“Winter wipers - with the rubber coverings that keep ice from collecting on the blade - have become very popular. They’re great in the winter, but make sure you take them off in the spring. Winter wipers are heavy, and if you use them all summer, you’ll wear out the wiper motor prematurely.”
So, this morning I went off to Parts-R-Us to get some for the family’s cars. First, the store does not have the rubber-booted kind. They have various brands of “all-weather” that have shielded arm-to-blade joints.
QUERY #1: Are those things any good, and would we still swap them out for non-winter (to reduce the load on the wiper motor)?
I decided to get them (and return them if you guys say the are not worth it). First car: 2008 Civic. The electronic selector at the store offers two or three different lengths for each side! I give up and come home.
(I don’t see where they bother to tell me which side.)
I go to Honda’s website, and finally find 700mm for one side and 625mm for the other. Well, that’s 27.559" and 24.6". Does not match up with whole-inch lengths at Parts-R-Us.
QUERY #2: How would you decide which inch-length to use?
(BONUS QUERIES: #1. If you used the longest suggested length for both sides, might the blades not interfere? #2. Why does it have to be so complicated?)
I’ve been using Bosch Icons for a while now. They aren’t cheap, but they last longer than anything else I’ve ever used. I’ve never had an issue finding the correct length
Almost every company has beam type winter blades now, The Bosch Icon blades are the most expensive and probably the best. The Rainex L attitude are cheaper and work well but I would not use them in the larger sizes, I have had them break at the mounting point in 24" and 26" sizes in heavy wet snow.
As far as size go , it’s not rocket science, measure yours and measure the ones in the store. Most brands measure slightly smaller than the nominal size. If you can
t get an exact match, go smaller.
Blade type wipers have pretty much replaced the rubber booted kind. I used the rubber booted ones for decades, but these past year I’ve been using the blade style(beam type) and I like them better. They don’t ice up at all and they have less of a tendency to chatter on the highway (less lift).
I went 2" shorter on my driver’s side (from 27" to 25") and 1" shorter on my passenger side to decrease lift on the highway. It worked very well on my car.
But that was a few years ago when I was still using rubber booted wipers. With the beam-type, I may not even need to do that anymore… although I’ve continued to use the shorter wipers anyway.
If you still have the OEM honda wipers on it just replace with the Honda branded refills. They cost $10ish from Dealer for both refills(rubber only) and have a superior wiping ability to anything aftermarket I have tried.
My finding on wipers is cost has little do perfect wiping except some longevity. Replacing them often gives you the best wiping/vision does so why not buy the cheapest. Our Subaru I use ones called SuperTech and they are great every 4 months.
Are those things any good, and would we still swap them out for non-winter (to reduce the load on the wiper motor)?
Then, just like a lot of things we do for winter, this might be ideal. Like @VOLVO70 said, it’s not complicated. One thing to consider too. Most booted winter wipers that I have owned years ago, failed more because of exposure to sunlight. Coating the rubber boot regularly helps. But, attention to the windshield and wiper (cleaning with alcohol to prevent streaking and freeing mechanism etc) during the winter prior to start up in the last 20 years, we have not felt a need to use special wipers.
Re: query #2, you can either just go by the catalog, which every retailer has or, of there’s a chatter problem at high speed, do as I did. Go a bit shorter.
This job is a lot simpler if you take the car to the auto parts store, at a time when they aren’t super-busy. And avoid the big box auto parts stores for this. You want an auto parts store where someone has worked there a long time, like the owner of the store is on hand to assist. So visit a local independent auto parts store with the car, ask someone there to come outside and take a look at what you got on the car now, then ask them to recommend a major wiper brand where you can buy the whole blade now, and replace just the replaceable blade the next time. Better if they can offer an OEM compatible blade, so it is close to an exact match to what was on the car when it was new. And make sure they stock the replacement blades. Write down all the corresponding part numbers while you are at it.
I’ve just really never used anything except the OEM wipers. Once in a while in a real wet snow, you’d have to clear the ice off them but really no big thing. Dealer refills for the Acura were about $15 and work well. Of course the blades for the Pontiac are $35 each because of the attachment method but have lasted several years.
Back in the days of metal wiper frames (bad terminology?) icing was a very common problem in the environment where I drive. I’ve had it happen several times years ago. When booted wipers came along, that was a big improvement. Today’s bladed wipers seem to have eliminated the problem.
Re: changing the wipers over seasonally, I’ve never done that and never burned up a wiper motor or damaged a mechanism, even after hundreds of thousands of miles. But that’s only my personal experience. I’ve never seen any data on the subject.
The OEM wipers on my 2011 Outback are of the beam type, and I found–to my delight–that they make it unnecessary to buy a second set of “booted” winter blades. So, I agree with the other forum members who have found the newer-design beam-type blades to be a major improvement in design.
On a related note, I handle most of the maintenance on my friend’s Rav-4, and when he needed new wipers recently, I went to the Toyota dealership to buy a new pair. What we found was that Toyota’s wiper blades no longer come from Japan, and that they are now manufactured in China. I assumed that Toyota’s quality standards would mean that this was a difference without a distinction–but I was wrong.
From the first day, these brand-new Chinese-made wiper blades began chattering as they swept across the Rav’s windshield. I tried cleaning the glass and the blades multiple times, but they still chattered. After having used nothing but Japanese-made Toyota wipers in the past, it was obvious to my friend and me that the composition of the rubber on these Chinese-made Toyota wipers is just not the same. My friend was so disgusted with the performance of these new blades that he asked me to get a different brand–with price being no object–as long as they worked w/o driving him crazy.
So, I spent the big bucks for a pair of Bosch Icon blades, and they work incredibly well. The almost-new Toyota wiper blades are sitting in my garage as a spare pair, but based on how excellent the Bosch blades are, I think that they will be the only brand that either my friend or I use from now on.
Here are your blade sizes, different size is for a PTB coupe it appears.
Driver 26 9 X 3 HOOK, Sedan, Remove end cover on blade to install, cannot re-use cover
Driver 28 PTB, Coupe
Passenger 22 9 X 3 HOOK, Sedan, Remove end cover on blade to install, cannot re-use cover
Passenger 24 PTB, Coupe