RainX on Lower Helm glass?

[Woodsong]

Anyone use RainX on their lower helm glass windows for better visibility? *We have a windshield wiper but it's smaller than I'd like and I've not added one to the middle or port glass. *We are about to do a 3-4 day trip soon and thought I might put some rainx on the glass. *I've used it on cars and love it and can't imagine why it'd be a bad idea on the trawler but thought I'd see if others have used it? *On my truck it makes a huge difference in visibility in a driving rain!

 

[Marin]

I've tried Rain-X periodically for years and have never found it to be worth much. On the boat it does nothing EXCEPT if we are getting heavy spray in rough water and IF the Rain-X coating is brand new. Then the water sheets off the windshield very nicely.

But in light spray, fog mist, and the light rain we get a lot here Rain-X accomplishes nothing because the individual droplets are not heavy enough to slide down the windshield by themselves. Rain-X does make it easier for the wipers to clear them, however.

The big problem with Rain-X that we've found is that in a salt water environment it doesn't last very long. Maybe for one run into the islands out and back if we're getting salt spray on the windows. I don't know if it's the presence of the salt or what, but after a day of spray and clearing it with the wipers, the Rain-X is pretty ineffective after that.

We occasionally use it on our vehicles where the higher speed of the vehicle helps clear the water. But even then we've not been impressed with it. Even following the application instructions to the letter and polishing it with a clean cloth, it still increases glare at night and makes streaks.

Up here the only way we've found to effectively clear the light mist from fog, light rain, and light spry is wipers. If you boat in heavy rain I suppose Rain-X would help for awhile. But even when Rain-X is working as advertised, you have all this water running down the windshield which doesn't obstruct your "big picture" vision but can make it very difficult to see debris in the water, which we have a ton of up here from crab pot floats to boat-sinking deadheads. The only sure way to see those things is with the windshield panes absolutely clear and the only way we've found to do that effectively is with good wipers.

GBs typically have very good wipers--- ours does and it's an ancient '73 boat--- but we found that the wiper blade arc in the most critical pane, the center one, didn't come down quite far enough for my wife to see the water directly in front of us when she was steering or helping watch for debris in the water. Fortunately one of the Grand Banks forum members who lives in Seattle came up with a brilliant way of installing a parallel arm wiper on a GB without having to drill any holes. He made us the part he had designed so now we have a longer parallel arm wiper on the center windshield pane which makes a huge difference. The stock wipers are fine on the two outboard panes.

But a lot of people swear by Rain-X including the owner of the BMW shop we use. He says he never turns his wipers on at all, although every time I've ridden with him or he's followed me in his car in the rain, he's turned his wipers on . But I would definitely give it a try rather than taking anyone's word for it. Your boat's windshield configuration, the kind of water on the glass you have to deal with, and other variables may make it a good solution for you.* We always drive our boat from the lower helm, never from up above, and in our waters good visibility, especially right up close to the boat is critical. We have found the only consistent and effective solution is good wipers.

 

[Doc]

I use it on the front windows of the pilot house and only use the wipers every few months to see if they still work.

And furthermore, RainX doesn't make as much noise as the wipers when it is working.

 

[Marin]

Doc wrote:

And furthermore, RainX doesn't make as much noise as the wipers when it is working.

The solution to that is to have two Ford Lehman 120s hammering away directly under your feet.* Our wipers are dead silent when they're working

*

 

[FF]

Rainex dies in the can, If you want it to work, use fresh stuff!

 

[C lectric]

I hate the D*****M stuff. I put it on my cars and boat. Huge mistake. Once on if you don't keep a fresh coat on it will screw up the vision so badly that it looks like you have a hazy film over your eyes. or a heavy oily mess that WILL NOT COME OFF.
Great when absolutely fresh, absolute crap if you don't refresh it often.

Once on you cannot get rid of it. It's silicone or silicone based and nothing I tried would remove it;
acteone, laquer thinner, xylene, alcochols,

DON"T DO IT.


