About our Pepper Spray

Why our pepper spray is the best.

Simply stated, in their categories, these are the best products in the world. All of these units, unless noted otherwise, are in-stock containing our famous 2% formulas using 5,300,000 million SHU OC pepper. All FOX formulas are non-flammable and Taser® safe.The safest, most intense and effective defense sprays you can buy!

Fox Labs premium defense spray products are formulated to be the safest, hottest and most effective you can buy! All of our sprays are non-flammable, Taser-safe, and available in a wide range of sizes with varying percentages of pepper (OC), combinations of pepper and tear gas (CS) and ultra-violet dye, plus the newest addition, MEAN GREEN®—the world’s first GREEN pepper spray! You will also find that we have a spray pattern to fit your every need, including our famous heavy stream and medium emission cone-fog sprays for our 2, 3 and 4-ounce units. Upon close inspection you will find that only the highest quality materials and components are used in the manufacturing of these products. If we can do it better, tell us how it is possible.

2 Million and 5 Million Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) Rating

All Fox Premium Aerosol Defense Sprays® use organic pepper resins that have at least a true 2,000,000 Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) rating, all the way up to an industry leading 5,300,000 Scoville Heat Units. We were the first company to use resins with this intense rating in a 5% product and our formulas are still unsurpassed! In 1998, we became the first and only company offering a true 5,300,000 million SHU resin in a 2% solution. These formulas are legendary! Don’t take our word on it. Browse the Internet and see what people in general, and LE professionals specifically have to say.

Additionally, the word ‘true’ is very important, because some companies have their own systems of heat measurement, or they are not even using organic pepper, but rather something called PAVA, which is artificial (fake synthetic) OC, and not nearly as effective as the real Fox Labs stuff. What that means to you, specifically, is that they may claim their sprays have the same intensity as FOX, but in reality they are far weaker, and less likely to afford you the same kind of results when you need them.  Ask any law enforcement agency, and the'll tell you there's nothing else like Fox Labs.

The bottom line is this:

If you are serious about wanting the absolute best products of their kind you really must consider the FOX line-up of superlative aerosol defense sprays. Once you use them we know that you will agree with the hundreds of thousands of police officers, deputies, corrections officers, government and military personnel and civilians that already believe there are none finer in existence. 

Carry what the police carry.  

SPECIAL NOTE: Although we do everything we can to ensure that our units will perform exactly as expected, it is possible for a number of reasons a unit may fail to do so. Although the odds of this happening with FOX brands are extremely small, (literally a mere fraction of one percent) it can happen in varying frequency to units of any brand from all manufacturers. As such, if it would make you feel more comfortable or safer, it is okay to give your unit a short test burst to make sure it performs as you expect. This should not affect future performance. You should only do this outside, ideally in an open area—away from other people and animals, with the wind, if any, to your back. If you decide to do this, we do suggest that you use a cotton swab or some other absorbent material with alcohol on it so you can clean out the spray nozzle opening and surrounding surface area. This is to make sure you remove any pepper residue from the test spraying, so you do not accidentally touch the contaminated area and then touch a part of your face or body – resulting in a most unpleasant experience!

A few years ago the term “nozzle heat” started appearing in marketing materials from a couple of different defense spray companies. Since then it has been spreading like a virus via the Internet and numerous e-commerce stores. We happen to believe that its inception was brought on by the introduction of Fox Labs’ (now) famous “FIVE POINT THREE” formulas in August 1998. You see, once Fox started using their 5,300,000 SHU pepper resin—the purest OC resin ever used to create defense sprays—these other companies had to figure out how to deal with Fox Labs’ superior formulas in a way that would make their formulas sound better, even if they couldn’t outperform those of Fox Labs. Someone got the idea that it did not matter what went into the formula, it was what was coming out of the nozzle that was important. And Fox Labs actually agrees with that assertion—up to a point.

Here, briefly is the “whole” story on nozzle heat: the “marketing tool or term” of choice for defense spray companies that prefer to use higher percentages of less pure, lower grade resins. It provides them with a way to create impressive sounding numbers to woo an unsuspecting consumer, but they fail to share the “complete” story, which is…

Less pure resins have much, much more color, sugar, oil and junk in them. This is why the formulas that use them are dirty looking, opaque liquids—you can easily see this when they are discharged because they make whatever they hit look like it has been spray-painted. Now, when companies pump up the percentages of this less pure resin used in their formulas (usually 10% or higher) they are actually increasing the levels of this worthless, miscellaneous stuff that has nothing to do with stopping power. What this “stuff” really does is slow down—that is, actually delays—how fast these formulas can work.  The cheaper pepper they use is diluted by additives and the water they use (Fox Labs legacy formulas use oil instead of water).  

So, for example, brands using 10% of a 1,500,000 SHU or 2,000,000 SHU pepper (or even higher percentage versions with cheap pepper!) will have “nozzle heat” numbers that sound really great (150,000 SHU and 200,000 SHU in the above example), but what they are actually doing is increasing the amount of inert matter (stems, leaves, impurities) in their formulas. This makes it impossible, really and truly impossible, for them to work faster than Fox formulas that use a lower percentage of purer pepper.  We use less pepper, but significantly purer and hotter.  They don't want to do this because it is much more expensive.  They'd rather use the cheaper stuff and dump more of it in, but it doesn't work as well.  

Why does this matter?

Because the main feature of a product in this category (defense sprays) is how fast it can bring someone into compliance, or stop them from attacking. This means that for the sake of marketing, or perhaps a more honest way to put it, to mislead the consumer—be it civilian or law enforcement professional— these companies use higher percentages of low-grade pepper so their “nozzle heat story” sounds good, but the performance can be greatly compromised. The bottom line is how safe, how fast, how wide ranging is the effectiveness of the formula regarding different types of people/circumstances. As anyone who has ever compared products already knows, Fox Labs Premium Defense Sprays remain unmatched. (Fact: Comparing apples-to-apples, if Fox Labs were to use a 10% formula they would have nozzle heat of 530,000 SHU and 3.5% major capsaicinoids!!! Pretty impressive, and scary, huh?)  Nozzle heat is marketing.  5,300,000 Scoville Heat Units is what sets Fox Labs apart, and it's not marketing - just science.  Measure our effectiveness with a real metric, not marketing.  

Lastly, the cost savings these companies receive in using less pure resins is incredible! Fox Labs pays up to ten times more for their pepper (OC) resins than these other companies, yet our prices have always remained competitive and affordable. If you are paying less for these higher percentage products it isn’t because you are getting a deal, it is really because you are getting what you are paying for—simply cheaper, diluted slower-performing products, that underperform the Fox Labs brand.

Carry what the police carry - FOX LABS FIVE POINT THREE.

  • FOX LABS ONE POINT FOUR

    OUR HOTTEST FORMULA.

    Fox Labs ONE POINT FOUR is the only true police strength pepper sprays on the market. ONE POINT FOUR is an oil based spray allowing for greater distance and stronger effects on impact.

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  • FOX LABS FIVE POINT THREE

    OUR MOST POPULAR FORMULA.

    FIVE POINT THREE is Fox Labs legacy formula and what gave us our name as a leader in the industry. FIVE PONT THREE Pepper Spray is one of the most carried formulas by Law Enforcement, Correctional Officers and the US Military.

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  • MEAN GREEN

    THE PAIN & STAIN FORMULA.

    Fox Labs MEAN GREEN is a powerful pepper spray that features a staining green dye that allows for easy assailant identification. MEAN GREEN is a perfect companion for everyday carry.

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