What is your favorite Windshield Wiper?

I’ve been buying ”Rain-X Latitude 8-In-1 Premium Graphite Coated Wiper Blade” from Amazon; I think they were rated highly in a review in the past (maybe Consumer Reports?  Can’t remember).  I usually buy beam type blades as they are supposed to have better, more even, contact with the glass.  Recently there have been several Amazon sales advertised via Kinja Deals (http://deals.kinja.com/) where you can get two blades for about $20 or so which is a pretty good price.  This is letting me buy more wipers, more often, and try different brands.  I don’t have any new opinions (yet) but maybe the best result is I’m using newer wipers and not letting them get as old as I use too.

I like the SilBlade FLX wipers available on Amazon. Some reviewers don’t love them, but I have them on my car, and they’ve worked well for over a year.

Bosch Icon is also good.

I used to use Rain-X Latitude, but they changed their manufacturer, and the newer blades of theirs didn’t make good contact with the windshield and jumped around.

Wirecutter just updated their windshield wiper reviews/recommendations http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-windshield-wipers-for-your-car/ (I commented there with more details on my experiences with SilBlade and Rain-X).

I’ll second SilBlade as the way to go. I put a set of their winter blades on my Land Cruiser back in 2006. The same ones are still working better than the brand-new Bosch Ikons I put on my brother’s Tundra.

I may replace them this year, but not because the blades are worn out; the arms I put them on are now corroded and need replacing.

Been meaning to post about this for a while. This seems like a good time.

When you go to buy new wiper *blades*, ask if they have a wiper blade *refill* for your blades instead.

It’s the rubber part of the blade that actually wears out. They take about the same amount of time to install and they are about half the price.

No one at an auto parts shop will ever tell you about these as they have just cut their sale in half (think of Moe walking up behind Curly and giving him a wap upside the head – yeah, that’s what the manager will do to the counterperson as soon as you turn away from the counter).

A buddy of mine had his own parts store way back and tuned me in when I went to buy some new blades.

HTH.

 

My preference for 30 years of rainy winters in the Pacific Northwest is Bosch, and I’ve tried about every blade except SilBlade. I’ll have to give them a try.

I will say that I hate Trico blades. Hate. Hate. Hate. Trico 47100 View Glass Treatment is excellent, however… probably because Trico doesn’t actually make it. It’s like Rain-X on steroids and really does last six months. (Pretty much the whole winter here.)

Costco sells Goodyear wipers at around $8 a piece or $16 the set.  They have a stiff plastic frame.  I bought a second set a while back thinking surely it must be time to replace them, but the first pair has been going for two winters now and are still fine.  Your mileage may vary — I don’t put all that many miles on a car in a year.

We live on the Colorado/Wyoming border at 7200’ (2200m) altitude. It can get pretty cold here (-40°F/C) with heavy fog, rarely above 85°F/30°C. The UV is killer & destroys conventional rubber blades quickly. Multi-part blades clog up with ice & won’t work in the snow & ice The only blades we’ve had that last in the UV & remain flexible in the cold are the Bosch Icons. Nothing else has performed as well.

Rain-X isn’t a wiper, but on my windshield it usually cancels a need for them.

The only time Rain-X backfires is when water is little tiny droplets (not big enough to blow off) and the sun’s out – yipes. (That’s roads wet from melting snow, and leaves a window of dazzling diamonds, really gotta wipe then.)