What are Winter Wiper Blades

Winter wiper blades are specially designed wiper blades that work to clear your windshield better in snow and icy conditions.

All modern windshields are curved for aerodynamics and aesthetic reasons. And there are no real "flat spots". So as the wipers are moved across the asymmetric curvature of the windshield the frames holding the rubber blades against the windshield must continuously adjust to keep the rubber properly pressed against the entire length of the contact line to give an even wipe.

Traditional wiper blade frames have several "hinge" points that keep pressure on about 6 pressure points for the rubber blade to give an even wipe across your windshield in warm rainy conditions. But during cold weather those "hinge" points easily freeze up and your rubber blade can no longer be evenly pressed or conform to the shape of your windshield as the blade is moved across it.

So designers originally created "boots" or rubber coverings that encased the traditional wipers "hinge" points to try and prevent them from getting filled with water and freezing.  But these were a flawed design 

1. The boots would eventually be damaged by ice and allow water in and ice would easily form
2. The boots would hold water on the blades, not allowing evaporation, and rust would quickly overtake the metal blade and hinges.
3. The rubber boots over traditional steel frame wipers made the wipers a large and bulky wind dam allowing the wind to lift the booted wipers at driving speeds.
4. They looked UGLY! 

Modern "All Weather" wipers are called "Beam Blades". They are a significant advancement to the old traditional metal frame wiper blades of yesteryear. Beam blades used a new technology called "Memory Steel". This is accomplished using a lightweight, solid-state shape-memory alloy as alternative to conventional steel construction.

Which allows Beam Blades to:

1. have hundreds of pressure points per blade
2. be completely encased in shaped rubber with aerodynamics built in to help the wind actually keep the blade pressed to the windshield in addition to the memory steel. And because there are no hinge points to freeze up and no rubber boot to break this is a much superior product to the first generation of winter wiper blades.  

There is really a 4 fold benefit to using beam blade wipers instead of winter wipers.

1. Superior equalized pressure across the entire wiper contact line.
2. Low profile triangular design is more efficient and uses the driving wind to keep the blades pressed to the windshield
3. The overall design is much more in line with todays advanced sleek automobiles.
4. The can be used in winter and summer. No need to change out your wipers with the seasons.