[Raccoon]

Got the wipers thru Bluedart today. Here is a quick review:

Shipping time: Order placed late afternoon day before yesterday. Got SMS from Snapdeal that it has been shipped on the next day. Got delivery today. They have been shipped from Bombay.

Packaging: Though they are sold as a pair on Snapdeal and on Autotrends, they are very much individually packed by the importer/manufacturer. Its the seller that is clubbing the sizes and selling them for a particular car.

The packaging by both manufactuer and seller is below par. The seller has simply wrapped both boxes in couple of layers of Snapdeal branded plastic sheet. The boxes were a bit squished out... as if they had several more parcels placed on top of them. Bluedart is relatively better and delivering consignments with lesser abuse. If it was some other courier company, its more than likely these wipers would probably been rendered useless. Anything sent thru courier should at least an outer box. Whereas the seller has not even provided a single layer of good bubble wrap.

As for the manufacturer's packaging, the wipers simply have an open (no seal of any kind) thin cardboard box. Inside the only protection the wipers have is a thin cardboard sheet, as you can see in the picture. There is no other protection evce for the blades.

Thanks to this poor packing on both sides, at least one of the wiper blade edges seem to have been harmed in transit. It remains to be seen if/how it affects the performance, as I am yet to install the wipers.

Branding/manufactuer/other details: The sticker carrying the MRP, manufacturing date/import date/company has been deliberately torn off on both boxes, as you can see in the picture. Only the year can be seen (2013) on one of the boxes. However, this is obviously the packaging or import date, which is of no use. As everybody may know, rubber hardens fast, and buying wipers over a year is very likely to reduce its service life. The Bosch (basic) wipers on my car were recently manufactured, and lasted some 3 years. So I can't agree with those who say wipers need changing every monsoon. On the front, J. K. Industries is printed on boxes. There is no mention of G M or Aero or any such name to be found anywhere. It is more than likely that these wipers have been manufactured by some small time Taiwanese maybe even Chinese company.

Overall Conclusion: The feeling you get right away is that this product has not come from any very professional company. Everything is fishy, be it the deliberately torn labels, open and below par packing, assorted dubious branding like G M / Aero / J K industries, no manufacturing date, country of import, etc., etc.

Recommendation: Sorry, but I cannot recommend these wipers to anybody. They don't inspire much confidence and I'd rather not trust someting as important as windscreen glass to anything but a reputed brand. If you really have to buy online, I'd say go with Hella at least (if Bosch is not available) - they seem lot professional with better packaging and cost almost the same (though I have no personal experience with them). I'm glad I only bought one pair for myself. I was going to buy two more pairs for others, which I wont.

Of course the acid test will be its performance, which I will mention after installing them. Of course, the real conclusion can only be drawn with time, as most wipers are likely to give decent performance initially. I do not think these will last anywhere close to 3 years. Even construction wise, the basic Bosch wipers inspire much more confidence.

Sorry for picture quality - taken in low light from mobile.

[funkyp]

This is bad news. I just ordered a pair for my swift when I was unable to get Bosch anywhere close to home. I could only find 22/16 while I needed 22/17.

The above review suggests that the GM brand (or whatever It is) is quiet poor. Lets see how the performance is. For 300 bucks even if they last one monsoon well I will be happy.

[Raccoon]

Installed the wipers myself sometime ago.

Performance: Pretty silent. Could hardly hear them working. Wiper cleans well on the upswing. However, on downswing it leaves thin concentric semi circular lines.... so not a totally clear wipe. Practically speaking, these faint lines don't seem to cause any real visibility issues in the daytime. Maybe different at night though. Will find out in the next few days.

Now the worst thing- as I suspected, this type of design transfers the entire spring tension of the wiper arm only at the middle of the wiper frame. The far ends of the wiper are entirely dependent on the elastic frame of the wiper to make contact at the extremes. Result is that the blade rubber is not pressing down enough at the extremes. At resting position I can see a more than one inch gap where the blade is not making contact at all with the glass. This is on the passenger side. So its like using a wiper that is more than an inch shorter.

If you observe the basic wipers of Bosch, and I guess Hella too, the conventional design transfers the spring tension at 4 points on the wiper frame, 2 of which are on the extremes. Result being that I never observed any gaps at the extreme. The force is obviously being very well distributed across the wiper frame/blades.

