What is best wiper blade
Which Windshield Wiper Blade is Best? Let's find out! Michelin, PIAA, Bosch, AC Delco, & Aero
have you ever been caught in a real
heavy rainstorm at wishing you had a
better set of windshield wipers for
vetting we're today we're going to be
testing quite a few different brands to
see which brand can deliver the best
performance we're also going to be
looking at the construction of how
they're made in what they're made of our
silicone wipers really any better than
just the traditional rubber wipers so
let's get the testing underway in the
first test will use a high-speed camera
to compare just how well these blades
perform in a simulated rain environment
we'll also see which blades are the
quietest and which ones squeak and clunk
will also see how these blades perform
in icy conditions we'll take a look at
the blade construction and see how it
affects performance a quick description
of the blade designs Before we jump
right into the testing the design it's
been around for decades is the
traditional steel frame with a
superstructure and blade claws then
there's a hybrid which uses a steel
frame with a plastic cover finally
there's the frameless curved blade
design these blades use either rubber or
silicone elements the goal of this first
test is to see just how these blades
perform an assimilated medium to heavy
rain condition this there's a lot going
on in a split second we'll use a
high-speed camera to slow things down a
bit to ensure a fair test the water
spray nozzle is attached to a rubber
cone and the wider pressure and spray
pattern will remain constant throughout
all the testing the least expensive
wiper blades we'll be testing are these
Auto Drive wiper blades costing only
eight dollars and ninety four cents for
two of them they're a high performance
all-season wiper blade it's pretty rare
to find something that's not made in
China these are actually made in Vietnam
the auto drive really struggled with
water management at first look it
appears that water is passing under the
wiper element after a closer look it
appears that the wiper element is
working just fine as the water is
traveling up the blade water accumulates
and finally passes over the blade
leaving water streaks
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very affordable at ten dollars and
ninety two cents for a pair the Bosch
clear advantage is an all weather
performance wiper blade it claims this
graphite treated wiping edge reduces
friction for a quiet and smooth wipe and
all seasons
these Bosch blades are made in China
instead of using a steel frame the Bosch
blade uses a plastic beam blade
construction boss did a much better job
at sweeping and managing the water there
is a single streak of water on the sweep
to the left at the end of the sweep
water is pushed away from the blade
fairly well however when the blade
begins to return back to the right there
is some water that's brought back with
the blade compared to the auto drive
this is a far better blade and is in
large part due to the modern beam design
clearly Bosch won the side-by-side
comparison
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the third least expensive wiper blades
we'll be testing are these AC Delco
all-season blades costing only 11
dollars and 46 cents for pair these AC
Delco blades are made in Mexico the AC
Delco blade looks a lot like the auto
drive using a steel frame construction
the AC Delco did perform better than the
auto drive but the steel frame
construction caused the same problems
it's like the auto drive as water
gathers up against the element water
splashes over the element leaving water
streaks once again boss is a better
blame
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as $16.98 for a pair of blades these
arrow blades claim they're made of a
durable material that offers more
thermal resistance and longer
performance life specially blended
rubber delivers smooth clean streak-free
and chatter free wipe flexible spine
design fits the windshield better
provide superior windshield contact the
arrow in the boss share the same beam
frame design it looked nearly identical
not surprisingly they performed nearly
the same both did extremely well managed
the water on the left sweep and had a
moderate amount of water brought back
with the blade with the sweep to the
right
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since this one was too close to call the
wind goes to the less expensive blade
the boss blade costing only $17.98 are
these Guardian Michelin wiper blades
that are designed for all season natural
rubber with dura glide coating smooth
quiet operation made in China the
michelin Guardian uses a steel frame
construction similar to the auto drive
in the ACDelco but also has a flexible
plastic cover
at first the plastic cover seems to be
helping with water management during the
sweep to the left but several streaks of
water appear just still better than the
all steel frame construction
unfortunately as the blade returns to
the right water that appears to be
trapped under the plastic cover begins
to get slung across the window
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once again the box takes the win costing
quite a bit more than the Guardian is
this Michelin cyclone premium hybrid
costing twenty six dollars and thirty
six cents dura flex cover maximum
flexibility plus protection from
clogging with snow and ice made in China
the michelin cyclone appears to be
extremely similar to the Guardian both
