It's that time of year: clean off your car windows, asshole!

[Anaamika]

I try to even clean the top of my car, but you know, sometimes you’re running late and you can’t help it. While it annoys me, I understand that. What i don’t get is the loon in front of me at a light today. It was clear he had not even taken a brush to his rear window. There was a thin sheet of ice/snow, thick enough not to see through. No rear wiper, either. But what got me was there were no tell tale lines of the rear defogger, either. How did he see? I sat there trying to figure this out at the light. Yes, you can forget, but at no point do you glance in your rearview mirror and think, hey, I could defog that shit?

Way, way more annoying are the entitled scumbag sons of bitching assholes who can’t be bothered to put on their turn signals. I want to run them off the road. I want them to never drive again. I can’t read your puny little mind, asshole! I have no idea whether you’re turning or just slowing down because you can’t comprehend simple driving procedures.

I am convinced it is wholly about arrogance. Sure, I forget once in a while, but these are people who I follow through three, four turns, and they never even once put on a signal. GO TO HELL!

[Muffin]

@Anaamika

It was clear he had not even taken a brush to his rear window. There was a thin sheet of ice/snow, thick enough not to see through. No rear wiper, either. But what got me was there were no tell tale lines of the rear defogger, either. How did he see?

As with trucks, side view mirrors, unless the dummy was in full igloo mode.

Sadly, some folks simply don’t care about what is behind them.

[Malthus]

@Jake_Jones

If it’s gotten to the point that the blades are frozen to the windshield, you already have some work to do chipping the ice off the windshield and the blades are going to be freed in that process anyway.
I’m not in Buffalo anymore, but close enough to still get plenty of snow and ice. The lake effect just happens to come from a different lake. Buffalo and all of Western NY get plenty of wet snow and freezing rain.

Consider the following: On any given day that a wet snow or cold rain can turn to ice, you and I park next to each other in the lot before going into the office. I walk into the building. You raise your driver side wiper blade, walk around to passenger side and raise that blade and then walk into the building. One of two things happen. The wet snow or rain freezes, or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, we both have to either remove the wet snow or ignore the cold rain when we leave. In either case, you have to dick around with your wipers for the second time of the day. I just have to remove the snow with a brush (never needing to touch the wiper arms) or do nothing.

If the wet snow freezes, or worse, the rain freezes, we both have to expend a considerable amount of energy chipping away the ice to clear our windshields. At that point, the amount of effort it adds to free the wipers from the windshield is negligible. We’ve both got to chip away all that ice, so what effort have you saved? In fact, the point where the blade meets the windshield makes a great starting point for freezing rain because it gives you at least some small strips of exposed glass to get under with the scraper. Kind of like stripping paint, you need to get under it to remove it.

I suppose there are rare instances where there is just enough moisture to freeze the blades to the windshield without requiring a full chipping away of the windshield. In that case, the worst I have to do is is get out and manually lift each of the blades up, which is still half of the work you’ve done on your wipers for the day.

I stand by my opinion that this practice of lifting the wiper arms up is retarded and serves no useful purpose.

Another vote for “no” to this bizzare theory.

I live in Toronto, and when I forget to lift my wiper blades, I often seriously regret it - as I then am faced with the task of chipping them free of the windshield without damaging the rubber. Which is like ten times the work of simply chipping the windshield free of ice. Over time, ripping the rubber away from the frozen windshield damages the rubber - if you don’t do it really carefully. Who wants to do it really carefully when it is -20 out and you need to be somewhere?

Moreover, even if there is no ice, it is simply easier to sweep a windshield free of snow when the wipers are lifted up. Unlifted = bumpy wipers in the way. Lifted = smooth expanse of glass to sweep. So why not kill two birds with one stone and lift them when show or ice is comming? What, exactly, is the downside?

The wiper manufacturers recommend the practice:

http://mechanicinacan.com/winter-wiper-lift-silly-or-smart/

Rain-X and Anco further recommend:

“Avoid these common problems and extend the life of your wiper blades by following these simple steps: . . . Pull your wiper blades away from the windshield during winter months to prevent ice build up on the rubber squeegee and to prevent them from sticking to the windshield.” -Rain-X

As does Consumer Reports:

How to Prepare a Car for Winter | Winter Safety - Consumer Reports

Raise your wipers before a forecast freeze to keep them from sticking to the windshield.

The main strike against appears to be ‘it looks silly’. I’ll take functional wiper blades over worrying about that any day.

[Anaamika]

I don’t stick my wiper blades out and have never had this problem. I do warm up my car first, so that helps - I don’t chip at the rubber, ever. Yes, that is bad for the car. Worse comes to worst, I just sit inside and wait for it to warm up.

I think if you know you won’t have time to warm it up, it is good to stick them out, but if you will, you don’t have to bother.

[Kenm]

The wiper blades on my previous car wouldn’t lift high enough to clear the springs holding them down. They’d lift only a few inches, then slam back down. It took two hands to simply brush the snow away.

T’was a pain in th’arse.

I checked that the wiper blades on my present car would lift and stay before I bought it.