Final conclusion: Definitely NOT recommended. Stick to Bosch or maybe even Hellas, but skip this one. The basic models are priced just marginally more than this no-name wiper, so I see no reason whatsoever for getting them. Also think twice about buying from a seller who scratches out the price, manufacturing date, etc., as done by Ace Bearing Corporation (Vendour on Snapdeal)/Autotrends.in.

Bosch authorised dealer here in Pune (Waterloo Motors) gives a 10% discount too.

I'm not considering a return as I desperately need new wipers.

[mroptimist]

Today I got my car, Toyota Etios VX (P), Bosch wiper blade 26" from the local exclusive Bosch dealer at Perinthalmanna.

Cost:600 INR

Type:Single wiper blade, Clear Advantage (All Rubber Type)

Performance: Initial impression is good. Much better than the stock wiper blade I had got with the car.

Need to see for longevity of this type of wiper blade from Bosch, hoping with fingers crossed.

Had ordered Hella wiper from autotrends.in by cash on delivery. They replied after two days that there is no COD for Perinthalmanna, even though they had initially accepted the order.

[EagleEye]

Originally Posted by EagleEye

I bought them from vicky.in, and they seem to have wipers for all types of cars. Once the wipers arrive I'll report back regarding the service quality etc.

Originally Posted by Raccoon

^^^Vicky.in seems to have pretty bad reviews. Do let us know your experience after you get them.

Received the Hella Dynaedge wipers today (24"/19"). Inspired by Raccoon's post above, I'll do one similar.

Ordered on: 17th June
Shipped on: 18th June
Received on: 19th June
Was shipped by BlueDart.

Packaging:
No bubble wrap. Just normal brown wrapping paper over the manufacturer packing. Manufacturer packing is quite good and seal is intact. There is a thin plastic cover along the rubber to protect it and although the package was a little squashed during transit, I don't think the wipers are damaged.



Import details:
The import stickers are intact. One was imported in Apr 2013 and the other in June 2013. The MRPs written match with the price I paid.



Connector details:
This model is compatible with the pin type as well as the hook type connector and they claim it's compatible with 95% of vehicles.



Recommendation:
Vicky.in may have bad reviews like Raccoon mentioned, but maybe I was the lucky one. Item is original, was shipped on time, in good condition, at the right price. I would definitely recommend vicky.in to anyone.

Regarding the wipers themselves, I am yet to install them and I'll report back once done.

[msaudf]

I bought Roots wiper blade for our Nano today from our nearby spare part shop, he had the OE ones which were just 10 rupees cheaper but I went for the Roots one because it was packed properly in its box and was unopened, whereas the OE ones he showed me were in a plastic bag, no box nothing, so i got a bit suspicious.
I don't know how many of our fellow Nano owners have noticed the difference in shape of the wiper blade of the Tata Nano. Instead of a normal bow like shape the Nano's blade has a slight inward bend at the mounting point. I didn't know the actual cause of that design until I fitted the new normal blade made by Roots. The new blade did not make proper contact with the windshield at the ends of the blade, also the blade was always fully pressed in the middle in such a manner the rubber was touching the mounting clip.
Realizing I chose the wrong blade but still the thought of not buying an unmarked blade which was claimed to be OE made be feel better. But the new blade was of fantastic quality and it showed immediately as it was wiping the middle portion so well. About 90% of the blade was doing a good job and I was quite happy.
While buying the blade i made sure and double checked the length to be exactly right to that of the old one. I usually buy slightly upsize ones than the stock blades for my other cars but here something felt bad about buying upsize so i strictly stuck to stock size 26".
The solution
Very simple, I went home and simply swapped the rubbers of the blades. The old frame that fits the windshield was now given a new rubber strip from the new Roots blade I just bought. As good as new!

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by EagleEye

Received the Hella Dynaedge wipers today (24"/19"). Inspired by Raccoon's post above, I'll do one similar.

From what little I can see in the pictures, these design of these Hella Dynaedge blades seem identical to those of the JK/GM wipers I'v reviewed above.

Upon checking carefully, can you (and other users) tell us if the extremities make full contact with the glass at least at resting position? I'm sceptical of this new design as the force due to the spring tension of the wiper arm is incident only at the center of these blades. Whereas, in the older/conventional design the force is distributed on as many as 6 points (not 4 as I erroneously mentioned in my review). This may also be better for the safety (from scratches) of the windscreen glass, as the rubber blade is going to press on the glass with maximum force at the center. So any debris/dust there is going to rub on the glass there with much greater force, than would happen with the wipers of conventional/old design.

