Winter wiper blades: Beam vs winter blades

[fdcg27]

On two of our vehicles, there is a particular problem with ice building up between the frame of the blade, and the blade itself under freezing precip conditions, which results in the blade making progressively worse contact with the glass, at which point it is necessary to stop, get out, and knock the ice off of the wipers. This is not always safe or easy to do, but the alternative is an ice covered windshield.
It seems as though the traditonal rubber encapsulated winter blades would avoid this problems entirely.
Who has used them, and what are your observations?
How well do the beam type blades work in this regard.
Lacking any external frame, I would think they would do pretty well.
Who can share their experiences with them?
I will be buying blades for three of the cars in the next couple of days, and winter is almost upon us.
I am leaning toward the beam type, so I wonder how they would do in freezing precip conditions?

 

[The_Jeff]

Those traditional winter blades with the "condoms" (for lack of a better term) really catch the slipstream at highway speed and are a pretty horrible compromise. The rubber tears within a winter sometimes then degrades them into normal, awful wipers. Plus on a curvy windscreen they do not do well.

I would go with the beam blades.

 

[NHHEMI]

I am afraid I will disagree with the above. I have had great sucess with traditional winter blades. I hate these new fangled ones they try and say work better. In my opinion and experience you can't beat the traditional winter blades. JMHO.

 

[rcy]

+1 for the beam blades.

They stay planted at highway speeds unlike the traditional winter blades, and they conform to the curve of the windshield quite well, and there's no place for ice to build up.

However, as you can see from this post already, your experience may differ.

 

[Kaboomba]

I recently installed the Trico Neoform blades, and I'm very happy with them. Trico has a "winter" beam type blade that you might look into. There's a $20 rebate deal going on, so they don't cost much more than your basic cheapo blade.

But I don't believe any particular blade will resist or prevent all icing. The best you can hope for is reduced frequency.

NHHEMI,

A lot of the success you have with any particular blade can be traced to how well it conforms to your particular vehicle windshield.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Having used both in a climate that boasts plenty of snow and ice I much prefer the beam style blades. I currently have Valeo's on everything. They were purchased on sale from TireRack; the sale price was only slightly more than a set of standard wipers. I've read reviews that the RainX brand are also good, but I don't have any personal experience with them.

The booted style winter blades, while still better than the open frame style, don't match the performance of the beam style for my application.

 

[rjundi]

I have driven in New England for 20 years. The only wipers I have problems with are traditional winter type as they accumulate muck and are terrible on warm days. I use standard $5-$6 anco blades and throw out every 6 months and they work wonderfully.

 

[opus1]

I've not been impressed with "winter" blades.

The beam blades seem to work better for me, although they're still not perfect.

 

[PT1]

Originally Posted By: opus1
I've not been impressed with "winter" blades.

The beam blades seem to work better for me, although they're still not perfect.


+1 The winter blades ice up on me as well.

 

[mrsilv04]

I run the sleeved winter blades from early December through the end of March, and the new style beam blades the rest of the time.

Works for me.

 

[andyd]

School me, what is a beam blade? I don't get out much.

 

[mechanicx]

I haven't really noticed any problems with the winter blades even used year around. The beam style is supposedly an all-season blade an is now OEM on a lot of cars. It probably is a little bit better made than your typical winter blade but cost more.

 

[Gradient]

Originally Posted By: andyd
School me, what is a beam blade? I don't get out much.

 

[charbaby]

The beam blades are supposed to make 100% of their contact on the windshield as to reduct streaking and having more uniform pressure across the blade. If you look at standard blades, or the track that they're mounted in, most have mutiple contact points. Beam style blades have infinate contact points and have a slight curvature for supposedly better contact to the windshield. Hope I explained that correctly and it's of some help to those whom don't get out much. LOL!

 

[charbaby]

Whom? Is that right?

 

[mechtech2]

Covered winter blades help a lot with one type of winter problem - snow and ice impeding the flexible blades function.
But like many blades, they seem to get hard at 20 deg F or below, and do a progressively poor job at cleaning.
The one piece blades seem promising.

 

[rszappa1]

I am happy with the OEM blades on my Accord. I have tried aftermarket but end up going back and just ordering refills for it.....

 

[Kestas]

Just looking at the beam blades I don't see how they can provide uniform pressure along the length. The curve of the arc changes as the wiper sweeps across the windshield. How can the center of the blade and the outer edge of the blade have the same force against the glass? How does it do it differently from the conventional design? It seems to me the conventional design can do a better job of maintaining even pressure as the arc changes.

 

[lexus114]

I dont know why some of you guys are dumping on the beam blades? they work very well during the winter. They dont have the traditional pressure points that get frozen up,and streak like crazy during snow,or freezing rain. I think they work much better than traditional blades all around,including summer time.

 

[charbaby]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Just looking at the beam blades I don't see how they can provide uniform pressure along the length. The curve of the arc changes as the wiper sweeps across the windshield. How can the center of the blade and the outer edge of the blade have the same force against the glass? How does it do it differently from the conventional design? It seems to me the conventional design can do a better job of maintaining even pressure as the arc changes.


I don't think that they're perfect but, the next best thing. The curvature helps along the length of the blade as where the arm forces down in the middle area. As perfect as there is now! I've been in friends vehicles that are using the beam type blades and they seem to work in foul weather the way that I would like wiper blades to work. I beleive that the beam style blades are what I'll be buying next.