Wiper blades are the Rodney Dangerfield of automotive parts. Generally ignored and routinely forgotten, they’re a rarely thought of component … until they wear out or fall apart. Then they’re the subject of foul language and rude epithets as they give up the ghost, reduced to tattered strips of rubber serving only to smear bugs across the windshield.
Ignored when working well; cursed when worn out. No respect, indeed.
We’ve taken a look at this dusty corner of the automotive parts bin and assembled a few recommendations. For simplicity, 20-inch blades are linked here, as they are a common size. Be sure to check precisely what your car requires before laying out any money. Now, go check the wipers on your car before they wear out.
Table of Contents
1. Editor’s Pick: Michelin Stealth Ultra
Michelin knows a thing or two about rubber (place infantile joke here), so it is not wholly unreasonable they are in the wiper game. These are the same blades your author put on his trusty Dodge Charger many moons ago, wipers which were still working fine when he sold the thing with 200k on the clock. This is a blade with hinge joints, not the frameless type, a feature which – in my experience – provides more force on the blade for better contact on the car’s windshield. This gives a better sweep.
Unlike el-cheapo blades, the hinge system is covered, which keeps out debris and random bits of Skoal fired out the window of that brodozer hogging the left lane. Allegedly, independent tests showed the thing was still serviceable after 300,000 wipe cycles, an industry-leading performance (kids: make sure to ask your school’s guidance counselor about a future in the field of windshield wiper testing).
2. Traditional Choice: Anco 31-Series Wiper Blades
Anco has been making wiper blades since approximately the dawn of the automobile. If you’ve ever spent time loitering in the waiting room of a dimly-lit service center, there is an excellent chance there was a battered Anco stand in view.
Reliably the cheapest option, Anco blades are a decent pick if you’re in a pinch or ‘reconditioning’ a car for resale. This brand’s version of one-connector-fits-all is dubbed the KwikConnect, so it should fit most rigs with ease. This is a framed blade, meaning it will press down on your windshield in all the right places, at least straight out of the box. Its frame system does not have any sort of shielding, meaning it could get gummed up with road debris or snow. Some online reviews report the frame assembly falling apart quickly.
3. Best of the Rest: Rain-X Latitude 2-in-1
If you simply must have a frameless wiper, you’d be hard pressed to do better than these Rain-X units. This particular model in the Rain-X lineup bakes a level of its own water repellent right into the blade, meaning your windshield gets a coating of Rain-X during the initial few sweeps. The properties of Rain-X allow water to bead and quickly sheet off a car’s windshield at speed, negating the need to frequently hit the wiper stalk. It could be argued this feature will lead to a long wiper life since one doesn’t need to turn them on as often. The Rain-X repellent is supposed to last for several months.
Rain-X says its advanced beam-blade technology contours to the curvature of the windshield for a smooth, virtually streak-free wipe. Proponents of frameless wipers say that by removing the frame and its hinges, there are no pressure points that can lead to a deformed wiper that does not sweep properly. It must be said that this type of wiper, absent of any frame, is essentially a big squeegee. The company’s patented universal adapter makes for easy installation.
It is important to note that the first sweep of these wipers should be in the dry, as that is the best condition in which to apply the Rain-X solution. It’ll still work if you install these in the middle of a hurricane but it will take longer to activate.
4. Budget Choice: Trico Exact Fit
Operating on the complete opposite of the spectrum as the Rain-X blade is this basic unit from Trico. Offering an OE fit, these wipers will make your car look as if it just rolled out of the factory. Well, the wiper blade part of it, anyway. These framed wipers are the cheapest ones available from the brand and are available in loads of sizes – in fact, Trico claims no other manufacturer makes wipers to fit more vehicles than they do.
Trico takes the extra step of pre-assembling the wiper blade and receptor so the connector matches the car’s specific style of the wiper arm. The company has its own R&D center in Michigan, partially explaining why Trico-looking units seem to appear on many vehicles that roll out of Detroit factories. There is something to be said for a company whose focus is solely on one product, rather than an array of items.
5. Caterpillar Clarity Premium Wiper Blades
Yes, that Caterpillar. These wipers are a business school case study in a respected brand name that’s made a reputation building tough items (bulldozers, et al) and then decided to lend that name to various and sundry consumer products. In addition to wipers, one can find CAT branded work boots, suitcases, and outerwear.
As for these wipers, they’re offered in a variety of different sizes. It seems to be a better value if a person buys them by the pair, which makes sense. Here’s the good news: that pair doesn’t necessarily have to be the same size. For example, one can buy a 19 inch and 20 inch set of blades to take advantage of the discount.