blades use a steel frame construction
along with a plastic cover
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they both leak considerable streaking of
water on the sweep to the left and both
appear to accumulate water under the
plastic cover which gets slung back onto
the window during the sweep to the right
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once again the boss takes the win
costing $36 and 86 cents for a pair are
these PIAA super silicone wiper blades
silicone advantaged two times
longer-lasting the PIAA blades are made
in Japan even though the PIAA uses a
steel frame construction the price of
the blade can be explained by the use of
a silicon element which typically
outlast rubber elements
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just like the other steel frame blades
water can be seen passing over the
element during the sweep to the left it
actually did fairly well on this weed
back to the right but the much less
expensive box still outperformed the
PIAA
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costing thirty eight dollars and ninety
four cents the most expensive wiper
blades we'll be testing is the Michelin
endurance XT silicon beam durability
tested for two million plus wipes
extreme weather performance stays
flexible and resists cracking from minus
eighty degrees Fahrenheit all the way up
to one hundred and ninety five the
Michelin endurance XT uses a frameless
beam construction along with a silicon
element
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there weren't any water streaks during
the sweep to the left at the end of this
weep it seemed to do fairly well at
releasing the water to sweep to the
right only had a small amount of water
sling compared to the competition the
Mitchell endurance XT definitely did a
better job than the Bosch
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costing $30 and 54 cents the rain-x
latitude is the third most expensive
wiper blades we'll be testing these
wiper blades treats windshield with a
water repelling coding these rain-x
blades are made in korea for optimal
water repellency results ensure
windshield is clean and dry turn on the
wiper blades and wipe dry at the medium
speed for 2 to 3 minutes spray washer
fluid briefly and water repellency is
activated the rain-x also uses a
frameless beam construction but also has
a rubber element not a silicone one like
the Michelin endurance XT the last way
for blades for testing are these rain-x
wiper blades since they leave a film on
the window then run these wiper blades
dry for 2 minutes for the instructions
and they'll begin testing according the
instructions we'll use some wind should
wash your food when we're done running
these for 2 minutes and then it should
activate the rain-x
so is the rain-x as good as the Michelin
endurance XT during the sweep to the
left there are a couple of water streaks
which is better than the steel frame
blades and the coverage steel blades but
not as good as the Michelin endurance XT
silicon blade it did seem to do a great
job just like the Michelin XT did at the
end of the sweep releasing the water an
equally good job on the sweep to the
right so the wind definitely goes to the
Michelin endurance XT silicone blade
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up next we'll compare how these blades
perform when they're not frozen as well
as when there's ice formation on each of
the blades the auto drive has a lot of
flexibility but unfortunately with all
this ice on it definitely not good this
is going to be a problem in winter
weather conditions this is the bosch
blade very flexible when it's not frozen
this one has been exposed to the same
amount of moisture content as the rest
the blades
okay there was some resistance there but
as you can see the ice quickly broke
away from the blade and it's very
flexible
ACDelco very good flexibility when not
frozen and the frozen ones not doing
very well obviously ice is gonna be a
problem on a metal frame construction
the michelin blades are both the same
construction with the metal on the
inside let's see how this performs
definitely better than the all metal
construction but it's still not in the
proper shape that it belongs in in order
to do an effective job see how much
force this takes actually that didn't
take much force at all pretty impressed
a lot easier than the metal frame
construction when dealing with winter
weather conditions obviously if there's
going to be ice on the actual element
but with that being said the frame
itself is flexible the michelin Durance
xt silicone blades definitely seem like
the best overall blades but they come at
a very expensive price at nearly $20
each rain-x latitude came in second boss
clear advantage with a very affordable
price tag tied with aero for the third
position and PIAA came in fifth when it
comes to windshield wiper blades
technology obviously makes a huge
difference and you don't have to pay a
lot to get a lot with bosch I have to
say though I'm really impressed with
that michelin xt silicone blade that
thing is amazing but it's also pretty
spendy now one thing we didn't test for
is UV exposure and that test will begin
today I'm gonna place these blades all
in direct sunlight and we'll come back
in a year and see how they are doing all
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including this one so please keep those
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videos please take care and I look
forward to next time
