s. If you’re looking for the current best pepper spray for women then you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s take a look at some of the key features that make for the best pepper spray to carry.
What Makes Pepper Spray So Effective?
The main active ingredient in pepper spray is capsicum. This is the same chemical that is found inside chili peppers that gives them their heat. The pungency of capsicum is measured in Scoville heat units (SHU).
To put things into context, the average jalapeno pepper comes in at around 2,500-5,000 SHU. The spicier bird's eye chili is between 50,000-100,000 SHU. Military-grade pepper sprays can have a SHU rating of anywhere between 2 million and 5.3 million.
Capsicum is a lacrimator, meaning that it irritates the eyes and causes tears. In most cases, the effects of this last up to around 30 minutes and require no further medical attention. It causes the eyes to close immediately, temporary blindness and pain.
As a result, pepper spray can completely render an attacker helpless making it the best choice of non-lethal self-defense weapons.
How to Make Pepper Spray Even Better
Pepper spray is a great self-defense tool. It’s lightweight and easy to carry. You’ll have no problems reaching to get it from a bag or your pocket if you end up in an emergency. But when you’re trying to find the best pepper spray for women other features can be incorporated to make pepper spray even better.
Built-in Alarm
Pepper spray is great for disabling your attacker, but what about notifying people nearby that you’re in trouble? If you’re hurt or in a situation where you need to escape then alerting people nearby that you’re in trouble is just as important as protecting yourself.
Imagine if your pepper spray could also generate the same amount of noise as a rock concert! If you’re looking for the best pepper spray to carry then it should also have a built-in personal alarm of around 125 decibels.
Trajectory
As any good self-defense instructor will inform you, the more distance you can keep between you and your attacker the better. When looking for the best pepper spray be sure to look at the trajectory of the spray and how accurate it is going to be.
Cheaper pepper sprays might not only spray far, but they could also result in the pepper spray becoming a mist and susceptible to wind. If your attacker is 10 feet away from you and your pepper spray is only accurate up until 6 feet you might find yourself with a face full of pepper spray before your attacker does.
It’s recommended that a good pepper spray intended for self-defense for women should offer an accurate trajectory of up to 15 feet. This means you can keep a good amount of distance between yourself and your attacker and not worry about blinding yourself.
Bluetooth Technology
Smartphones and Bluetooth technology have meant that we can connect and communicate with various devices. What does this mean for self-defense?
Some of the more advanced pepper sprays take advantage of Bluetooth technology and take self-defense to a whole new level. A Bluetooth component within the pepper spray communicates with an app on your phone when the pepper spray is activated.
This then sends a text and voice message to up to 5 emergency contacts along with a google map of your current location. That’s 5 people who can immediately alert the authorities to your exact location and all you have to do is activate your pepper spray.
Flashing Lights
The addition of flashing lights on your pepper spray device can serve two functions. One is to disorient your attacker and the other is to alert nearby people to your situation. Most attackers choose the cover of night so being able to illuminate the area can act as a great deterrent.
A state-of-the-art pepper spray device should be able to produce 100 lumens of light, which is what you’d expect from a military or police-issued flashlight. Light is an undervalued self-defense tool. If you shine 100 lumens of light into the eyes of an attacker, they can’t see behind the light.
The addition of a strobe feature can further disorient your attacker making it more difficult to predict your movements. This can help you to successfully deploy the pepper spray and escape to safety.
Helping the Police to Catch Your Attacker
Keeping you safe is the primary aim of any self-defense weapon, but what about helping the police to catch your attacker? After a violent altercation, it can be difficult to remember the details of an attacker, and that’s if the police manage to catch a suspect.
If you’re looking for the best pepper spray to carry then the addition of invisible dye can make all the difference when it comes to catching the perpetrator. An invisible dye can be mixed with the pepper spray so the attacker is left unknowingly covered in a dye that shows up under UV light.
Not only will your attacker not know that they’re covered with invisible dye, but it’s almost impossible to wash off too. If the police catch a suspect then a quick flash of blue light and they can positively ID your assailant straight away.
Is This the Best Pepper Spray for Women?
When you’re trying to find the best pepper spray for women it is important to look out for these features. However, trying to find them all in one easy-to-handle package. The Fazer Defense GPS Tracking Pepper Spray combines all of the above elements and works alongside the Fazer Defence mobile app, which can be downloaded onto your mobile device for free.
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