Tips on how to choose the right wiper blades for your car, types of wipers, highlights when choosing Tips on how to choose the right wiper blades for your car, types of wipers, highlights when choosing.
The content of the article:
- Types of car wipers
- Wireframe
- Frameless
- Hybrid
- The length of the wipers as a selection criterion
- Important points when choosing wipers
In the presence of unfavorable weather conditions while driving a car, situations often arise when a timely response to an obstacle on the road allows you to avoid an accident, and sometimes even save lives. And here, not the last role is assigned to the correctly selected windshield wipers for the car.
The purpose of this article is to provide all possible assistance to motorists when buying these important accessories, the effectiveness of which can be judged solely by the results of their work.
What are car wipers
To solve the question of which wipers will be "correct" for a particular car, you should first figure out what they are and what are the features of each model. Taking into account the design features of the brushes, they are subdivided into three fundamental classes:
- frame;
- frameless;
- hybrid.
Frame wipers
Windshield wipers of this class are most widely used in the Russian market. The design of these wipers includes:
- rocker arm system;
- hinges;
- working blade.
Only 10 years ago, metal was used to make the frames of this type of wipers, but since the mid-2000s, materials that meet modern requirements began to be used instead. This is due to the nuance that when using metal rocker arms, they wear out rather quickly, and this leads to the appearance of backlash, due to which the efficiency of the wipers' work decreases. In addition, metal parts are prone to corrosion and icing.
It is for these reasons that the main manufacturers of frame wipers for cars had to switch to the manufacture of axles, hinges and bushings from plastic. Thanks to this innovation, the structure stopped freezing, due to the accuracy of the connection of the elements, it was possible to significantly reduce backlash in it.
Plastic wipers have excellent lateral stiffness during movement on the glass surface, which ensures an effective adherence to the glass surface along the entire length of the blade.
The negative aspects of cleaners of this class include the fact that in the case of using poor-quality rubber for the manufacture of a blade, it begins to deteriorate after a short period of time. This results in formation and cracking. This leads to squeaks and numerous backlashes at the joints. Naturally, this negatively affects the efficiency of the wipers.
Frameless car window cleaners
Cleaners of this class have a molded body made of plastic or rubber with the addition of plastic. Most often, two plates made of metal are poured into it, used to secure the rubber blade of the wiper. The design is made in the form of a spoiler and there are plastic plugs at its ends. A bracket located in the central part is used to install the wipers.
These wipers are ice resistant and have no rubbing elements such as hinges, axles and bushings. In addition, due to the reduced shoulder size of the wiper arm, they do not have significant distortions, which allows them to move on the glass with almost no noise. This significantly extends the service life of the wipers. The design of the frameless wipers is modern and stylish.
Frameless wipers also have their disadvantages. The most important of them is that they are not universal. The point here is in metal plates, which are made with a certain bend. Therefore, they can be used exclusively on cars, whose windshield curvature matches the shape of the plates. For this reason, for each car brand, wipers are produced that are suitable for individual car windshields.
Wipers, which are usually called hybrid
This class includes wipers in the design of which there are elements related to both frame wipers and frameless ones. They have a frame, hinges and rocker arms, but they also have a plastic cover, a la spoiler.
Unlike the design inherent in classic frame wipers, the height of the frame here is low. This combination of elements of different designs allowed the wipers of this class to adopt all the positive properties of their donors.
The disadvantages include the presence of a fairly high cost. But the possibility of using these wipers for a fairly long period of time more than covers this disadvantage. It should be remembered that it is in the manufacture of hybrid wipers that manufacturers use materials of exceptionally high quality. This is especially true for blades and their working edges. The vast majority of these wipers remain flexible and maintain their geometry when used throughout the year, regardless of weather conditions.
Length of wipers as one of the selection criteria
It is common knowledge that different vehicle manufacturers use wipers of various sizes. Most often, a system is installed in which there are two windshield wipers. However, there are models equipped with one or even three wipers for cleaning the surface of the windshield.
Basically, wipers of the same size are installed in pairs. But there are also options where the pair is not the same length. Experienced motorists know that you can experiment with the length of the wipers, choosing the most optimal option. The only limiting moment in this case may be the possibility of the wipers catching on each other.
For clarity, you can consider several options. For a windshield, say, "Tavria" the manufacturer provides for the use of wipers with a length of 500.0 mm. However, practical experience shows that wipers with a length of 530.0 to 550.0 mm also work successfully on these models. In this case, the area of the surface to be cleaned increases significantly.
For Daewoo Lanos, the recommended wiper blades length is 475.0 mm, but motorists prefer using a 500 mm wiper blade on the left and 450 mm on the right.
On the Ford Fiesta, instead of the "native" wipers with a length of 280.0 mm, brushes of 300.0 mm have proven themselves perfectly. These nuances should also be taken into account when choosing brushes for the machine.
What to look for when choosing wipers
Here's what else to look for when choosing a wiper blade for your car:
- At first, on the color and texture of the wipers, since they should be uniform for high-quality products.
- Secondly, for the presence of seizures and burrs on the working surface, the presence of which, of course, is excluded.
- Thirdly, for the presence of rounding along the working edges, completely unacceptable.
- Fourthly, on frame models, the freedom of movement of the tape in the fixation points should be ensured in cases where the frame is bent.
- Fifth, for the production of the brush blade, only rubber, characterized by increased elasticity, should be used.
In addition to the above, one should not forget that if the car is equipped with original wipers that simply do not go on sale, then it makes direct sense to only replace the rubber band. To do this, you need to know how the elastic is attached, and then you can use a similar one used on other cars. To do this, it will be enough to make its length adjustment.
The following methods are used to secure the rubber band on the wipers:
- hook;
- wide hook;
- side pin;
- button;
- bayonet;
- side view of the clamp.
The Russian classic models use a bayonet mount.
