Good Wiper Blades?

[Festy46]

It seems that lately when I buy windshield wiper blades, they wipe clean for a couple months and then just smear the windshield after that. I do a lot of night driving and there is nothing worse than looking at oncoming headlights through a smeared windshield. Does anybody have a recommendation for a type or brand that works well?

[Flyin4stroke]

Wipers all suck. I use rain-x, the only time you use wipers is for bugs or to wash off the rain-x. I've noticed that after using rain-x and getting it on the blades while new they will last longer. I've had cheap blades go a full yr in Florida weather.

[crazyrog17]

The aerodynamics at the base of the windshield don't make it easy for wipers. I've had good luck with low profile beam style blades

[tooldude]

I used to see some great wiper blades with enhanced high quality rubber and special space-age shapes at Walmart and local auto parts stores but they always had special enhanced prices. Now I enhance my wipers myself with a special blend of washer fluid. I slowly add drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent as I fill the reservoir. Just a dab (that's an emotional measurement based on weather and personality characteristics) - unless, of course, you would like to make some bubbles too. It's super cheap and seems to make the rubber last a little longer. It's really great on the streaking, oily mess that flies off the big trucks around here which, I think, gets me points with the little woman.

[drddan]

I used to see some great wiper blades with enhanced high quality rubber and special space-age shapes at Walmart and local auto parts stores but they always had special enhanced prices. Now I enhance my wipers myself with a special blend of washer fluid. I slowly add drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent as I fill the reservoir. Just a dab (that's an emotional measurement based on weather and personality characteristics) - unless, of course, you would like to make some bubbles too. It's super cheap and seems to make the rubber last a little longer. It's really great on the streaking, oily mess that flies off the big trucks around here which, I think, gets me points with the little woman.

That is an awesome idea. Dawn is amazing. Use it for multiple things. Sorta like WD-40 has multiple ueses

[TominMO]

I generally get either low-profile Bosch or Rain-X blades. Out of all the brands I've tried, they seem to work best. But yeah, nothing works really well at hwy speeds on a Festy due to the hood/windshield angle.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

I find that, after a few months, blades take a "set" at the "trailing" angle they have when descending. The result is that the blades become permanently angled the wrong way on the up-stroke. To avoid this, when not using wipers for long periods of time (e.g. summer, Seattle's dry season), I prop them the arms up off the windshield with little blocks of wood. The result is cheaper blades lasting on the order of a year.

[Movin]

I clip the end of the beam type and put cheap refills in about twice a year. The beam type seems to be good to about 80 mph but anything faster makes both the door window and the wipers jump when you meet a truck.

Dish and clothes washer soaps have rubber seal treatments added I wonder if that would help or make a bad mess. It would not take much.

[M3NTAL]

Rain X here. With Cheap wipers.

[Ninjawimp]

I bought some Rain X Lattitudes a year ago. Wasn't impressed with them at all. Didn't get a full year out of them but I do use Rain X on my windshield & I will never go without it. You could literally drive without wiper blades when driving. Makes a huge difference.

[Larry Hampton]

I use Rain-X but the best boades I've found are the Bosch beams.

[sketchman]

There was a beam design that I only go to use once. It got thinner at the tips and was pretty thing all the way to the center. Wish I could still find them.

Otherwise I use plain Rain-X old style. The beams always tend to not make full contact. That seems weird to me given that's part of the point of them, but I always get the ends not pressing down enough. Never had that issue with normal mechanical blades.

[Festy46]

I had been using Rain-x fluid. But this spring, whenever it would rain, and other vehicles threw water from the highway on the windshield mixed with some of that liquid ice melt stuff the state sprays on the road, it would make a smeary mess and the Rain-x wouldn't cut it. I tried some of the purple stuff ( I don't remember the name of it), but that was no better. Putting a little liquid soap in sounds like it might work. It's worth a try. I'm going to buy just one blade for the driver's side. The passenger side wipes fine.

[bobstad]

wiping the surfaces of life...

This is one of the strangest experiences I've ever had with a commercial product. During the dozen years from 1982-1984 I spent mostly living out of a 1966 VW "square-back" Type III station wagon, I put about 100,000 miles on doing so; I chanced to pick up a pair of "lifetime" windshield wiper blades, at a dollar store in Ukiah, CA.

Those blades will not wear out!

I used them for a long time on that VW, then finding they also fit the 1975 Chevy panel van I replaced the VW with, they were on that probably nearly the all 14,000 miles the Chevy carried me, too. There'd been a crack on the right half the Chevy windshield, which damaged to some degree the wiper blade on that side; which always streaked from the abuse...making me wonder if I might be able to trim or somehow re-smooth with sandpaper or similar, the damaged surface on that particular blade?

These indeed, had cost only a dollar; and are made of a red colored plastic, rather than the normal black nearly all other wiper blades are made from-the plastic which makes up the frame the red plastic blades are in, is clear plastic instead of black, too. I still have them, and though they don't fit the Festiva as is; I think I'm probably awaiting some imagined effort, at modifying them to fit.

Otherwise, I find typically that other brands of wiper blades can benefit from various sorts of care; which typically may restore them, at least a little though often a great amount. Such as types of solvents used to clean up their rubber which contacts the windshield.

One expedient, I think may've become unpopular for environmental reasons-though which my pharmacist father invented, who'd also been one credit short of his degree in chemistry; was using in any car's windshield washer machine's reservoir, something with both detergent or cleanser of some type, along with a strong ammonia solution.

One feasible alternative to ammonia, which I'm not sure or not if I've ever tried; would be addition of vinegar, which I do know is often a favored component of a window washing solution. I also don't know what a person would get combining ammonia and vinegar; though if that weren't dangerous or otherwise unstable, I think I'd try them together.

I used to work often in janitor jobs; and there ammonia is commonly used, to strip floors of long accumulations of wax-sometimes layered up over decades, in fact. This takes a lot of will to be around, as the ammonia used in such jobs is at the highest possible concentration of that chemical; so that breathing the powerful fumes is unavoidable, and certainly a noxious if recoverable enough experience.

[F3BZ]

start from square one. you might not see it or feel it but there can be a lot of microscopic crud adhering to an old windshield that even the best glass spray cleaner doesn't remove. there might be other systems but i've been using Griots glass clay and then glass polish on a special 3" or 6" pad that fits an orbital buffer. you can do it by hand also. other than stone dings this will give you a smooth as new surface which should increase wiper longevity and a better surface for any rain repellant.