6. PIAA Super Silicone Blades
Known more for their auxiliary lights capable of illuminating the dark side of the moon, PIAA has dipped a tentative toe into the wiper blade market. As with their lights, PIAA’s wipers are made of quality materials and are expensive. PIAA windshield wiper blades are made with silicone rubber, a material that allegedly gives greater visibility by coating the windshield with silicone during each sweep.
Silicone promotes continuous water beading in inclement weather, not unlike the Rain-X trick. PIAA says the advantage of silicone is that, compared to windshield coatings, the chance of a hazy film forming is much less. Water beads up into droplets at low speeds that are easily removed by ordinary wiping. At higher speeds, wind pressure pushes the water off the windshield, often without even requiring wiper use.
7. Thermalblade Heated Silicone Safety Wiper
Your author is never quite sure about ‘add-on’ automotive products after a particularly nasty experience with the installation of a one-size-fits-all Bass Cannon during his teenage years as a newly minted driver. However, that particular issue was probably installer error, given the fact I was a clueless teen who thought I knew everything. It was only a moderate fire, anyway.
Speaking of heat, this system purports to add warmth to your wiper blades, defrosting them and making them fit for use on a cold winter morning. We’ll note right here there are plenty of cars on the market these days that have a defroster grid in the wiper area. However, there are plenty of hoopties that don’t. Despite my hesitation towards adding wires on a moving part, the reviews are pretty good.
8. Bosch ICON Wiper Blade
With their fingers in just about every automotive pie, it should be no surprise to find the Bosch brand somewhere on this list of common auto parts. Their line of windshield wipers is available in an array of sizes and in either one- or two-packs. This is handy for those of us rocking older cars with equal-sized wipers on both the driver and passenger sides.
Bosch says their wipers have an exclusive tension spring arcing technology that creates a fit that’s custom-contoured to the curvature of each side of the windshield. Reviews certainly seem to back that up, with over 30,000 real-world customers giving these things an aggregate rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars. For a product that’s a commodity (and an invisible one at that), this is a pretty notable achievement.
FAQs
Which windshield wipers are rated the best?
If you’re planning to for aftermarket windshield wipers, some of the best-rated brands are:
- Bosch ICON (Buy here!)
The brand produces these dual-rubber single-piece wiper blades in various sizes to best suit your vehicle-specific requirements. In addition, these are also available in sets of two.
- ANCO 31 (Buy here!)
Available in several sizes, each for specific vehicles, these single-piece wiper blades from this brand are tagged with the Amazon’s Choice badge and are considered-pocket friendly products.
Note: The URLs given above are merely for referential purposes. The main idea here is to introduce the brands so you can have some direction to look at while buying wiper blades for your car.
Do expensive wiper blades make a difference?
An honest answer would be that it’s not about the price of the blades or any other product for that matter, but their quality.
It is generally thought that anything pricy would be of good quality. This is not true every time. There are instances where some accessories are available at a lower cost but last longer as compared to those with a higher price range.
The same is the case with wiper blades. If you are planning to replace them from an authorized service station of your car, the mechanics may suggest you way expensive stock items. On the other hand, if you visit a local auto spare part store, the blades that they offer could be equally durable but might be available at cheaper rates.
That said, before paying for wiper blades, check how costly the stock product is, look for some aftermarket alternatives, check their reviews and compare the price, and then put your money in them.
Which is better rubber or silicone wiper blades?
When comparing rubber and silicone wipers, the latter outperforms the former in almost every aspect. To elaborate:
- Durability
Silicone wipers can withstand heat, water, and other harsh environmental thrusts for longer durations. On the other hand, the rubber blades harden comparatively sooner by the heat strokes and therefore need frequent replacements.
- Functioning
Every time a silicone blade wipes the windshield, it leaves behind a hydrophobic coat (a thin layer of silicone) which makes it hard for the water to stay on the glass, thus giving you clear visibility. Because of this characteristic, the usage frequency of silicone blades is reduced resulting in their increased life.
On the contrary, rubber wiper blades offer no such protective solution and therefore they are more prone to wear and tear.
- Noise
Because silicone is soft, the blades made of this material remain gentle on the windshield and therefore are comparatively silent. Whereas rubber blades have a graphite coating and thus make a screechy noise while sliding on the glass.
However, when it comes to pricing, silicone wipers are a bit costlier than the rubber ones but the difference is quite insignificant, and the former blades are worth paying for.
