Wiper Recommendations

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Any recommendations for wiper blades? Seems like every wiper I try, they all give the same result after about 4 months. I don't mind paying a bit extra.
 
I just bought Anco 31's yesterday. Ive been looking for good wiper blades for quite some time. Ive tried: Rain X regular, rain x latitude, michelin, and goodyear. All of them were good for the first few months, then they got squeeky despite my best efforts to keep them and the windshield clean.
 
They're pricey, but the PIAA silicone set on my Volvo have been working well for a year now...

All my cars sit outside (except one) and they go through blades about every 6 months...except for that PIAA set...

I should add that I use Rain-X as well...but I haven't noticed that it saved wiper wear, the wipers seem to degrade more from UV/exposure than from wear/friction...
 
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I like the Trico Visionall we sell at work. Been on my car for 3 years. Of course I use Rain-x washerfluid so my wipers don't have a hard life. The Rain-x does a lot of the work to repel water off of my windshield.
 
Originally Posted By: coopns
Any recommendations for wiper blades? Seems like every wiper I try, they all give the same result after about 4 months. I don't mind paying a bit extra.


Is your windshield really clean? Like clay barred clean? If you are only getting 4 months good service, I'll bet it is not the wipers fault. How about the arm condition and tension?

BTW - what is your car?
 
I'm not a big fan of Michelin in general but their wiper blades are good. The new design which looks like a solid bar instead of all the metal bits works won't ice up as fast in winter.
 
I've never clay barred a windshield, always thought the oil in the clay would cause problems. Perhaps I'll try it on a corner. RainX requires very clean glass.
 
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I find Toyota wipers to beat them all, so it's all I use on my 4Runner. The Subaru wipers are pretty good too, so I use the OEMs. I have used so many that were not half as good...Trico, Rain-X, some [censored] Michelin one, etc. The most expensive fancy ones were less than mediocre. The Pylons are decent. On my Jeep, I will try something else depending on how long the OEMs last.
 
After years of trying many highly touted, expensive blades, I found that the standard Anco blades sold at WalMarts are the best value. Change them once every 12 to 18 months and forget them.
 
I buy OEM from now on. The factory Honda ones are good and I'll be getting them again from the dealer when they're due. 13 months old now and still working good, no intentions of changing any time soon.
 
For our Honda, I use the OEM refills. They are made in Japan and can't be beat!

On the Nissan, I bought some OEM refills that were made in Mexico. Those wore out pretty fast. I then tried the Bosch SteelTecs from WalMart. Pretty decent, but also wore fast. I went back to the Nissan dealer and they had OEM refills made in Japan. The wiper rubber looked totally different in color to anything I've seen (more grey). I put those on last weekend and so far I'm loving them. We've had rain the last couple of days and they are nice.

I think overall, sticking with the OEM seems to give me the best bang for my buck. They also fit really well!
 
Originally Posted By: K20FA5
I think overall, sticking with the OEM seems to give me the best bang for my buck. They also fit really well!


That's usually quite wise, and the safest bet. I've had one line of wipers work great on one vehicle, and then not worth a darn on another. My F-150 seems to get along with every wiper I throw at it. The old Audi was extremely picky, and Bosch old style frame blades were about the only thing that would work reasonably well for any length of time. The Infinti doesn't seem to be terribly picky, but I haven't tried a lot since I haven't had it long. It's running Anco Profiles right now, and I'm happy with them and get them for the right price.
 
I think the key is changing them regularly. Most wipers, even cheap Ancos, will perform well for 6-12 months.
 
Originally Posted By: coopns
Any recommendations for wiper blades? Seems like every wiper I try, they all give the same result after about 4 months. I don't mind paying a bit extra.


No need to.

Check out AAP's in-house line of cheapo wiper blades. You'll have to ask for them. We run them on our fleet trucks, they work so good I now use them on all our rides.
 
Silblade. Have had a set on my Mazda for 4 years now and are still working great. Just put a pair on the Ranger late last year. 5 year warranty.
 
PIAA silicon is a good bet. I change them every 2 years whether they need to be or not (they don't). I give the old ones to a guy at work who has the smae car as I do.
 
I haven't tried too many different kinds of wiper blades because I didn't get my first car too long ago.

I've used the Michelin wiper blades at Walmart. They lasted 1 year before they started chattering. I think they were $7.

I recently put the Rain=X Weatherbeaters on my buick. So far, they don't perform much differently.

On my new car, I put the Michelin wiper blades on again because they were cheap.

I'll probably try the Trico Exact Fit wiper blades from O' Reilly's next time I need new wipers. The Tricos are made in the USA.

I like the traditional blades. The beam blades cost too much and I've heard that they can sometimes miss the edges of the windsheild. I think the beam blades are only good for winter.

The Michelin blades are actually made by Pylon and not Michelin. http://pylonhq.com/index.shtml I found this out one day when I looked at the back of the package trying to figure out where they were made.
 
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