Published December 29, 2009 | 
Updated Jan 25th 2010 – See bottom
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Not all bracket-less wiper blades (also called beam blades) are created equal. I have tried Anco Contour Premium, Bosch Icon and now Rain-X Latitudes and I must say that Rain-X Latitude Wiper Blades are by far, not only the worst bracket-less wiper blades I have ever had, they come close to being the WORST wiper blades I have ever had, in general.
Compared to regular bracket (old fashion) wiper blades, Rain-X Latitude Blades cost twice as much. That’s where the differences stop. They do not work any better than traditional wipers and they do not last longer either. At high speeds they also skip just like traditional blades. I started getting bad streaks after only 1 month of ownership and not even during bug season. Transitioning to winter, the rubber blades gets to hard they become completely useless (anything below 30 Degrees Fahrenheit). I must blast my windshield with hot air for at least 10 minutes until they soften up to the point of being able to remove fluids, and if I stop using defroster mode to heat the windshield, they stiffen up and become useless again (dangerously useless)! |
| In comparison to other bracket-less wiper blades (Bosch Icons and Anco Contour Premium blades), well, there is no comparison. Both the Bosch and Anco have a different spoiler design. Where Rain-X Latitudes have their spoiler right in the middle of the blade, making them symmetrical (and useless), Anco and Bosch put theirs on 1 side, making them work more like a real spoiler (see image). The effect of this real “spoiler” design creates down force on the blade and thus, the faster you go, the better these wipers work. Never will these skip on the highway, even in the winter. |
 Bracketless Wiper Blade |
I have found the Bosch Icons to have better longitudinal structural rigidity than the Anco Contour Blades. Where on 20″+ plus blade sizes the Anco’s may start to skip at the ends where they aren’t quite stiff enough, however annoying it is, it doesn’t seem to effect performance too much. Both of these work well in the winter and stay soft enough to remove water even during very cold temperatures. Ice buildup is not a problem and one smack against the windshield after a night of freezing rain is usually enough to completely clear them. I feel that while the Anco’s perform very well, the Bosch Icon’s seem slightly better in almost every way (maybe its just me).
An annoyance some people find (with all bracketless blades) is that the ends of the blades do not make as good contact as traditional wiper blades do. You may find that the last 2-3 inches of the blade smear a bit on certain lengths of the wiper stroke. For example, on my old Saab, the last 4 inches of the blade wouldn’t make contact on the lower right hand side of my windshield (but would for about 70% of the rest of the stroke), leaving that area either dirty or wet. These areas of no contact are nowhere near my line of sight, and thus, do not bother me, but some people find it very annoying.
In my opinion, there are no better blades than the Bosch Icons and they will always be my blade of choice. Not only do they outperform other bracket less blade designs, they last, for me, about twice as long as the cheap old fashion blades and completely outperform anything I have tried in cold winter weather.
What do you think of these blades? What other kinds are out there?
Update: Here is an interesting development… It was a pretty gusty day today in Maine (Blades are just over 4 months old at this point). As I was driving along the highway at about 60MPH, a gust of wind hit and literally blew apart my Rain-X Latitude Windshield Wiper into pieces. The entire spoiler on one side of the frame flew off, taking with it the clip that holds the rubber wiping blade in place, in turn which caused the rubber wiping blade to slide 1/2 way out of the frame! This was pretty dangerous as it was raining very hard and I was left with only a fraction of my wiper actually clearing my windshield, not to mention this is absolutely ridiculous for a $17 blade! See the picture below. VIP auto parts (where I bought the blade) was kind enough to replace it for me free of charge.. So we’ll see how long this new Rain-X blade lasts. Unfortunately they don’t carry any other bracket-less wipers at that store so I’m stuck with this brand for at least another 6 months or so (if they last that long!)
Update 2!:Ok so my new Rain-X Latitude replacement wiper blade (because the old one exploded a few weeks ago) has started leaving a large 3″ wide smear section directly in the middle section of the blade, right in front of my view through the windshield, for the entire sweep. Yes I have tried cleaning the blade… I am dumbfounded. In my entire history (over the years) with these I am now on my 3rd set of Rain-X blades and the quality has remained consistently horrible…
Broken Rain-X Latitude Wiper
12 Responses to Rain-X Latitude vs Anco Contour Premium vs Bosch Icon
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I saw your comment on my carbibles blog post. I’ve not had the same issue you have with the brittle rubber on the Rain-x items and it’s regularly 10F – 15F in the morning when I need to use the blades in ice and snow in the winter. I’m going to pick up another set of Bosch Icons today and see how they fare. I did find one interesting thing with the Rain-X ones though – they have a double quick-release now for if the blades are stuck the windscreen. We came back from a week away last night and collected the car from airport parking where it had been under a foot of snow for a week. I mistakenly used the wipers and it popped the bracket out instead of tearing the rubber off the blade. Thought that was interesting – not seen it before.
I think I’ll have to post a video. That is an interesting quick release system now that you mention it. I almost burned out my wiper motor on my last set of Anco Blades because I started the car after a foot of wet snow and didn’t notice that my wipers were still on (the wipers just sat there trying to move for about 10 minutes). The wiper motor sounded about 10 times noisier after that incident. Is that a situation in which the quick release would have helped?