Is it worth buying more expensive windshield wipers?
It all depends on which brand are you going for. Because the branded products don’t come cheap, you must check their reputation and the reviews that their existing customers have left.
Although the expensive wipers don’t need to be always good as the price tag is not a gauge of quality products, if the blades are made of expensive material, the cost of the overall product with automatically increase.
Nevertheless, if you plan to go for aftermarket wiper blades, you are advised to go for a good brand, regardless of the price they are sold at.
From time to time, TTAC will highlight automotive products we think may be of interest to our community. Plus, posts like this help to keep the lights on around here. Learn more about how this works.
(Editor’s note: This post is meant to both help you be an informed shopper for automotive products but also to pay for our ‘90s sedan shopping habits operating expenses. Some of you don’t find these posts fun, but they help pay for Junkyard Finds, Rare Rides, Piston Slaps, and whatever else. Thanks for reading.)
[Main photo credit: admin_design / ShutterStock.com. Product images provided by the manufacturer.]
After years of buying various blades from the isles of the local auto parts store I’ve switched to getting the OEM blades. eBay sellers offer these at more reasonable rates then the stealership’s 10X mark up. In fact the price is inline with the Bose ICONs (about $20 each). The OEMs obvious fit perfectly and work good enough for long enough. My experience with the “fits everything” aftermarket blades is they tend to look terrible. For example those Bose ICONs have a connector the size of a lighter.
Agreed. Never had a better blade than Motorcraft.
Right? You buy the new car and don’t think about changing the blades for two or three years, unless you are in in particularly harsh climate. Why not just buy those again?
Which are the ones most amenable to going full tilt when there’s a rain drop every 15 minutes? Those are popular for most in Minnesota.
Don’t buy your wiper blades in the store. I get them from RockAuto and toss them in with other orders at a fraction of the retail stores.
I buy the Bosch blades and I have had really good luck with them. My cars tend to sit for long periods of time and the Bosch seem to last a long time without dry rotting.
My advice is to skip the RainX blades. I am a 100% mark for RainX itself, but I gave the blades a shot and they never seemed to last more than a few months. Plus, at retail for RainX you can get 3 sets of Bosch from RockAuto.
I had bad experiences with Bosch
Slavuta, welcome back!
I now carry a package of baby wipes in the trunk of my car – they are nice to have after pumping gas or checking the oil or visiting a store. If you have let your wiper blades go too long and they are streaking, grab a baby wipe and swipe the contact edge of the wiper blade several times – this will get you through a rainstorm and buy you some time to get new blades. (Used to do this at home with 91% isopropyl on a cloth, but the wipes make it easy to do on the road.) Hit the windshield with some Sprayway foaming glass cleaner at the same time.
If your wipers are streaking and you need better vision *right now*, engage the washer function – yes in the rain. Sounds wrong but it works (because of the solvent in the washer fluid).
Related: If the paint is peeling off your wiper *arms*, mark the wiper locations with tape, remove the arms using a Lisle 54150 wiper arm puller (or similar), scuff-sand the wiper arms, wipe them with 91% isopropyl and spray a light coat of Dupli-Color self-etching primer before spraying them with a quality semi-gloss (or satin) black paint. Let the paint cure, reinstall the arms and you will be amazed at the difference in appearance.
“While these inserts can save money, installing them requires deft use of needle-nose pliers, a frustrating task whose grief simply isn’t worth the money savings.”
That’s what the wiper companies want you to believe. What garbage. And speaking of garbage, replacing the entire wiper results in unnecessary waste and cost.
If your car accepts a refill, find out what style, write the number down in your owners manual, and ask your local, independent parts store to order them (or send your money to Jeff Bezos). Buy a few sets; they’re cheap, and you’ll need them eventually.
Yep. Purchased inserts on ebay from dealers at 40% off on in-store parts
I’ve had some Denso – pretty good
For many years I bought the cheapest ANCOs I could find and after 3 months they would start to noticeably degrade and I never got more than 6 months out of them. Then, bought a new F150 with beam blades on it that lasted 18 months and were still performing decently when replaced. I was sold from that point on, and I buy the cheapest beams I can find at Walmart for all my vehicles. Soooo much better than the traditional style.
I got a new truck at work — a F-150. This was my first experience of beam wiper blades. Ford is very meticulous about aerodynamics. Could it be the beams have less drag? The blades rest in a high pressure area. Little things add up. It may only matter to the Bonneville bound.
