Wiper Interference - RainX Obsrvations

[spacemanspif]

It was raining today and I was on the road at off time for longer than usual. While driving (and getting a little bored) I was reminded how much I love RainX and also some of the effects that the wipers have on the movement of water (and air) across the windshield. I thought I would take a video and show the community. A couple things I took note of are that the driver's side wiper doesn't seem to cause a huge effect on the clearing of the windshield and that the air seems to run almost parallel to the passenger side blade. Just wanted to open up a discussion on the topic of air flow/wiper arm delete and see what thoughts you all have.

9546EAAA-FD22-4B5A-990A-26693884D086_zpsn5b2kuoe.mp4 Video by spacemanspif | Photobucket

[freebeard]

The video doesn't play in this browser at this time in this location. Possible they wrapped perfectly good MP4 in a Flash wrapper.

But I like Rain-X and I deleted one wiper to save replacement cost.

[user removed]

Been using rain-x for 40 years. Watching the raindrops on the windshield is great visual evidence of airflow. When you get into disturbed airflow the drops can actually reverse direction and even go in circles.

regards
mech

[tvbd56]

On some vehicles I've seen a wiper arm delete wouldn't even make a difference because it is already out of the air flow. Unfortunately on my CRX and Tacoma both have the wipers in the air flow but when it comes to rain, I have rain-x (amazing) on both vehicles and I keep both wipers on when it's raining. It makes me feel much safer and I'd never know if having that little bit of extra vision will be helpful or not until it's too late.
Now during the summer I will remove the passenger arm and I'm sure there's an aerodynamic gain from it. I'd rather have it and not need it

[dirtydave]

I noticed a slight bump in MPG with a wiper deflector. I think its the way to go over just a delete.Depends with the vehicle but I bet you could make the airflow cleaner with a deflector. It also could be easier to remove if it rains instead of messing around with little 10mm bolts. Depends how you made it and the car in question...

Mine is just ducttape and coroplast and I just rip it off when its raining. I removed my wipers before. It started raining as soon as I got on the highway. I have rainX now!

[spacemanspif]

Is the video working for anyone? I uploaded it from my iPhone but not sure if that matters or not.

[freebeard]

I checked again, no joy.

I'm not a good example because I don't have Flash™ installed. Video posted directly in the thread often don't work but if I follow the link to Youtube they will there.

[spacemanspif]

Hmm mine is only uploaded to photobucket. Maybe I'll use my gmail and post it to YouTube

[Cobb]

I use to like rain x, but found turtle wax ice works even better plus you can get it all over your car. Its like coating your car in babyoil.

[spacemanspif]

Originally Posted by Cobb

I use to like rain x, but found turtle wax ice works even better plus you can get it all over your car. Its like coating your car in babyoil.

Well when I did my windshield, I used up the last of my RainX. Maybe I'll pick up the Turlewax when I need to reapply...