Why do you put your wipers up before it snows?

[supton]

Quick canvass of neighborhood: three out of 10 cars wipers up.

Just flipped ours up. Cleaned off as much as I can, letting the sun melt some more, will scrape this afternoon before dropping back down (no one needs to go out today).

Found out my son left the gas door open, with the gas cap on it. At least he didn’t lose that… but I wonder how much snow got in. Sheesh. Kids…

 

[Ranger83]

My Outback (like most) has a heater at the base of the windshield. Burt the filler panel is plastic. If you don’t clear it out it can build up onto the wiper blade in certain conditions.

 

[TiGeo]

My Outback (like most) has a heater at the base of the windshield. Burt the filler panel is plastic. If you don’t clear it out it can build up onto the wiper blade in certain conditions.

View attachment 259763

Yes, like my VWs but I've never found that build up like in your picture an issue for the wipers to work, I just clear the glass/wipers and brush out what I can around them and head out.

 

[Ranger83]

Yes, like my VWs but I've never found that build up like in your picture an issue for the wipers to work, I just clear the glass/wipers and brush out what I can around them and head out.

Average annual snowfall in
Richmond, VA: 8.8”.
Boston, MA: 49”.
Sunapee, NH: 85”.

So, sure.

 

[supton]

Average annual snowfall in
Richmond, VA: 8.8”.
Boston, MA: 49”.
Sunapee, NH: 85”.

So, sure.

Gee, with that much snow, they oughta have a ski resort!

oh wait...

 

[TiGeo]

Average annual snowfall in
Richmond, VA: 8.8”.
Boston, MA: 49”.
Sunapee, NH: 85”.

So, sure.

Snow is snow. When I lived further north this didn't change how I managed my wipers when it snowed

 

[loneryder]

Snow is snow. When I lived further north this didn't change how I managed my wipers when it snowed

In the teens. It would take more than 10 min to defrost this. Glad I pulled them out last night.

 

[KrisZ]

Lifting the wipers is very useful in these types of situations. I obviously failed to do it, but being in Texas, the ice broke away easily during the day once the temps got warmer.
But it would’ve been a lot harder if the temps stayed low.

 

[meep]

I’ve considered a small space heater, set to the the lower (500w) setting, braced on a sheet of wood or something on the open floorboard, temp set lower, like 50f, with clearance from all flammables, and a lamp timer feeding an extension cord to the car. An hour before go time, heater comes on. Probably wouldn’t even need that. Probably just need 30 minutes. Saves all the trouble, except wrapping up the cord pre-flight.

 

[andrew_j]

I wish my middle daughter lifted wipers. The older blade was frozen to windshield and tore rubber off in -1f temp.

 

[ARB1977]

It’s a must in north Texas…yeah I know. We get more ice than anything. Don’t want them freezing to the wind shield.

 

[incognito_2u]

So, where I live, we get both a powdery dry snow, and depending on the temperature, a somewhat heavy wet snow. The powdery snow wipes right off with a push of the wiper stalk. When that wet snow falls onto the window and the temperature drops overnight, the wiper blades freeze to the windshield which would most likely burn out the wiper motor when you turn them on to clear the snow. When the wipers are in the up position (I’ve heard it referred to as the “Service position”), it also aids in the ease of scraping.

 

[MrJayhawk]

I wish my middle daughter lifted wipers. The older blade was frozen to windshield and tore rubber off in -1f temp.

This is why I lift mine when freezing rain/drizzle is forecast. I have had wipers tear in past. Snow is not an issue, thats what snowbrushes are for. Get enough ice there and if they are down you might literally need a chisel to get them free.

 

[wander2039]

Nope, I've had a couple of cars with extremely weak springs in the arms. I contributed that to the arms being put up to frequent by the PO.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

My cars had the Window Frost Guard on so covered and easy to clear and wipers/cowl area covered.

I was at the firehouse for snow standby and most wipers were up except 3 vehicles. One of them tried to clear his windshield when we had to move for the plow and broke the blades at plastic attachment. One pulled the rubber off the blades when he tried to lift them up to clear but they were old he said. 3rd one got luckier. He thought he broke them but it was an odd multi clip attachment thing and unsnapped from the blade. Once I unhooked the rest of clip for him and brought inside was able to reattach.

Yesterday at BJ's guy drives up with the maybe basketball sized viewing port in front his face. Nothing else cleared. If you didn't hit it early and let sun or heat help, the 10F makes it very difficult.

I normally put the heat on high and on split floor / face, not defrost while clearing the rest of car. I think I did 3-4 windshields over the years when that really hot defrost found that weak chip area with ice around it and made a full length crack. I had ice storms at school that I broke multiple ice scrapers trying to get stuff cleared.

 

[TiGeo]

The folks that mention ice and freezing the wipers to the windshield and them tearing...so you are pulling them off before you have run the defroster to heat them up a bit to release them while clearing off everything else? I've just never had this drama I guess - and we typically have more freezing rain/ice/mix or that with snow than anything else in the mid-Atlantic.

 

[grampi]

I never do it. If it's cold enough to freeze, I always start my car to let it warm the interior, and clear the windows. This process unfreezes the wiper blades to the WS, if they were frozen to it...

 

[Ranger83]

Today in Boston is the day for wipers up.

Daughter’s boyfriend’s Jeep Cherokee needed a new wiper blade. Just so happens it’s the same 26A used on the Subarus, so we had a spare Bosch Iccon.

Rain changed to a dusting of snow overnight. Lucky the blade was trashed as it broke pulling it off the windshield anyway.

 

[Torrid]

I leave them down. Most modern cars have heating elements in the glass specifically for the wipers.

 

[Torrid]

So as a question, is there a car that has wipers that hide away that doesn’t have heated wipers? I would assume there wouldn’t be an option to get them off the glass without leaving the wipers in service mode.