-- Edited by C lectric on Sunday 21st of November 2010 06:48:37 PM

 

[koliver]

I have a cleaner called "tumbler" that makes short work of silicone based coatings. Bought it at an auto body shop supply store.

 

[Arctic Traveller]

Marin wrote:



GBs typically have very good wipers--- ours does and it's an ancient '73 boat--- but we found that the wiper blade arc in the most critical pane, the center one, didn't come down quite far enough for my wife to see the water directly in front of us when she was steering or helping watch for debris in the water. Fortunately one of the Grand Banks forum members who lives in Seattle came up with a brilliant way of installing a parallel arm wiper on a GB without having to drill any holes. He made us the part he had designed so now we have a longer parallel arm wiper on the center windshield pane which makes a huge difference. The stock wipers are fine on the two outboard panes.

Our Defever came with really lame wipers. The center one we look through the most only covered about 30% of the window, and was way too high to see clearly in front of the boat.* My solution was to open the wiper motor assembly, and adjust the arc.* On most wiper assemblies the drive gear has a series of holes that adjust the sweep angle.* Simply move the arm to a different hole to adjust, (they are marked in degrees)* Then I bought a much longer wiper blade (at an auto parts store), and cut off the top 1/3 of it.* We now can see through most of the window, .* The remaining windows had the sweep adjusted and new blades installed.* In addition, we RainX all our pilot house windows and like it, but Fred's comment about the stuff getting old explains the differing results we get from time to time. We use it on the cars too...........Arctic Traveller

 

[C lectric]

Thanks Keith,

At the time I asked around but no one knew.
The cars are long gone and the boat windows also. I will admit the boat windows were changed for other reasons. But never again.

 

[Steve]

I have had no problems with it and find it does seem to help vision wise. Like Marin said it will not work in the same fashion as on a car where the forward speed whips the rain off. Maybe it's that*the very act of applying it makes the glass cleaner.
Steve W

-- Edited by Steve on Sunday 21st of November 2010 08:27:41 PM

 

[Woodsong]

I will give it a shot and see what I think. Thanks all!

 

[AllanY]

Woodsong

Give it a try but make sure that your windows are very clean before you apply it for the first time
i have used it on large commercial vessels that didn't have wipers so it was all we had and it seemed to work ok
My understanding was that you didn't use your wipers whilst you were using Rain-X

Allan

 

[Tidahapah]

Woodsong,
I have been using RainX on my wheelhouse windows for the last 15 years and love the stuff.
never had a set of wipers that can do as good a job. Use the old formulat full strength the watered down stuff is not as good IMHO.
Benn

 

[Delfin]

We avoided windshield wipers on Delfin because my experience with them is that they are salt spray smearers, reducing visibility not increasing it.* Instead, we use RainX coupled with fresh water nozzles that we use to spray clean H2O on the glass when it gets coated.* Very satisfactory solution.

 

[Doc]

Love it on the boat. Hate it on the car.

 

[Woodsong]

Doc wrote:

Love it on the boat. Hate it on the car.

Why do you hate it on your car? *I've used it on my trucks here and there over the years and always loved it!

 

[Doc]

I hate it on the car because once you use a wiper on it the streaks start. Why use a wiper you say? Well here in Flooooorida, you must use your wipers when it is raining. Coast Guard has no such rule.

-- Edited by Doc on Tuesday 23rd of November 2010 03:23:14 PM

 

[skipperdude]

Ever tried dishwashing liquid to stop the windshield from fogging up on the inside*

Works great.

SD

 

[Woodsong]

skipperdude wrote:

Ever tried dishwashing liquid to stop the windshield from fogging up on the inside*

Works great.

SD

Ok. *Keep talking. *I want to hear more about this!

*

 

[Marin]

We've done this on occasion using a dilution of Lemon Joy. It does work after a fashion. However it eventually results in a cloudy look out the glass and has to be cleaned off.

