Winter wipers ... any good?

[bouvier]

Any one use them .... the kind with the solid top? The dealer gave kind of a hard sell .... which sent my "BS" meter off the end of the scale. If they work better than the regular wipers I could use them right now.

Al

[Raynald]

I have a pair of Teflon coated winter wiper blades and although I was skeptic at first, I must admit they are quite effective. I paid something like $15.00 CDN a piece. They are more flexible than you might expect at first sight. They work nicely in snow or rain. No streaks nor bothering noises. Their bulky look is a little distracting at first, but you get accustomed to it. Their main advantage: the blade doesn't get stuck in or accumulate ice and "plows" heavy snow easily. Quite satisfied after all http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif .

[littlewaywelt]

I used to use the winter wiper blades where the assembly was covered in rubber.  They help keep snow/ice from forming in the wiper, and they do work well.  I'm still running the factory wipers 4 seasons as it doesn't snoe very often in my neck of the woods.  If I lived out west or in New England, I'd invest in some.

[budrichard]

As correctly stated the winter wiper just has a boot over the mechanism. It will not remove snow or ice any better than a standard wiper, just help prevent buildup and make cleaning easier and faster. All our Volvo's have them on year round. -Dick

[Raynald]

I wonder if they'll work this morning http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif !!

http://www.xc70.com/pics/albums/userpics/pelle.jpg

[Chipshot]

I have used winter wipers from time-to-time and found them a mixed blessing.  While the rubber boot does keep snow and ice out of the wiper's frame and help keep the blade in contact with the glass, there are two offsetting problems:

1.  The boot creates a large sail area resulting in poor wiper performance at highway speeds.

2.  The boot is delicate and can be ripped by an ice scraper quite easily.  Water will enter through any holes and freeze to the frame, making the wipes just as bad as regular ones (but harder to remove ice build-up from).

Do any Volvos have heated wiper rest areas on their windshields?  Does anyone here have a washer fluid heater?  I'm curious to know how well those two solutions work.

[toma nova]

An old washer heater trick I used many years ago was to add a section of copper tubing to the washer hose and wrap the tubing around an exhaust manifold or header several times.  This provided warm to hot washer fluid which was great for the Winter but not so practical for the Summer.

I would be interested in a switchable washer heater (in-line so you don't heat the whole reservior) if anyone knows of one.

Tom

[Ted in Toronto]

If you're interested in heated washer fluid, they were showing this at the Detroit auto show last January:
http://www.microheat.com/News/web.asp

[Art]

Here's another device in which the manufacturer claims to solve wiper freeze up and chatter. Seems a little gimicky to me, but apparently it's been exhaustively tested on everything from 18 wheelers to SUV's with proven results.

The Shaker (http://www.wipershaker.com/index.html)