I replaced the blades on my 1999 f-150 with beams. They look cool. Now for some Moon hub caps……..
I’ve been satisfied with my Bosch blades. Plus the imprinted Bosch name on the arm which is visible from within the car reminds you which brand to buy when replacing them. Clever.
Bosch ICON is a great wiper. Mine lasted about 2.75 years. Bosch Evolution is also good, slightly less expensive.
Agree, that’s my favorite.
However the southwest sun and heat requires a 12-16 month replacement schedule for best performance. Buying from Rockauto helps limit the hit on the wallet.
Update: The Evolution performance did not last, started skipping and streaking. Spend a few bucks more to get the IKONs, *and* always be sure to get the right part # for your car so it has the correct curvature. Don’t just buy the arm size in inches. Good things cost money.
The last time I installed a new blade ( only one on the passenger side ) on my 97 GP I noticed the blade kept slipping out of the holder, I would keep sliding it back in, this went on for a couple of rains, I finally took a good look at the issue, I had not removed the clear plastic cover that is supposed to be taken off after being installed ! DUH! Old age. ;-)
The worst windshield wipers I’ve ever had were the Michelin Stealth Ultras. The driver side blade would come loose, and one time it flew off of the car. This was on a car that is kept in a garage and not usually driven in rainy weather. Over my car ownership career I’ve put new wipers on around 50 times or so and it has never happened before or since.
I call this operator error.
Except I’ve put wipers multiple times on many cars with absolutely no problems. And it wasn’t a single time that wiper came off – it came off several times, and then I’d reattach it after each time – if it was installation operator error it would have only happened once. And after I replaced the blade with another brand it never happened again – so the clip on the wiper arm where the wiper blade attaches seems ok.
The last few years I’ve been buying Aero beam wiper blades off of Amazon. You can get a matched pair for your car for $18 or so and they last longer than any store-bought blades I’ve ever bought (even in our harsh upstate NY winters). Aero is now including a extra set of refills with the beams so you get double the lifespan of the blades.
Maybe there are some really high end blades out there that are a little better than these Aeros but for the money they’re an absolute steal.
Our cars now use the wiper blades to deliver windshield washer fluid – so only OEM for us now.
the issue with recommending one brand over another is that it often depends on the vehicle. so, a given 26″ bosch might work great on a mazda cx-9 but the same blade might not work so well on a kia sorento. and the rain-x might work better on the kia sorento but not the mazda cx-9.
strong argument for just going OE as it is tested and proven. just add them to your wishlist on amazon and buy them when there is a price drop.
but, if you can find a cheaper version than great. but no guarantee that same blade will work as well on your next car.
that’s been my personal experience.
As I understand it, one reason is that different vehicles have different curvatures to their windshield, and some windshield wipers have a harder time conforming to a windshield with significant curvature.
Yup a few years ago Costco had Goodyear blades on sale and I bought some of our vehicles, they just didn’t work on the Panthers, left a strip in the middle of the driver’s side that it didn’t clear properly. It wasn’t just one of them either. I swapped them from side to side on the same car and tried them on another Panther we have. They worked just fine on the other cars I put them on.
Related:
https://youtu.be/HKGhKrQmK68
https://tinyurl.com/y4geon8v
https://youtu.be/LdNu113Ep2U
Strangely there is no size of the Michelins which fit a 2016 VW Golf Sportwagen.
Project Farm Youtube comparo https://youtu.be/g3S8udUSKtY
Just bought the Michelin Stealth Ultras as recommended. Noticed the other day that my wiper was just not up to snuff any more so this article came at a welcome time.
We’ll see if it pans out.
Phooey on Bosch. The ones I got hardly lasted a year.
it seems like the quality of all aftermarket blades has dropped over the years. It seems like none of them last. I usually buy either Bosch or Rain X. Might try the PIAA if the cost isn’t too ridiculous.
@JMII – When you use a term like, “stealership” you’ve lost all credibility and objectivity.
eBay buys may not be genuine, or they may be worldpak items, blems or factory seconds. Caveat Emptor.
After playing around with various options, I have become a wiper blade snob. I go to rockauto in the “Beam (Extended Life)” section and get the absolute top-of-the-line TRICO Ultra™ or ANCO Contour™ beam-style wiper blades. (Trico acquired Anco if that affects your decision at all.)
They are very reasonably priced, they do a great job and they last a long time.
Seems to me that no matter how much you spend, all wipers wear out within a couple of months. I’d rather just get the cheap ones and replace them more often, that way they’re always pretty “new”.