Updated Jan 25th 2010 after wiper exploded into pieces under heavy wind!
Great review. I have tried the Bosch and the Rain-X models you reviewed and had the same results. The Rain-X is a piece of crap. The Bosch I installed on my wife’s minivan, which uses a 28″ blade, works great. It’s going on 2 years since I bought them and they are still holding up. I live in Minnesota, so they have been exposed to some extreme cold temps and snow and have performed great in all conditions.
I just noticed that the clip that holds the rubber wiping blade was missing this morning. I have only had them one month. A complete waste of $20. I wish I had read this review first. I will certainly be looking to find the Bosch blades if I can find them here in Canada.
Another Update, see above where it is labeled Update 2
I put Rain-X Latitude’s on my friends Dodge Caravan at the suggestion of a Autozone employee. They did not have the right size for my Nissan Maxima, so I got the Bosch Icon. One of the Rain-X blades on my friend Caravan flew off mid wipe. They’ve been on the van for about 4 months, so I was not an installation issue. I may have come apart as described in this blog, but it was too quick for her to really notice. Not good when you have a van full of kids.
I to have had terrible results with the Rain X blades.
I had them blow up on me twice. I am going to try the bosch Icon since I live in the mountains.
I would not by the rain x again.
The Rain-X Latitude wipers were a good deal with mixed reviews so I decided to give them a shot. I bought two sets of these for both of my cars about 2 and a half months ago. Until today, the wipers on my car were fine, not so much now…. more on that later.
We went skiing this past weekend and took my wife’s car, it had just snowed so the roads were kicking up a muddy mess, I noticed the passenger side wiper on her car was streaking horribly, I thought it may have been coated with oil so I took some washer fluid and a rag and went to wipe them down. I notice on the wiper blade it self that there was raised lettering molded into the wiper blade. Then I set it back down on the windshield and noticed that the incredibly streaky area was exactly where the raised lettering was. Why in gods name would you put raised lettering on something that is supposed to ride flush to the windshield? With every stroke these blades are riding up on the raised lettering, in turn not wiping the windshield. Noticed the same thing on her driver side wiper, but not as bad.
A lot of people blame the streaking on the protective cover that the wiper is shipped with. I could see how some people might leave this on… But this brings up another good point. Why would a wiper blade need a protective cover when it is packaged in a nice, dry hard plastic case? Makes you think, if it can’t handle being in a package without a cover on the blade, how the heck is it going to handle being out in the elements, Rain, Snow, Ice, Hot Sun, Dirt and Grime. How is this wiper going to handle these elements when it needs to be packaged so delicately?
So, upset about this oversight on rain-x’s part. I was going to write them an email when I got to work today. On my way in to work, I was clearing my dirty windshield with fluid as I traveled 55 mph down the road…. The next thing I know, my passenger side rain-x latitude wiper has broken off at the mount (the mount is still attached to the wiper arm, just the beam and blade had broken off their mount), danced around my windshield a couple of times and flew off.
WTF man! These rain-x wiper blades are the worst things I have ever bought, DO NOT BUY!!!!!!! Not only are they crap, but this could have become dangerous if the circumstances were different.
Please feel free to ask questions. I know what I’m talking about and installed these exactly the way the instructions told me to. No covers were left on the wipers (which is a stupid thing anyway), everything was the way Rain-x intended. They just are the worst set of wipers I’ve ever owned.
On a positive Amazon note (as always). Amazon offered me a refund for these wipers. Amazon has always taken care of me and I have total confidence buying anything from them. Thanks Amazon!
Conor, I am really poor right so I have been using the Rain-X Latitude wiper blades for about 1 year now :-p… And let me tell you, they never get any better, that thing where they break apart and fall off has happened to me 3 times!! Once on the highway during drizzle, I almost got into a car accident. I would never ever ever recommend these terrible rain-x latitude wiper blades to anyone! They suck… And have probably caused several car accidents. I’m a Bosch man all the way now. Bosch beam blades are extremely well designed.
I have only one question. Why in the world would you keep on using a Windshield wiper that you have determined to be crap and unsafe?? Yet you keep using them again and again. Why?
You can’t tell me that there isn’t a store in town that carries either the Bosch or the Anco blades. Heck Meijer here in Indianapolis carries them and that is just a Supermarket. I am sure you have an Autozone, Advance Auto or Pep Boys near you. Why not use a product that you know is safe and won’t fail you when you need it most?
BTW, I only tried the Bosch Icons on my wife’s Maxima and they were nice but not perfect. They started streaking after a couple of months even after cleaning the blades and the windshield regularly. For that price they really should last longer than 2 months. I read a recent article in Consumer Reports and they tested wiper blades from all major manufacturers and after 6 months they couldn’t find any huge difference in wear and tear. They all seem to show similar signs of deterioration after 6 months of use.
I was a very poor college student at the time. I worked as a waiter, I didn’t want to spend a days worth of pay to get new wipers when I had spend so much on the Rain-X planning on keeping them for over a year.
FWIW, I am now back on my Bosch Icons and am very happy now