Windshield wipers are a vital part to driving safely.  Last weekend, I was driving my mini countryman and it started to rain.  It hadn’t rained in over a month.  I went to turn on my wipers and it wasn’t moving the water off my windshield like it should.  I had to immediately stop at an auto parts store to buy some replacements.

After arriving back at my house, I realized that I should have replaced my wipers a long time ago.  I did some research and found that most people do the same thing I do.  Windshield wipers for your car are relatively cheap to replace, but most people procrastinate replacing their wiper blades.  The purpose of this article is to provide tips on how often to replace your windshield wipers and provide you with a review of the best wiper blades on the market.

How Often To Replace Your Windshield Wipers

Most wiper blade manufacturers recommend that you replace your wiper blades once or twice every year.  For most climates, once a year is fine.  If you live in a part of the country where you have extreme weather swings or severe weather such snow storms, you will need to replace your windshield wipers blades more often.

I would suggest that you inspect your wiper blades every time you do an oil change.  If the blades appear to be cracked or they have an appearance that makes them look dry, then it is time to replace your wiper blades.

Another time to inspect your wiper blades is any time you have a severe storm, such as snow accumulation over six inches, or you have an ice storm, or you have an unusually heavy rain storm with excessive winds.  This type of severe weather can quickly cause your wiper blades to wear out.

What Type of Blades Should You Choose

There are two types of to choose from.  You can either buy the complete wiper blade replacement which costs a little more money or you can save money, by only buying the rubber replacement blade.

Although the rubber replacement wiper blade is cheaper, they can be a real pain to replace.  I have found that I typically break the plastic that holds the wiper blade and I end up buying the complete replacement anyway.

From my experience, it is cheaper in the long run to buy the complete wiper blade replacement.  They are easy to install and aren’t really that expensive.

What are The Best Windshield Wiper Brands

I did quite a bit of research.  I checkout consumerreports.org and a couple of forums.  Everyone tends to agree that even the good windshield wipers wear out fairly quickly.  Some of the brands that were mentioned were Valeo, Anco, Michelin RainForce, and RainX.  If you would like to buy the windshield wiper blades online, feel free to visit our auto parts page to browse our recommended auto part suppliers.

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