Fog Lights

If you rank the lights on the exterior of your car based on how rarely you use them, fog lights will come out first. You only get to use them one or two times in a year if you actually decide to venture out in the thick fog. But no way you can omit this purchase as it is as essential as any other light on your vehicle. Also, the working and application must suit the climatic conditions as in some areas appear with heavy fog than others. You see, you have a lot of thinking to do before buying lights for fog visibility.

First thing first, let’s clarify the three lights you have on your vehicle. You place high beam headlights, low beam headlights, and fog lights. There are also sidelights that look like headlights but the application is different. Their placement helps other drivers on the road to make your vehicle visible enough to avoid any consequences. Among these, high beams and fog lamps are a bit similar. Both of them are powerful that you should avoid using them in clear daylight. But because of how they are positioned, you can’t use high beams during fog. Unlike high beams, fog lights sit lower on the car and are much brighter than high beam lights.

An overview of fog lights

Fog lights create an even bar of light that lies close to the road and has a sharp cut off on the top. The placement of these lights improve visibility through the snow and avoid glares. Rather than providing long-range visibility, these lights will enable the driver to see road signs and vehicles that are directly in front of them. In places that experience heavy fog, proper functioning fog lamps are a legal requirement to pass vehicle safety testing. You know your local climates and preferences better but it is required that you replace the lights on your vehicles on time. Apart from these, you should understand certain things before buying any fog light.

Fog lights vs high beams

You already know that both of these emit powerful beams of light. But why do we need a separate light to drive in the fog then? The fog product, unlike the headlights, is mounted less than 18 inches from the ground. Because thick fog starts from a height of 22 inches and thickens upward, these low-lying lights can penetrate further than the headlights. Also, the fog will reflect the light from the high beam directly back the driver and causes a blinding effect because they sit higher. The same will happen if you fit the fog visibility product too high on the vehicle.

White vs yellow fog lights

This is a dilemma people face when they decide to look for a product for fog visibility for their vehicle. You will find that fog lamps come in two colours. Yellow and white. But which one is better? Although white seems the intuitive answer, there is more to it than that. Yellow is lower in wavelength than blue light. In heavy rain and fog, yellow undergoes less scattering as compared to white light which consists of blue light as well. Even though yellow lights appear much less bright than white ones, they have more use that will let you see better in bad weather.

Rear fog lights

You know the placements of car lamps can make a big difference to road visibility. Thus, if you live in a heavy fog area, you can assume what a rear fog lamp can do. In fact, rear ones can be much more effective than front fog lamps. You might have noticed that even when you are using fog lamps, you won’t see the vehicles in front of you unless they get really close. This issue can be solved using rear fog lamps. Although this rear product isn’t much popular, its placement seems mandatory. You should look at this product while looking for fog lamps. These are red in colour like the brake lights but much brighter and lower in position.

Effectiveness of fog lights

No matter how bright the light is, the application cannot be worthy unless the placement is proper. The lights will be indeed useless if they are not pointing in the right direction or if the brightness is not up to the mark. And in some extreme cases, they reflect back and dazzle the driver that may lead to accidents. So, improperly installed fog lamps can do more harm than good. But when done right, fog lamps are a useful accessory in difficult weather conditions. Apart from improving the visibility of the road, they also alert the oncoming drivers of your presence on the road. But when the fog is too bad, it can sometimes render even the fog lamps useless.