Windshield wiper suggestions?
 

I don't want to spend 50 bucks on wipers, but I was wondering if there were any wipers that came with lifetime warranties? My wipers tend to die over the winter when the rubber gets frozen bent in one direction and they become pretty useless.

I looked around today but saw no warrantied wipers. Ideas?

Jamak silicone wipers at wally world. They're $7 or so.

Problem is, you have to pay shipping to redeem the warranty, which is about the same price as getting new ones from the store.

That said, I have yet to replace them on Granny, and those came off my Civic. They still work fine after nearly 3 years.

Are they good quality? I am jealous of the cars I test drive in the rain since mine sucks at clearing water.

I will go rainx the car later though :)

They've worked for me so far, no complaints except in heavy heavy rain... but I think that was more a function of my wiper speed not being fast enough, and the rain being too heavy and too fast.

Wipers just plain don't last very long in my experience. And I virtually don't use them at all- it's just UV aging I think.

To that end, I have started keeping the wipers inside the vehicle somewhere. Then I can pop 'em on if needed. On my cars no tools are needed.

You're gonna laugh at me... but I've noticed the garbage cans at the front doors of auto parts stores almost always have wipers in 'em, when customers change 'em out right there in the lot. I'm usually amazed when I look at them and see that most have nothing wrong with them- why were they replaced? Someone on a time schedule for replacement? Did one of 'em streak? Who knows- all I know is I've grabbed several blades outta there and fitted them to my cars and they seem to last just as well as new ones. I rub them down with rubbing alcohol on install and haven't had streaking problems.

Why laugh at you? I'm a trash-picker too!

I may stick with the $7 blades depending on how things look after I rainx, maybe the issue is the glass getting streaky and nasty.

The Jamak blades are silly-cone... they don't freeze up in the winter, and they're supposedly not affected as much by UV.

I've had good luck with the Bosch MicroEdge+ wipers. A set typically lasts me 2 years or so, and they work well year round.

Kinda spendy at $30/pair, though.

My favourite wipers are the Teflon type. They seem to outlast rubber ones but only cost a little more. They reduce friction a lot and seem to keep their edges longer.

You can save $ by buying refill blades and sliding out your originals instead of buying the whole shebang. Most metal wipers have replaceable blades. You can get them at Canadian Outgasser. These plus rain-x will set your wipers flying across your glass like a Wimbledon match.

Can hardly find refills anymore! :mad:

Is people's time that precious, or are they too stupid or lazy to put refills in?

Some people have bought into the idea that this is a scheduled maintenance item (I think its a recomended 6 month interval). I got 3 years 40,000 km out of my factory wipers and only replaced them because the passenger one had a tear and I was worried it may eventually scratch the glass.

My secret is to always operate the wipers on the lowest setting that will clear the rain away and in the winter to lift the wipers off the windshield if I expect they will freeze to the glass due to falling snow or precipitation.

50 bucks for wipers???

I always have used Anco winter blades, year round. $5-7 apiece. They usually last a couple years, and I think they work a lot better than any other wipers which are open frame design.

Click and Clack say they'll burn up your wiper motor, but I've never had one burn up and all my vehicles have over 200k.

Rain X wipers are the best wipers I have ever used, I will swear by them. But my suggestion is that you can have your rain x wipers for when its not snowy and then have another crappy pair for when it is so if you do ruin them, they were cheap anyways. Good idea eh?

RandomFact314 -

That makes sense. Kind of like "winter tires" and "summer tires".

CarloSW2

So where do I pick up my "All Season" wipers?

I don't switch my tires out for winter... I keep running all-seasons.

Someone else mentioned Bosch... They're like $17 a blade if I remember right, but I've had very good luck with them - very long lasting, great for winter. I think they have a line of them now with some really pricey ones, but I just get the basic ones...or I should say one since I only use one wiper now. If your car is going to sit outside for a long time in the winter (in someplace like New Hampshire, maybe :p?) Maybe just take em off and leave them in the car. I can't imagine a situation where it would be difficult to remove snow or ice from those little hoops on the wiper arms.





...I do not work for or endorse Bosch.

Wonderboy -

I got the Bosch wipers after reading this thread :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...sale-2254.html

I did a tuft test and I saw improvement. These days I am down to one driver's side wiper. I followed Frank Lee's advice and I have the unmounted passenger wiper in the trunk, along with a wingnut (ha ha, that could also describe me) to put it back on quickly if needed.

Having only one wiper can be a little annoying, but not unsafe.

CarloSW2

I found that the one wiper thing can annoy the passenger if you have one. That situation hardly ever pops up for me though. Well- driving in rain and/or having passengers.

Frank -

Me too, but they're not doing the driving, ;) .

CarloSW2

My girlfriend, among other typical passengers, hates not being able to see well out that side of the windshield and not having that side mirror at all. Every time the complaint is made I say "I'm the one that needs to be able to see, and I don't need that [wiper/mirror] to see." But then when I'm a passenger I don't like it either :rolleyes:

Wonderboy -

Me too, but I have a "bite my lip" policy when I am the passenger. Sometimes that leads to white-knuckle rides for me, but I gotta pony-up when I expect the same.

CarloSW2

make some wiper jacks
 

on my car when the wipers park, the arm rides up on a little wedge to get the blades off the windscreen. works great just adjust them to park a little lower if you want and put your little blocks where they need to go and there you go!

I ended up getting two of these off ebay: Rain-X Rainx Wiper Regular Style 20" free Shipping:eBay Motors (item 360173312746 end time Aug-21-09 07:42:21 PDT)

13 bucks shipped seems like a good deal. 18 bucks a pop at my parts store

Gosh, I never heard of a passenger having a mirror adjusted for their location. In Ghana, bicycle mirrors are adjusted so the rider can admire himself.
My car came with "Reflex" wiper blades, which have a much lower profile than the usual balance-tree assembly. Opinions seem to vary on their performance as wipers, but they do the job for me, and are presumably saving a dram of fuel from time to time.

I'm currently using the already mentioned Tripledge wipers... they work great and I've been impressed with them. I think you can find them at buytripledge.com. That's where I got mine anyways... Also just found out that silicone is a green product..

i know they arent the cheapest, but i've heard the beam type wiper blades may last longer because the beam part provides shade for the actual wiper, so that they are less affected by UV. i'd imagine having a little cowl over any wipers when theyre parked would help as much if not more