New wiper blades for $3 a piece.

Want to save a fortune on wiper blades and help the environment then keep reading.

Years ago when a wiper wore out the rubber part of the wiper would be replaced instead of purchasing a whole new wiper blade. There was a time when all of the different required wiper blades could fit in a small display case at a service station such as this antique Anco wiper blade display case.

 I really like how the side of the case says that the ANCO wiper blades are easily refillable and ANCO refills save you dollars.

Somewhere along the way it was decided that wiper refills were too complicated for the consumer to figure out how to install. I am sure someone also figured out more profit could be made selling a complete wiper blade.  In fairness it isn't always easy to purchase the correct refill and I am sure that stores had a lot of people return refills, because they purchased the wrong type. New style aerodynamic blades that are not refillable were also introduced by automakers.

Fear not Park Avenue owners. Our wiper blades are old school enough that they are easily refillable and save us dollars. If you have wipers with a triangular frame such as this you should be able to refill them. I'm not sure of the brand of these wipers as they were on the car when it is purchased.

Wiper refills are becoming harder to find. Walmart stopped carry them. I was able to find these universal break to length Trico refills at Advanced Auto:

When purchasing wiper refills you need to purchase the correct length and width of rubber. In my case the existing rubber portion of the wiper was 6mm wide. The 2003 Park Avenue uses 22" long refills. The best part is that the 6mm wide Trico refills are 22" long so there is no need to break to fit. The refill is the correct length! The Trico refill box comes with two refills for $7. So for $3.50 you have a new wiper. Compare that $8 for the lowest cost complete wiper blade at Walmart.

The refills installed easily and have worked well in the heavy Florida summer rains. Installing a refill isn't much harder than replacing the entire blade. Besides saving money it is also nice to not throw away a perfectly good metal frame.

Last time I checked Honda still sold reasonably priced refills for their factory wiper blades. For our 2012 Hyundai Sonata refills are available, but Hyundai charges the same price for a refill as the complete wiper blade.

One other wiper to consider is PIAA. PIAA uses silicone for the squeegee portion of the wiper and sell refills for their wipers.