About time to replace the wiper blades. Here's the question; Once again big advertising blitz on special rubber coated blade mechanisms. Are they worth the extra cost?
I get about one year of trouble free service out of plain old style blades. Will the improved versions last twice as long?
i bought my car new and my blades lasted for 4 years no trouble.
After 4 years i went to canadian tire and they said these were the best, so i bought them. But they just gave me trouble i bought different ones and they still were garbage.
I finally got tired and went to my dealership and i bought a pair from them which was cheaper than those rubber ones in that picture, just like the orignal ones, they work great. According to them only hyundai parts for hyundai works best.
I've always used the cheap pylon brand ones from walmart and never had any problems with them. I bought a pair of the fancy winter type ones mentioned last year during boxing day last year for my mother and they have been fine. Not good enough to warrant buying them at full price.
Go to the dealership. You will not find better blades for your car then what came with the car. Period. End of story. I have tried every brand on the market from special winter blades to ones covered in rubber nothing operates like the original.
+1
I have had the same experience
nothing is better than the factory..
money well spent.
less headache and less driving around for returns and less time spent driving around hunting for a brand that works.
small carbon foot print
Just curious - when do you know it's time to replace the wipers? My wife and I have had three cars between us, two bought used and one new, we have had each of those cars for anywhere between four and six years. Even on the used cars, the wipers came with the cars and I do not know when they were replaced or if they ever were.
All my wipers seem (to my layman's eye) to work properly and I have never had to replace a wiper; hence my question.
First if you hear squeaking when it goes across the windshield while wet it is time to replace generally. If you windshield is not crystal clear after then it is time to replace.
A reminder to everyone in the winter becuase someone last year hit me due to their windshield not being clear and yet decided to go through a stop sign. Idiot. Keep washer fluid topped up and keep an extra bottle in the car. You can buy cheap washer fluid at Walmart or Costco I find.
I thought I was the only one who gets my blades from the dealer ... My Toyota has the original wipers (metal part), and I just get new replacement rubber blades for it every few years - frequency depends upon how much grit I've had land on the windshield. (Buy the rubber strip at the dealer and they'll usually install it for free.)
I find they work better and longer if you clean the rubber blades with a paper towel moistened with windshield washer fluid every time you fill the vehicle.
I had the windshield replaced last year and part of the package was new windshield wipers. I hated them - noisy and not very good. Bounced and squeaked and left streaks. Fortunately the old wipers were still in the vehicle so I switched back and 'happiness is'.
We made the mistake of buying some of those 'fancy' teflon wipers for my husband's truck a couple of years ago. I think they lasted 6 months. He hated them - left a haze on the glass for a few seconds every swipe.
A lot depends on the abuse you put your car and wipers through. One sure way is if you park outside during winter. There is no doubt you'll reduce the life of the blades as opposed if you park in a nice garage both at home and at work. Stuff like, the rubber freezing to the windshield, using the wipers to clear ice and snow, having the wipers coat with ice, etc all cause the blades to fail rapidly.
I've always had issues with replacement wipers, even those "winter" wipers ended up being more of a detriment than help. Especially when I was trucking. Nothing like trying to reach around through the driver's window with a tire bat and try to beat the ice buildup from the wiper arms while driving in traffic.
Best widely available replacements I've found are Bosch wipers.
A lot depends on the abuse you put your car and wipers through. One sure way is if you park outside during winter. There is no doubt you'll reduce the life of the blades as opposed if you park in a nice garage both at home and at work. Stuff like, the rubber freezing to the windshield, using the wipers to clear ice and snow, having the wipers coat with ice, etc all cause the blades to fail rapidly.
I've always had issues with replacement wipers, even those "winter" wipers ended up being more of a detriment than help. Especially when I was trucking. Nothing like trying to reach around through the driver's window with a tire bat and try to beat the ice buildup from the wiper arms while driving in traffic.
Best widely available replacements I've found are Bosch wipers.
Not an option for many... like myself, but if you know it is going to snow or freeze rain lifting the wipers up off the wind shield when parked is a way to stop the blades from freezing to the windshield.
I find it interesting that so many people have had good experiences with OEM wiper blades - I have had the opposite experience: The OEM blades never lasted more than 6 months before they began to leave streak marks and just generally do a bad job. (I drive a Mazda.) I too need to replace my blades before any real snow fall hits this year as my current OEM blades (from factory) are downright terrible now. I'll have to look at Bosch's offerings.
I bought my last set at PartSource, but NAPA should carry them as well. They went on my wife's car, that was two winters ago. My 09 F150 is still on the OEM blades with no issues.
Sadly the OEM wipers eventually got so weak that replacing just the blade was not doing the trick.
Have been going aftermarket since. Either way the blade itself is good for about a year. Combination of winter temps dropping into the -30°s and some hot dry days over the summer. To be fair I do replace them once the drivers side blade develops a few nicks, long before they would be a hazard if the weather conditions were particularly bad.
Looks like I'll just continue along the same route.
I replace my blades yearly, makes a big difference. I suppose a lot depends on the make/model and windshield shape, but I got tired of the traditional segmented blades always missing one spot or not sitting flush at the ends etc- I use Reflex blades. I like them.
And I use Rain-X fluid. I also put the Rain-X treatment on the glass in the late fall. Rain-X will have a 'greasy' look if you start using it on windows that aren't clean. Clean your windows thoroughly. Also, the greasy or foggy look is just the water beading into very fine droplets. Once you get a coating/ clean your windows, you won't see that. Ice is much easier to scrape with Rain-X on the glass, and in rain the water beads off so effectively and quickly, you don't need your wipers as much.
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