Thanks again for the info Mike, I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't have just bought the regular silblades, as a few people have now commented that the winter-type blades don't work as well as regular ones. Guess I'll have to see for myself. If I'm not satisfied I can always pay the restocking fee and exchange them for the normal ones. Keep me posted on any more insights you may have.

Thanks!

 

I thought I'd give an update on this since I had promised pictures & a review.

I ordered a set of the 22" Winter Silblades (comes in black with a grey blade) from automotiveinteriors.com. I received the order last Thursday, UPS guy dropped them off at my door after dark (which was weird.)

I opened up the box and I gotta say, I wasn't impressed with what I found. The winter blades have a thicker blade than the regular blades, which was fine, and also a type of plastic or vinyl casing that surrounds the arm, which is meant to block snow and ice from forming in the arm and degrading performance. Well, the casing feels like very thin, loose rubber - and it looks like one misplaced swipe with an ice scraper will tear it right open. I had imagined some sort of hard plastic shell to cover the arm, but this stuff just looked terribly cheap. The worst part is, it doesn't fit snug around the arm, it's like someone wearing loose leather pants, which is wrong in a lot of ways.

So I decided right there that I just couldn't put these on my truck. They are simply too bulky and it would look like I have trash bags laying across my windshield.

It was killing me because the next morning we had a nice downpour on my way in to work and I sure wanted to try them out, but I left them off so I could return them. I ordered a pair of the regular black silblades (plus a bottle of "silbead" which appears to be their version of Rain-X) and they should be in sometime this week. I'm confident that I'll love the regular ones, so many people here are so proud of them and that's why I ended up ordering the winter ones, I thought I'd just have something new and fancy.

So unfortunately, I can't really give a review of their performance as I never bothered to put them on the truck. (They probably do a fine job for the most part, but again I've heard some people say that the vinyl casing catches air at high speeds and causes them to lift from the windshield, and others have said that the thicker blades on the winter wipers are too rigid and don't make full contact.) But I can tell you honestly that I hated the way they looked, and for $35 I just couldn't keep them. Something to seriously consider before you order a pair.

(Also, for those of you who don't like it that your wipers say "Silblade" on the arm, these are even worse because they say "Winter Silblade" in big white letters across the tops, using 2 different fonts.)

 

 

Mike,

I'm glad that you posted that, because I suspected the wipers work just fine - probably much better than other winter-type wipers. In the end I based my decision to exchange them solely on their looks, I'm just too picky It's really not my intention to sway anyone from buying them, or to slam those who own them. I just wanted to present my experience with them (limited as it was) so others could use that information if they were considering a purchase. Again, it's good that you are here to give an actual review of their performance.

And to answer your question, no, I've never had winter wipers before so I didn't know they commonly use the loose rubber boot. Based on the photos I saw online I thought the boot was a hard plastic shell, which, in the end, may or may not have been acceptable to me...Part of my problem I guess is that I want them to do their job well, but not draw too much attention to themselves. Just my own little opinion. Same as I don't like purple, red or any color other than black wipers, I didn't care for the way these looked either. I probably slammed them a little too much, but I suppose my expectations were up there pretty high because of all the praise Silblade has received on this board (That's it, throw the blame back on you guys!)


-G

 

 

Just got my regular Silblades installed on my truck and went through a few rainy days with them. I can also say that they are the best blades I've ever had. We don't get much snow here, so I have no need for the winter ones.