Piaa Silicone Wiper Blades

[bobkneale]

Changed my IQ standard Wiper Blades yesterday (one was cracked) for a set of PIAA silicone ones, plus some rain ex windscreen wash and rain ex glass cleaner.

Blades (not just rubbers) cost about £50 for the two, it rained a bit yesterday after fitting them and as this is my first experience with silicone wipers I am wondering why they are not fitted to all cars as standard.

Perhaps cost ?

They are Much Much better !

In fact with rain ex you don't even need the wipers at all !

I will not go back now I'm hooked !

Especialy in the UK where it often rains a lot !

[Soeley]

Bob, did you go for the Rain-X brand or the PIAA version?

I went whole hogg PIAA, blades, screen cleaner, screen treatment (like Rain-X) and screen wash that help to maintain repellent properties.

I'll swear I don't go through as much screen wash as I used to (I really do hate any dirt or marks on screen), as the screen does keep cleaner and any surface dust just gets washed away when it does rain.

[Cyker]

Yeah, I love mine :) Pretty amazing!

They are stupidly expensive but are the kind of thing that, once you've used them, it's hard to go back :)
The cost isn't too bad long-term tho' as they tend to last longer than normal rubbers as they don't crack with age or degrade in the sun, plus it inhibits the growth of things like algea and mosses which was a problem I had a lot on the stock wipers.
Previously I was changing wipers every 1-2 years because they'd split where the blade connects to the part in the holder or just smear so bad I'd be blind until I ran the jets for a couple seconds (!!), but the PIAA's I fitted on my old Yaris (Now my brother's!) have been on there for 5-6 years now with no degradation in performance!

I would say you probably shouldn't have bothered with the rainex tho', esp. if it's the stuff that leaves a rain repellent coating.
The reason is, the PIAA wipers will leave a film of silicone on the windscreen over time which does the same job (On mine it's well bedded in now and when it rains, you can see a stark contrast where the wipers operate and the edges; The rain just beads up in the wiper path but still goes into that distorted murky layer everywhere else)

One mistake I made with the PIAAs is I didn't clean my windscreen thoroughly before using them so there were bits of dirt embedded at the edges :( Had to give it a good scrub to remove the silicone layer to get the dirt out, so now after I clean the car I always run the wipers a few times to recoat the screen while it's still clean!

But enjoy your smooth silent squeak-free smear-free wipers ;) And come winter, should make de-icing the windscreen easier too as the silicone layer stops the ice sticking to the glass as tightly ;)

[sweet-dentist]

Last year I had a service on the car in April... and new wipers ("they are cracked, my good Sir")..

This year (one year later) ... in April ... again... ("they are cracked, my good Sir")... new wiperblades...

WTF do they have such a short lifespan? ..... orrrr....

[s44gtw]

Probably the same reason as you get ECO Tyres fitted, & Standard Brake Pads not Upgraded ones,

Standard Disc Brakes, Airfilters.

OEM equipment as bought for the mass market.

Upgrade and after market upgrades are often cheaper anyway when bought and fitted by yourself.

How much will Toyota or any other Manufacturer charge if the Silicone Wipers are an Option.?

They are fitting blades anyway of the cheaper kind.

Maybe buy, Lexus, Infinity, Merc, Audi, BMW, Volvo etc and you might get Silicone Blades as Standard.

(Did the Cygnet get them put on as standard?)

Using Wipers regularly in rainy places is not normally what kills blades IME.

It is them sitting mostly unused, Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. Winter, getting cooked or frozen to the windscreen and drying out.

It is good that Silicone Wipers are now readily available,

I used to have to buy Scandanavian ones that were good in cold weather and did not rip easily in the cold.

They were about 5 times as expensive back in the pre Internet/Amazon/Ebay days.

george

[bobkneale]

Bob, did you go for the Rain-X brand or the PIAA version?

I went whole hogg PIAA, blades, screen cleaner, screen treatment (like Rain-X) and screen wash that help to maintain repellent properties.

I'll swear I don't go through as much screen wash as I used to (I really do hate any dirt or marks on screen), as the screen does keep cleaner and any surface dust just gets washed away when it does rain.

I went for PIAA Silicone wipers (not just rubbers) and Rain ex windscreen washer additive plus Rain ex glass cleaner, and yes a very good clean of windscreen before fitting the new blades and a complete empty and flush out of windscreen washer container before introducing the Rain ex additive was completed. only took me 20 min to do everything ! I know its only a small issue but sometimes the small things make a big difference in my view !