wiper blades

[Swer]

Plenty on ebay, amazon, aliexpress.

[rbowman]

How many did you want? The local O'reily and NAPA store also show them in stock. For the price difference I use the Trico complete blades. Unless you buy Bosch, which must be gold plated, Trico or ANCO blades for my car are under $10. Note: I don't buy high performance neo-form teflon versions, just the standard blades that I've used for decades.

[rbowman]

They're around but they are not front and center on the rack. I think she has retired but Champion Auto had one person who knew what she was doing. When I brought the assemblies to the counter Bonny asked "Why aren't you using the refills?" It was sort of like 'My Cousin Vinny'. The woman knew cars up and down unlike the male drones who could use a parts book and come up with the right item. I bought a carb kit for the F150 when Bonny wasn't around. Luckily I glanced at the box before I was out the door. It said 'Rochester' so I made a u-turn and said 'You want to try again dude?'

[Clare Snyder]

6mm frameless rubbers won't fit MOST of the older re-fillable wipers - and a whole lot of the "non refillables" either. There's a reason you can only buy them on-line

[rbowman]

I keep a spray bottle filled with drug store rubbing alcohol. Works wonders and is cheaper that the commercial deicers.

I haven't physically verified it but most parts stores in town plus Walmart claim they have Trico refills in stock.

[rbowman]

-4 F? Hell, that's balmy. Like I answered to Micky, I pour alcohol on them. Grocery store rubbing alcohol works and I don't have to remember to pick up a gallon of denatured alcohol at the hardware store. Plus denatured tends to use methanol instead of iso.

otoh, isopropanol burns like shit in my alcohol stove.

[Swer]

It's a lie that you can only buy them online.

[Xeno]

Pay the money. Someone else mentioned buying from the dealer or from a reputable maker - usually one that will put their name on OEM parts. Be aware that some cheap Chinese brands use very similar names.

[Xeno]

Yep, been there, seen that.

[Xeno]

Still can get them here. Had a look at a couple of places online wiper blade refills from Trico, Tridon, Bosch readily available as direct fit or universal.

[Jean Fredette]

Xeno [e-mail]> posted:

Most wiper blades are likely the same product in different packages.

When I took marketing in school they taught us to create at least three different packages for the same product, and charge at least three different prices.

That way we'd get our product to everyone by including those who are most affected by marketing where we make the most profit, and also by including those who just want the product, where we STILL make a profit (wiper blades likely cost less than a buck to make, market, and disseminate).

We make most of the profit on the middle people since there are more of them who will not want the least expensive but who won't opt for the most expensive either.

In the end, it's the same product in all cases (with packaging differences).

[Clare Snyder]

Have you actually tried to buy them locally????

I did. Spent better than 7 hours canvassing every auto parts supplier in Kitchener/Waterloo/Guelph/Cambridge/Elmira area - all said the same

- they have not been able to source them for over 3 years. They had a few (of the wrong size for virtually anything still on the road) gathering dust in a corner - and if you wanted more than what they had in stock you were out of luck. Had enough trouble even finding stainless steel wiper blade assemblies - only "universal" black plastic stuff>

It MAY be that they are available in the USA but not available in Canada because the suppliers won't label them as required for import to Canada (English and French) since Trico closed down manufacturing in Canada a few years back

[Clare Snyder]

In today's world you are more likely to get 3 different products in essentially the same package. The real thing, clone #1 and clone #2 - with varying discrepancy in quality - sometimes pretty darn close -and in others no comparison.