The Best Winter Wiper Blades for Clearing Snow

What Make a Great Winter Wiper Blade?

These Bosch wipers are beam-type, meaning there are no moving parts between the mounting and your glass. Instead, the spring-like construction of the wiper holds the blade surface against the windshield for optimal contact.

Bosch's ICON wiper blades are designed with an integrated spoiler that works similarly to a race car's wing. Like the car's wing, the wiper's spoiler generates downforce to press the wiper onto the glass at speed.

An exclusive FX rubber dual compound is made to resist heat and ozone deterioration in the summer as well as stay flexible at all temperatures in the winter, which helps it to clear snow, ice, and rain, and Bosch says helps them to last up to 40 percent longer than other blades. The ICON wipers come made for specific vehicle fitments, meaning that you don't need to worry about adaptors. You just pick the right wipers for your vehicle, and the rest is easy.

TRICO is the company that invented the windshield wiper blade way back in 1917. It remains one of the leading manufacturers of wiper blades in the world.

The TRICO Ice Extreme Winter Weather wiper blade is designed to protect the critical components inside the wiper arm from ice and snow, keeping them functioning properly even well below freezing. They start with a flexible arm design that helps keep them flat with your glass, then have rugged armor to keep ice from clogging the blade and stopping it from flexing.

The wiper blade itself is a heavy gauge to help protect it from damage when wiping over ice and snow that has built up on your windshield and is infused with Teflon for a smooth, quiet wipe every time. All necessary adaptors are included, and a range of sizes are offered.

These wiper blades come with a protective cover and a one-year warranty, both of which help them stand out from the crowd. Because the rubber used in a wiper blade can start to break down as soon as it's exposed to UV light, the protective cover helps keep them fresh in the box.

A one-year warranty should give you four seasons of a clear windshield, but as an added bonus, this set of wipers comes with an extra rubber refill. Because with blade-type wipers, the wiper frame will last for many years; it's the small strip that touches the glass that wears out. A replacement refill lets you change just that edge, giving you maximum performance again down the road while reducing waste sent to landfill.

The aerodynamic design of the wipers is meant to improve performance and reduce noise while keeping your windshield free of ice, snow, and water. Further helping reduce waste, the wipers will be shipped in their manufacturer's box instead of a large shipping carton.

This is an older-style wiper from TRICO, which in this case, means it comes with a lower price. Instead of a flexible one-piece design, it has a conventional hinged design.

To protect the metal parts from ice and snow and to make sure they stay flexible, the moving parts are encased in a protective rubber boot. While that works to keep out ice and snow, it only works as long as the boot is intact, making this style more susceptible to damage. Still, if you're using your wipers in occasional freezing weather rather than an extreme Midwest winter, wipers like this offer an affordable way to keep your front glass clear all winter long.

This design has been around for decades, so they are well-proven over time. A heavy-gauge precision-cut rubber wiper blade resists tearing in sub-zero temperatures, and each part comes with a pre-attached adaptor to make installation quick and easy. The wiper is made from coated steel for strength and performance as well as corrosion resistance.

The Storm from Michelin is a hybrid design that combines some of the best features of the beam style with the best of the conventional models. Under the strong plastic outer cover is a mechanical arm that has multiple pivot points. There is also a beam-like spring, which helps keep the blade tight to your windshield glass, and the pivots allow it to maintain that pressure across the entire length, even if your windshield has compound curves that are difficult for either design to follow on their own.

Instead of the usual rubber boot, a hard segmented plastic cover keeps snow and ice from building up around the pivots, maintaining function even in cold weather. It also helps clear heavier snow from the glass.

Michelin says the wipers have WeatherShield Technology that helps to repel rain, snow, and ice from the blade cover, which further helps protect the wiper and keep it functioning well below the freezing mark.

The White line is wiper stalwart Trico's entry into the arena of premium beam-style winter blades. They're similar to their popular summer blade, but include plastic armoring along the spine to help prevent icing. The blades are otherwise conventional rubber, which performs well in cold temperatures. They're generally priced at between $11 and $14 each, which is extremely competitive, and are sold in two-packs for most applications. You'll probably need to know what sizes you need before you shop.

We'd place the Trico Whites higher for their good cost-to-performance ratio, but we do not like the plastic attachment mechanism. We find these to be brittle in cold weather, which could be a problem when you need them most. We'd recommend trying to put them on in a garage or warmer day, but they're cheap enough that they make a good option for a spare set to keep for emergencies.

Do I need winter wiper blades?

How do I pick winter wipers?

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