Wipers Gone Wild!

By Tim Craig

Since the windshield wiper was invented more than 100 years ago, there has never been more wiper confusion, more required wiper part numbers and more wiper choices than today. Less than five years ago, a shop could stock 14 part numbers and feel confident they could properly replace wipers in more than 95 percent of the cars arriving for service. Those days are gone.

Today, in order to achieve 95 percent coverage, a shop needs to inventory three different styles of blades:

•  Conventional frame blades.

•  Beam/flat or aero design blades.

•  Plastic rear wiper blades.

And there is a new style of blade that may require additional inventory for exact wiper replacement — the “uni-blade.”

To help you sort through the quagmire of offerings, we will explain each type wiper blade with the various options available:

Conventional Frame Blades

Once, this was the only design (in various quality levels) offered by any manufacturer. Now conventional frame blades’ popularity is declining at OE, but they are still strong in the aftermarket. Most shops buy a consolidated 14-part-number line, which contains few or no extra connectors in the package.

Beam/Flat/Aero-style Blades

When large, curved windshields became popular, traditional frame blades could not properly wrap the glass; also, wind lift became harder to counteract. The OE answer was a beam design (also called flat or aero), which utilizes a beam of spring steel imbedded in a rubber or thermoplastic one-piece frame. While some OE beam/flat/aero blades attach to a traditional small hook arm, most connect to newly designed arms, and conventional frame blades will not fit on these arms. (Not entirely true? OE Hook Arms still exist that can accommodate a conventional metal blade, even though an Aero blade was OE/factory installed.)Currently, there are more than 21 million vehicles on the road that have OE beam/flat/aero blades, and the number keeps rising. Their popularity increased 26.5 percent last year alone. If a shop does not offer beam/flat/aero blades, they cannot replace more than 10 percent of the light vehicles entering their facility.

Aftermarket blade manufacturers offer three different type beam/flat/aero blade lines and packaging options (sort these from “best” to “better” to “confusing”..):

•  Dedicated direct fit blades – These lines require more than 20 part numbers for complete coverage, but eliminate adapters and the confusion of the consolidated program. Right out of the package, the blade fits on the arm, providing simple replacement.

•  One number per size – Many lines feature about 10 part numbers, which limits inventory. Unlike conventional blades, which have minimized connection adapters, “consolidated” beam/flat/aero blades are packaged with a number of connectors. Needless to say, this offering requires significant hands-on training with the installer in order to become adept and comfortable during the sale and installation.

•  Bulk pack (blades and connectors separate) – While this may be one of the most economical systems, it can be the most confusing. At least 10 blades must be stocked, and shops must inventory and order each individual adapter. Novice installers can find difficulty in determining the proper adapter, connecting it to the blade, and then the blade assembly to the arm. Economy comes with challenges.

Most wiper manufacturers now provide connectors in the beam/flat/aero blades to adapt to the arms used with conventional frame blades, in order to fit as many vehicles as possible. As we noted previously, beam/frame/aero blades were designed for highly curved windshields. Beam/flat/aero blades usually will work well in general replacement, but they have experienced wiping problems on those vehicles (especially truck, van and SUV applications) that originally came with conventional blades.

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