I guess contact with the glass at other points in the wipers path can only be checked by seeing if its clearing water right till its edges; as the wipers move too fast to be able to see visually if its making contact.

[EagleEye]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

From what little I can see in the pictures, these design of these Hella Dynaedge blades seem identical to those of the JK/GM wipers I'v reviewed above.

Upon checking carefully, can you (and other users) tell us if the extremities make full contact with the glass at least at resting position? I'm sceptical of this new design as the force due to the spring tension of the wiper arm is incident only at the center of these blades. Whereas, in the older/conventional design the force is distributed on as many as 6 points (not 4 as I erroneously mentioned in my review). This may also be better for the safety (from scratches) of the windscreen glass, as the rubber blade is going to press on the glass with maximum force at the center. So any debris/dust there is going to rub on the glass there with much greater force, than would happen with the wipers of conventional/old design.

I guess contact with the glass at other points in the wipers path can only be checked by seeing if its clearing water right till its edges; as the wipers move too fast to be able to see visually if its making contact.

I checked the wiper operation sometime back, and found that it cleaned the extremes quite well. The entire area of coverage of the wipers is being cleaned properly. FYI, the OE wipers that came with my car (Laura) are also of the exact same design.

In your case, it could be two things:
- Your wipers may not be of good quality.
- Your windscreen might not be compatible with this type of wiper. Which car do you have?

[Raccoon]

Yes, obviously they are not of great quality. That is now obvious. I'd expect the Hella Dynaedge to perform much better, given that they are a major brand and are also much pricier. And they also seem much better packed to withstand abuse while shipping.

Car is Esteem. Its possible that the wipers don't like Esteems windscreen, but I doubt that. The basic Bosch wipers didn't have any issues about making full contact. I checked the drivers side wiper also sometime back. There too its not making proper contact at one of the extremes.... at least in rest position. So it'll be like using a shorter wiper.

[bhp_maniac]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

There is no mention of G M or Aero or any such name to be found anywhere. It is more than likely that these wipers have been manufactured by some small time Taiwanese maybe even Chinese company.

Mine had a GM branding on the package and as you said the individual blades were re-packed by the seller for sure. One of them had the blade rubber protection and a sealed packing but the other one was loose packed and also never had any protection for the rubber. But the wipe quality is indeed good (as of now).
I personally change the wiper blades every monsoon and I am using these unbranded frame less ones for the past 3 years. I usually source it from my local store for 500 Rs every May-June. My previous Bosch, Syndicate also had the same life, in fact with metal frames they tend to make noise a lot where these frame less ones are pretty silent. So, if you ask me I will still recommend these cheaper frame less ones for those who stick with an yearly cycle for wiper blades

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

Upon checking carefully, can you (and other users) tell us if the extremities make full contact with the glass at least at resting position?

No issues with the Hella Dynaedge on the Swift windscreen, makes contact with glass at all points and wipes clean at all points in the arc made by the wipers.

[saket77]

Going slightly OT, but I can see the ASCs selling a lot of Syndicate wiper blades. How, in the opinion of you guys, is good (or bad) is Syndicate blades?

[bhp_maniac]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

Now the worst thing- as I suspected, this type of design transfers the entire spring tension of the wiper arm only at the middle of the wiper frame. The far ends of the wiper are entirely dependent on the elastic frame of the wiper to make contact at the extremes. Result is that the blade rubber is not pressing down enough at the extremes. At resting position I can see a more than one inch gap where the blade is not making contact at all with the glass. This is on the passenger side. So its like using a wiper that is more than an inch shorter.

There was a picture with the listing on cardekho, which mentioned to bend the blades inward before installation. I did that, and there is no gap found on my swift. From the details, I think you got the wrong piece, may be. Mine had the year of import manufacture name etc, but the MRP was scratched off. Something is fishy for sure, however happy with the wipe quality

[Lukeskywalker]

Picked up these for my Optra yesterday from AK Traders,




They look and feel pretty impressive, hope they perform well too. I paid under 1000 bucks for the set (21" and 18")

[jinojohnt]

How do you rate the Maruti Genuine Wipers compared with Bosch? I have been using Bosch for over 10 years, but not very happy with the quality of wipe. I feel my A-Star's OEM wiper is far better, just wanted to know whether a Maruti Genuine Wiper bought from over-the-counter would have the same quality.