I’m really surprised by some of the responses I’m reading here. I’ve lived in the northeast almost my whole life, and in New England for the past 12 years. I rarely see a parked car with the wipers sticking up (although, admittedly, most people front into their driveways), and I have never had my wipers freeze to the windshield. And between this winter and the last one, if it hasn’t happened yet, I don’t think it’s going to.
Don’t people use car covers any more ? Can’t say I’ve seen them for a while ( in GB ), but googling them indicates they can cost upwards of $20.
Car covers always seemed like a huge pain in the ass to me. Putting it on and taking it off then folding it up so it fits in the trunk. When you want it most like in rain and snow now you are putting a big wad of wet cloth in your trunk that seems like a total mess.
Also as part of the OP from centuries ago there may be some sort of herd mentality. Not in the sense that just because one does it others should follow. But because more people are doing it more people are reminded to do it. It is too easy to forget otherwise and I am glad when I get such a reminder, not only to make snow and ice clearing easier but also a reminder that that type of weather in on the way.
YMMV
I never, ever saw this practice here in Chicago until a couple of years ago (probably about the time of the OP!). Now, all of a sudden, I see it a lot. It looks totally goofy, not that that makes it a bad idea of course. But I don’t do it, I just free up the wipers with my scraper, and they are fine.
Can’t say I ever saw them all that much even when they were more common. I’d hate to think about covering a car in a windy winter storm. Now there’s a car shaped ice and fabric sculpture to remove. That’s assuming it’s not frozen to the car.
So I’m the only one who turns the car on before cleaning it off, turns the windshield defrost on high, turns the back window defroster on, then gets out and cleans the hood, trunk, roof, side windows and lights first? By the time that’s all done, the windshield and rear window are mostly - if not completely - melted. Wipers aren’t frozen to the window at all, the defroster blower is right underneath them (or darned close). I’ve been driving in the Chicago area since 1986 and have always done it like that, never had an issue with the wipers. So yeah, I think it looks dumb.
Yeah, zombie, I knnow.
We get our fair share of icing/sleeting/freezing rain here in OK, once getting over three and half-inches solid, in one storm, and another time had no electric for 12 days after around 2 1/2" ice. I have only once raised my wipers, and of course, it was during the 3 1/2" coating of ice. Took me forever to get the thick layer off the arm with both deicer and tapping stress-cracks into ice and cracking off with hand as needed, not to mention freeing the lower mount/pivot-point area. Ice on the upright radio antenna was so thick I could not wrap my hand around it! At least it was made to bend its length 
Getting the doors open was hard enough, made use of a small wooden bat to bust the ice up along opening of door. After got car hot and toasty inside thus warming surface beneath ice-layer to a degree, the ice started loosening enough to slide off in sheets, thankfully, with little effort beyond a bit of hitting w/ fist to crack it more.
I also make it a habit when it snows/sleets here, after my living/driving in mountainous/ski-area w/ lots of wet snow/ice as often as powder it seemed, to allow windshield to cool off greatly by rolling down windows and turning heater off, if not to outide temp, before getting home (when I am without wife, of course) so as to avoid having ‘melt’ turn to hard ice as it falls; more slushy-like, at worst, that way, IME.
It would have been easier to scrape and use de-icer stuff if arms had been down, by far. I can tap w/ scraper gently along length of down-wiper and slowly crack off the layer(s) on arms gently from top side down and the little amount of deicer needed to free rubber part is easy, Then lift and scrape the rest of winodows if car not blowing hot defrost-air by that point.
When arms were up, if I tried such tapping, the arms would not have been as firm to small taps from the leverage and I bet I would’ve messed-up something down low on arm/mount. Most icings, though, are not quite as bad and its really not that hard to free a down wiper compared to an up, IME, maybe a couple minutes or three for wiper part. I often ‘cheat’ and place an old blanket over windshield and wiper portions and then some when I know that Nature’s gonna ice upon us in a major way.
I can’t remember but a few different vehhicles ever going wipers-up when snow/ice is expected around these parts, fwiw.
Back when I lived in northern AZ and my windshield wipers or doors froze, I’d run a bead of hand sanitizer on them and it seemed to magically thaw everything. Of course, we didn’t get the extreme snow and ice that folks in the frozen wastelands do, but it worked quickly and never seemed to damage anything.
:dubious: How long does it take you? In the amount of time it takes me to do that, my rear window could indeed be defrosted, thanks to the heat input from the electrical defrost grid on it. But my windshield would not; the average car doesn’t put out any cabin heat for several minutes after a cold-start.
And while it might unstick the wiper blades it will not remove any built up ice chunks that may have formed on the rubber, so they will perform like crap. Part of the ritual of lifting your blades is that you can also run your hand down them and clear off stuff so that you get decent wiper action that cleans your windshield instead of smearing stuff around.
I’ve never heard of lifting the blades before snow/ice in over 40 years driving in Michigan. I would have a little concern about fatigue in the spring if you did it a lot. I’ve found that you don’t want to try to lift the blade if it’s stuck, just gently push it with your ice scraper till it’s free.
The only place in the U.S. I’ve ever seen car covers used is Southern California. Had one myself when I lived there, to protect the car’s finish from the sun. (It was a new car I was leasing; otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered.)
As DinoR said, I would never use a car cover if it were going to rain or snow.
Don’t know about your frozen blades, but mine don’t pop loose easily.
I’ve never had a car that warms up that fast. Not even close.
I start my car in the morning, then take a push broom to it to clear the snow (this works great by the way, why bother with a silly little snow brush). Then go back inside. In about 15 minutes, the defrost is starting to do the job, but sometimes I have to help it along with a scrapper. This is for every car I’ve ever owned. My Wife’s too.
Not my problem any more, but ISTM the utility of raising wipers is greatest if you live in ice country and very limited if you live farther north / farther uphill in snow country. As somebody who had to leave a car outdoors in ice country for 3 or 4 days straight and then drive it home late at night I got good at clearing badly iced up cars.
And another vote that yes, I start my car, fire up all the warming devices, *then *clean the exterior. And 10 minutes later after I’ve gotten the loose snow off the exterior, the windshield defroster is just beginning to slightly warm the underside of the ice on the windshield. After another 5-10 minutes it’s loosened enough to just brush off. So the choice is wait even more or scrape.
Meantime the rear window is 100% clear, the electric defroster having long since warmed up the glass.
IMO getting electrically defrosted front windshields would be a huge boon to safety. So many lazy bastards are willing to clear a 4" porthole straight ahead and then go drive. I sort-of understand why they’re prohibited by regulation, but it’s time to update the regulations to allow electric front windshields using finer wires if truly necessary.