I've been happy with the tried and true Tricos and was also satisfied with Anco until they made the arms out of plastic, which I refused to buy. In recent times I've also noticed several newer configurations such as the Bosch Icon and the RainX versions (and other brands) that are low profile because they don't have intermediate arms and have many claimed benefits. These claims include, longer lasting, better clearing (really, if it doesn't streak than what could be better?), longer lasting, better cold weather performance, no chatter, etc etc. In the real world, some people don't agree as seen by customer reviews. Of course, there are always a few people that somehow blame a product when in fact, they themselves are the reason for problems with the product.

So with that said, has anyone found that these newfangled, low profile wiper arm/blade combos deliver premium results and what has been your experience? Are they really worth paying up to 2X the cost of Tricos? Your turn now.

16 views and not one single opinion based on experience with something other than OEM grade? Really?

Remember a lot of views are the bots Bill. I've used Bosch ones, a single concave type, I was very happy with them. Amsoil stopped carrying them, so I went back to the OEM ones.

Just got Anco's for the Bird..all metal...you don't wanna know the price...

I tried the bosh first.Liked them better that the trico's I had been using
THEN, Duncan's favorite store Costco had rainX on sale, and, well. SOLD
I will be using those on ALL my trucks from now on.

They go on easy. They don't "grind" accross the glass, and they don't streak even when it first starts raining
The first set went on in the salty end of winter, and they still are on that truck wiping just like day 1


That better?

I like Costco

Everybody needs shop towels by the gross

Bull poooooppie







u go there for the lunch snacks.............

Maybe

Since the factory blades were iced into uselessness before the truck got all the way off the dealer's lot, I bought a set of Icons for my '09 before I even got it home.

They were pretty good. It's hard to compare, since I've never had the opportunity to do back-to-back wiper comparisons where one set wasn't worn out.

The low-profile style worked pretty well- in very heavy snow, the outer ends of the blade occasionally "float" rather than pushing the snow off the glass- and it got worse as they got older...but it was a pretty minor issue. They don't seem to ice up as badly as other styles.

Don't recall how long the Icons lasted, but I replaced 'em with Neoforms low-profiles (forget the brand, but it's a name you'd know). They were cheaper, but not quite as good, and didn't last as long. I replaced them with Autozone's house brand low-profile- cheap, and didn't wipe that well out of the box...but they've been on there a while and haven't really degraded, either.

Not sure what I'll buy next.

There's more than one series of Bosch and RainX; might you guys remember which you used? Good info so far, thanks!

FWIW, two thing:

* Some vehicles just don't take well to the single beam style blades due to windshield shape. That's the way it goes I guess.

* I like the free lunch at Costco, some of the food is good but the trail mix and juice samples don't do much for me. :-/

you mean there are other wiper blades....

I run either the Bosh single blades they run about 15 bucks a blade in the Winter they last pretty good and don't freeze up. If I need a summer blade I have been using the rainx ones they last a long time and actually do well in the winter here also.

i been using trico force blades. i seem to get about 2 years life out of them here in Colorado which i think is great. they work well in the snow and seem to hold up to the heat. i also had great luck with the rain x latitude blades i like them over the tricos. it seem the all the local stores have stopped selling rain x blades around my parts . i've used bosch icon blades but never like them they seem to streak sooner and dont last as long as the above blades. as for ancos total wiper line, junk, had a log of customer complaints when i worked in auto parts.

I've used both the rainX Latitude and Bosch Icon single blade. Both are very good blades but don't last very long, or that's been my experience.

Several years ago, I bought some Ford/Trico OEM arms for the '78 because the wipers would not stay on the windshield. The OEM arms solved that problem. They were spendy, but well worth the money. They no longer carry the 15" blades at the local Ford dealership.

i just put some trico refills on my 77. it had some chromed steel frames on it...and they seat well.

Very good info from everyone, thanks guys, it's appreciated.

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fatherdoug said:

I've used both the rainX Latitude and Bosch Icon single blade. Both are very good blades but don't last very long, or that's been my experience.

Click to expand...

Doug, a few thoughts and then the question. I've found that cleaning the windshield a couple time a year with lacquer thinner, avoiding car washes with the magic wax stuff, and cleaning the blade itself periodically and when new with those little alcohol wipes really does make the difference, as does not using the liquid RainX. The theory on the latter is that if the water "sheets" on the glass because it's squeaky clean as opposed to bead up on it, that the wiper blade doesn't leave streaks and trails.

So with that said, do you (and anyone else) do any of these things in hope of better performance and service life?

Thank you, Bill. I do clean the blades regularly with wipes. The rest of that info is new info for me. Since all of our vehicles are outside all the time , the rubber/Teflon seems to get brittle fast. I've always been anal about having good wipers, so I'm not adverse to changing them out every 3-6 months. To me, that is a necessary operational cost.

^^^^ A couple of new-to-me things that I'm going to be doing......stop cleaning the windshield using paper towels and use microfiber towels. This because it's claimed that some paper towels have a light coating of adhesive that can cause issues on the windshield glass. And about those microfiber towels, wash them using no rinse aid or no cling on sheets in the dryer.

*FWIW, I started cleaning auto glass using cotton towels a few years ago and noticed that it's a whole lot easier to clean glass with them. Seems to be the same with the microfiber.

Yes. I've been using microfiber towels for a while now. I bring my own bug juice with me and clean the windows with that and microfiber towels when I fill up with gas.

Plus the microfiber towels are washable, as you said. So I guess I'm going green.

fatherdoug said:

Yes. I've been using microfiber towels for a while now. I bring my own bug juice with me and clean the windows with that and microfiber towels when I fill up with gas.

Plus the microfiber towels are washable, as you said. So I guess I'm going green.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, going green, I thought of that the first time I tried them. But what is really nice about the deal is that when you clean a window with something like windex and the microfiber towel, they are literally, squeeky clean. Paper towels, it's like smearing the crud around until dry or if the towel is new, it dries so fast that it streaks/smears.