A Better Mousetrap!

I hate bad wipers. I've always felt that the frame-with-refill design that predominates on cars today is a poor, just-good-enough solution that's not really good enough. Anyway, a few months ago, we replaced my wife's Sequoia with an 07 Avalon XLS. It's a great car in many ways. One thing that stuck out right away is that it comes with the new design "structureless" wipers. The wiping pattern is perfect from one tip of the blade to the other. These blades create no pressure point streaks at all, and leave nothing but clean bare glass behind them.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed that Autozone was carrying a similar design by Bosch. The product line is called "Icon". I immediately got a set for the Prius, and they are great. Other than the goofy floppy look when you raise them for cleaning, it's a noteworthy improvement, at least IMO. Here is what they look like. The snap on easily. Note how well integrated they look:




If you're due for a replacement, try these!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SomervillePrius @ Jan 30 2007, 10:55 AM) [snapback]382821[/snapback]</div>

Robert:

My apologies for the lack of precision, but it was in the twenties for the big one (26" size, which is spec) and low teens for the smaller passenger side (spec is 18", having measured carefully, I cheated and used a 19"). A little pricey, but worth the improvement to me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FireEngineer @ Jan 30 2007, 12:55 PM) [snapback]382887[/snapback]</div>

Uh-oh. I thought I'd finally found a truly better solution. Of course, since I have them installed, I'll leave them be and see how long they work for me. OTOH, I've never really expected super long life from wipers, but at this price, I'm still hoping for better.

If I don't do signicantly better, perhaps I'll try a set of those silicone blades Scott mentioned, above. Michelin also makes a "structureless" model as well, which depending upon price, might be worth a try. From both the look of the Bosch's new performance, and just thinking through the physics of the design, the structureless design would seem superior to existing frame designs, but this is just my theory.

I'm a little gunshy of coatings. I've tried various products like Rain-X and so forth, and ultimately, most of them have led to unacceptable chattering problems or have been insufficiently durable. I'll be interested in seeing how Scott's blades (and the coating) perform in the long run.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CapeCodPrius @ Jan 30 2007, 01:46 PM) [snapback]382917[/snapback]</div>

As I noted in the original post, they come standard on the current Avalon as well. My wife's 07 Avalon has them, and one of the things I like so much is that they're almost completely silent. I surmise that they work better in some installations, not so in others. I hope I have better luck with longevity than Wayne did. . .

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(txav8r @ Feb 4 2007, 01:35 PM) [snapback]385189[/snapback]</div>

I started using Rain-X (authentic Rain-X) back around 98-99. I fiddled with it for years, and could never keep it from getting sticky, and causing the wipers to grab and chatter horribly when I needed to use them. I agree that medium to high speed, the fresh Rain-X effect is amazing. I know others have liked using the stuff, but I could never keep it from getting sticky. I don't know if it was the local bugs, the blades I used or what, but the chattering would get so bad that I feared it would damage the wiper system. I also experimented with Rain-X brand washer fluid, but if anything, it caused me even worse blade sticking than original Rain-X. If it's working for you, great, power to you, but I struggled with the stuff for five years, on and off, and finally decided it was not worth it.

My later experiments have shown that what's more important than what you put on the glass is what you take off of it. If you use a mild abrasive cleanser (like Bon Ami or Soft Scrub), you get the glass so clean that it will bead water all by itself, almost as well as Rain-X, but with no sticking. A couple of car makers actually endorse the use of Bon Ami on car window glass.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vinny @ Feb 4 2007, 06:12 PM) [snapback]385293[/snapback]</div>

I took that a step further, and put a 19" blade on the right side too. It's only an inch larger than stock, but the pattern covers more area and looks much better (if you care to notice...). Good call.