Bosch Icon wipers

[Blake Sobiloff]

Has anyone else run into these yet? I just saw a display for them at AutoZone when I went in to pick up some Havoline for an upcoming oil change. They look like the Valeo Ultimate wipers that the Tire Rack has been selling--they're a "bracketless" design that uses spring steel to keep the blade in a curved shape. Without the brackets of typical wipers they sit much lower on the windshield, reducing the chance they'll lift or chatter at speed.

I used to use Bosch Micro Excel wipers during the summer and Anco winter blades during the winter on my QX4. I've been using a pair of the Valeos for about half a year now and have been quite happy with them. They saw me through a couple of big snowstorms in the mountains without icing up, and they don't lift like even the Bosch tend to do above 80 MPH. (The Anco winter blades were, obviously, even worse, lifting around 60 MPH.) I'm hoping they'll last at least a full year, as they're too darned expensive to replace any sooner than that.

In fact, the only thing I didn't like about the Valeos was the exorbitant pricing on them. The prices dropped a couple of months ago, so I wonder if that's when they heard about the Bosch Icons?

Anyways, the pricing on the Icons was $17 to $22 per blade, depending on the length. That's about par with the Valeos now, but instead of shipping from the Tire Rack I'd get to pay sales tax at the AutoZone. It's nice to have a choice of brands and a local supplier.

 

[moribundman]

I have been using one the driver side for the past few months, and we have had plenty rain (record rain, actually). On the right side I have to use the old-style wiper, because the A4's windshieed is curved a lot and the bracketless will not flex enough at the outmost edge to make contact. And yes, Bosch claims their wiper fits perfectly. Valeo is more honest and points out the problem.

My suggestion: Buy one wiper (they come as singles). The driver side is generally no issue. Try this wiper also on the passenger side and see if it works there before buying a second wiper.

If you consider two different wiper design on the car to be ghetto, well, then you better hope the passenger side wiper fits fine. I think fit is only an issue with very curved windshields. As I previously mentioned, my A4 has a special wiper with a seriously curved bracket on the passenger side.

The main advantage of the bracketless design is the that the blade makes contact with the glass with very even pressure, and that there is no brakcet that can freeze or become stiff due to corrosion and dirt. An airfoil is inbuilt.

 

[Matt_S]

GM has been putting this type of wiper on a lot of their new cars. They do work very well at speed with the built in airfoil and I really like the idea that the metal bracket is no longer necessary. They look a lot sleeker, too.

 

[sxg6]

i dont have the icon wipers. i have something very similar which is sold at pep boys, i forget their name. no bracket along the whole wiper, just connector in the middle of the wiper with a fairly large bracket.


anyways, i love these wipers. with all the rain we've had recently they performed wonderful in a long road trip i took. ill never go back to traditional wipers. i believe i paid $12 for each wiper also.

 

[outrun]

I am a "budding" european car afficianado. In other words if I see a BMW will say "cool," but can not tell ya much on the model. One unknown BMW sedan had what looked like ICON style wipers on it from the "faktory." I have no experiance with them, but do want them for my next change. Currently I run the Bosch MicroEdge Excel. Long service life, never chatter, good clean swath if you keep the blade wiped down occasionally. 1.5yrs on them definately time for change

 

[moribundman]

Te one thing that I have used on my windshield for many years, a thing which maintains wiper blades each time they wipe, is a Swedish product called SafeSight. I highly recommend it.

Sorry, you'll have to learn Swedish...

 

[2Fast4U]

RainX and any old blade when driving less then 50, anything over 50 you don't even need wipers with rainx. I had the same set of wipers for probably 4 or 5 years and here in Tampa we get heavy rainstorms nearly every afternoon in the summer.

 

[moribundman]

RainX works fine as long as windshield and wiper hygiene are great. If you don't keep either one clean, RainX will smear quickly.

Horror story from a few weeks ago: I was driving on 101 in a torrential downpour and suddenly the most vile, sticky glob of gunk the size of a jawbreaker gumball landed out of seemingly nowhere right smack-dab on the windshield. The wipers, which at this time were working overtime at high speed, very quickly distributed this sticky black goo all over the windshield. I actually had to pull over and clean the worst of it off, or I wouldn't have been able to see anything. What that stuff was I never found out, but it was sort of like uncured silicone, so you can imagine the mess. At home I had to clean the windshield with acetone.

 

[AndyH]

Yup, I've got the Bosch ICON blades on my STi now, purchased them a couple of months ago to replace my Valeo Ultimate blades. Both work very well, with the nod going to the ICON blades for a slightly "cleaner" installed look. I just installed a set of the ICON blades on my girlfriend's '01 Audi A4 and she likes them a lot more than the Bosch Micro Edge Excel blades that she had used previously. Picked mine up at AutoZone and got in on a free $15 gift card deal (mail-in offer) that was going on a while back.

 

[keith]

The Icon and Valeo need a fairly flat windshield. If there is a sharp curve at the sides, forget about these and save your money because they will not clean the sides of the windshield.

The cheap Michelin blades sold in Walmart are working fine on my cars. The Icon and Valeo do have a nice look to them and that alone is worth the extra price to some.