Rain X De Icer Windshield Fluid No Thanks! By Lexxia on - Updated Oct 15, 2011
Perhaps we just got a bad "batch" of this Rain-X De-icer windshield washer fluid but that still doesn't quite make up for the color this fluid is. This past winter I hopped in my car one morning and was driving down the road and began having difficulty seeing out of the windshield thanks to a particularly wet snowfall that left the car in front of me spitting up dirt from the road onto the front of the car and windshield.
As usual, I turned my windshield wipers on and gave a nice squirt of washer fluid to clear the way. Ugh! Someone had replaced my blue solution with this really terrible looking yellow fluid and now my car looked as though someone had ... well, tinkled -- all over the hood of the car and across the windshield. Thus the reason for the incredibly low rating for that feature. It was just nasty!
The color wasn't the only turn-off with this product. It is suppose to leave a smear-free, streak free cleaning yet my windshield wipers which were brand new were having a difficult time cleaning the window because this "stuff" was causing them to leave streaks everywhere.
As for de-icer - well, it wasn't very good at that either. Usually if the weather has been well below freezing the night before my car will have frost on the windows and usually, I just flip the washer button and let the windshield washer do it's work. Usually, this works. Not with this product! More than a few mornings I had to sit in the driveway with the car running and the heater full blast in order to get the windshield clear enough (this after scraping the frost off first) that I could see out of it safely and the De-icer did nothing but simply cause a film to develop that did not want to quit. Eventually I would have to get out of the car and throw snow onto the windshield in order to get the streaks to diminish.
This product was, in my opinion, one of the worst windshield washers we have ever had. I have absolutely nothing good to say about it except perhaps one thing - it lasted way too long!
I'd never purchase this product again. My husband has successfully used all this product from his truck's reservoir but alas, my car still has almost half a reservoir full. Usually, during winter I will have to fill the windshield reservoir up at least twice throughout the winter. This winter I barely went through one complete tank. Yes, it was just that bad and honestly, spraying this stuff on my windshield was something I did when no other cars where around - it was literally embarrassing to have this very poor product clinging to my car - "yellow snow", definitely not as attractive as blue!
Sorry, but just can't recommend this product for any reason other than to say perhaps it poured well.
About The Author:
Rain-X De-icer Winter windshield Fluid Purchased at: Canadian Tire Price: 6.99
What a shame that this didn't work for you.
I'll be sure to avoid this brand!
The yellow RainX juice is almost the only stuff I've seen that actually deices well. Living in Winnipeg, I don't deal with the occasional morning under freezing; I get a week or two in the six month winter where that isn't the case. This stuff actually stays liquid well into -25C without instantly freezing to the glass (the purple Petro Canada stuff is the only other I've found comparable in this regard, and that juice is incredibly salty). It does leave behind a thin film after a wipe, but that's typical of any RainX treatment. The film dissipates in about one second with even the slightest circulation (which shouldn't be in short supply outdoors), and actually looks like it's burning off the windshield if it's above -10C. The film is still a lot easier to look through than the usual blurry mess of an untreated window when mid-wipe. The RainX treatment means that even if your wipers have a frozen section that won't wipe, you can still see out the windshield through the dispersed beads of ice or water, instead of having a blurred, useless mess. Best of all, it drastically lessens overnight ice buildup. It's the difference between scraping a millimeter of ice from the windows daily before even thinking of trying the wipers, to spraying off a light frost and getting on with the journey. It's worth getting one of the little bottles of rainx oil and doing the rest of the windows just for that. Yes, it's yellow. But so is Gatorade, and Gatorade is *awesome*.