Windscreen Wipers are a vital safety component of your car. They contribute substantially to the Active Safety of your car. They are also the quickest wearing consumable on your car, and as with so many other things, the superiority of performance, level of safety and operating life depend on the quality of the Windscreen Wipers you pick, and the way you look after them throughout their operating life.

The length of a Windscreen Wipers life depends on two major factors.

Firstly, a Windscreen Wipers life can be expressed by the quantity of cycles it can be expected to perform. A cheap crude rubber Wiper Blade can be expected to last for as little as 100,000 cycles. A cycle being one wipe in each direction up and down. A premium brand rubber Wiper Blade with twin or multiple edge technology can be expected to deliver up to 500,000 cycles. High Quality rubber Windscreen Wipers with ptfe or other coatings can increase the life expectancy up to 600,000 cycles. However the best Windscreen Wipers for life are those with a high quality OEM specification Frame and a 100% Silicone Blade. These are normally good for at least 1,500,000 cycles.

There’s not a lot you can do to reduce the wear due to usage of a Windscreen Wiper Blade, except keep the windscreen and Windscreen Wipers clean, and use a quality Screen Wash. However the bad and good news is that wear due to normal use is not the only factor affecting a rubber Windscreen Wiper Blades longevity.

Right from the day you fit them, rubber Windscreen Wipers are attacked by a combination of Ultra Violet Light, Ozone and Atmospheric Pollution. Even your screen wash, especially in winter contains industrial alcohols, powerful detergents and solvents which all attack the rubber, causing it to harden, degrade, become rigid and crack.

On top of those problems rubber Windscreen Wipers lose their flexibility as temperatures descend. This causes them to crack, and you’ll no doubt have experienced the situation on cold dark winter mornings when your wipers can’t bend to follow the contours of your windscreen, so they leave large areas uncleared, just when you most need the ultimate performance.

Finally, rubber Windscreen Wipers, especially those over a few weeks old present a great surface for ice to adhere to, so allowing the Wiper Blade to become frozen to the windscreen so that it rips itself to pieces if the forgetful owner unconsciously starts the wipers before checking that the Windscreen Wipers are free.

You can minimise all of these life shortening or life ending problems by:-

Keeping your windscreen and Windscreen Wipers clean, to avoid the build up of abrasive dirt and grit which also harbours many of the pollutants which degrade the rubber.
Avoiding parking facing bright summer sunlight for prolonged periods.

Using non solvent screenwash additives, although this won’t be possible in freezing conditions, because you’ll need an anti-freeze additive.

If you are lucky enough to choose Silicone Windscreen Wipers, you’ll not only benefit from the longest life expectancy by far, you’ll be happy to know that Silicone Wiper Blades are not affected by Ozone, Ultraviolet light, pollution, strong detergents and most solvents. They also operate smoothly from -60°C right up to +200°C.