In the chilly winter season, having reliable windshield wipers is essential. It is crucial to find wipers that can endure the freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall without any issues. With that said, there are certain features to consider while choosing the best winter windshield wipers for your vehicle.
Frame Style
There are multiple styles of windshield wipers on the market today, but when you are talking about windshield wipers that will be used in the extreme cold, then you need a beam style wiper. Windshield wipers for winter are designed with frameless beam wiper technology. This means that the blade is run along with one, continuous, curved beam. This beam style works so well because it doesn’t have any moving parts.
The conventional style windshield wipers have a frame structure that uses spring tension to create pressure on the blade, keeping it held against the glass. This creates problems because this structure needs to be able to flex to keep its tension. In the cold, water will get into this structure and freeze, keeping the blade from being able to flex and will cause inconsistent contact with your curved windshield.
The beam style is frameless, which not only gives it infinite contact points for even, consistent coverage on the glass but it also makes it thinner so that it won’t hold snow and ice.
Blade Material
Your windshield wiper blade material matters for many different reasons. A lousy blend of rubber will crack or dry out in extreme weather conditions. Ozone degradation will also cause pitting on the blade. When this happens, the windshield wipers will begin to leave streaks on your glass and cause chatter and noise as they wipe.
Because of this, when choosing a windshield wiper for extreme cold, you need to choose one that has silicone in the rubber. It doesn’t have to be 100% silicone, but it does need to be some kind of silicone blend. This silicone will give it a much higher resistance to the cold. It also lowers its freezing point so the rubber will stay soft in low temperatures meaning that it will remain flexible, giving you consistent contact on curved glass.
Air Spoiler
Beam style windshield wipers usually have a built-in air spoiler. They are specially built with holes or ergonomics so that when the air hits them, it actually forces the blade down onto the glass instead of lifting off. This is great for winter time when the wind from snowstorms and blizzards would tend to lift off other styles of wipers-making them useless when you really need them most.
Enclosed Housing
You want to make sure that your windshield wiper has an enclosed housing. The housing is where the metal wiper arm from your car attaches to the windshield wiper. The piece it connects to always flexes with the arm. Since your car windshield is curved, it needs to be able to flex to stay in contact with the glass. An enclosed housing ensures that snow and ice don’t build up and freeze on this piece, causing it to become rigid.