 

[skipperdude]

Yep,
But if you're fogged up and tired of wiping every 5 min it will work for the day I don't dilute it I just spread it evenly over the glass. I use a paper towel, folded up*
squirt it on the towel and smear it around.**Easy too clean off . After all it is soap,

SD*

 

[xfedex]

I use rain-x and find it much better than running wipers. The less I use wipers, the longer the rain-x lasts. The small almost perfiectly round drops on the windshielsd are easier to look thru than the thin sheet of water between wipes.

 

[Marin]

xfedex wrote:

The small almost perfiectly round drops on the windshielsd are easier to look thru than the thin sheet of water between wipes.

I wonder if your wipers are not so effective, then.* Up here, leaving small water droplets from mist, fog, light spray, etc. is a sure way to miss seeing that crab pot buoy you just ran over and*got its line*wound around your prop.*

Wipers are the only thing that give us the crystal clear, totally unobstructed view foward that we need.**The steep, closely spaced wind waves we get here can*do a superb job of hiding debris in the water until you are within*a boat length or so from it.* The*droplets on a Rain-Xed windshield that are too light to run down on their own can make seeing this stuff almost impossible.* As can the*rivulets of water running down the windhield as a result of Rain-X.* In water without a ton of crap in it, it probably doesn't make much difference.* But it sure does here in our experience.

Wipers are the only way to get a clear, unobstructed view of what's in the water in front of us.* For whatever reason, the wipers on our boat are extremely effective.* That may be because we have to use them so much.* Even on a nice sunny day, the wind can whip up waves in Bellngham Bay that require all three wipers to be going continuously the whole five miles across.* So far as we can tell, there is no thin sheet of water that we're trying to look through between wiper strokes, just clear glass.

We got a crab pot line caught on one of our rudders once.* I have no idea how it got onto the rudder without being snagged by the prop in front of it, but we were very grateful it didn't.* But the pot had been "hidden" by mist on the windshield.* This was during one of our Rain-X experiments-- we didn't have the wipers on so we could see how the mist on the windsheld would behave--- and is one of the motivators we have to never opt to use Rain-X in lieu of wipers, at least not in the waters we boat in.

 

[FF]

"Wipers are the only way to get a clear, unobstructed view of what's in the water in front of us. For whatever reason, the wipers on our boat are extremely effective."

Usually it takes an added spray of fresh water to keep the salt from scratching the glass.

 

[hollywood8118]

I will throw my vote in for RainX....
The lower helm windows on Volunteer are all vertical and when I got the boat it had a wiper motor but no arm on the center window... the P.O. touted the virtue's of RainX and said it wasn't needed. Me, the consummate doubter re installed the wiper to prove the he... the P.O. was mistaken.** One trip lasting about 8* hours and the wiper was removed and stashed away... and a new coating of rainx was applied. I found on the vertical glass even mist from foggy weather would bead up and slide off after a few minutes. The motion of the pantograph wiper was enough to drive me nuts. I ran the boat for 8 years with no issues ( except for the group of kayak's with the save the whale's banners... but the rain on the glass was just an excuse).
HOLLYWOOD

 

[Keith]

I've always used Rain-X with great results. No optical degradation, keeps the glass clear during rain. Hardly ever need the wipers.

 

[ralphyost]

I dont have wipers that work on my 1982 Defever 41. I use RainX on the windows. The front windows have an angle to water runs off easily.

I do cheat though. I havent put RainX on in a few years so its overdue. But this year after the rain stopped, I used a loose winshield wiper in my hand to squeegy off the water.

I find that when you apply RainX you need to buff it well after its on. Use a clean soft cotton cloth. If you dont buff it that when you can get hazing.

I had not heard about aging of RainX. I have some in my shed that is 3 or 4 yrs old. I'll have to try it and see what happens.
R.

-- Edited by ralphyost on Thursday 25th of November 2010 09:31:57 AM

 

[Marin]

FF wrote:
Usually it takes an added spray of fresh water to keep the salt from scratching the glass.

FWIW the glass in our windshield panes is the original, installed in 1973.* While they are not as crystal clear as brand new glass, there is no scratching from salt or anything else on them.* We've owned the boat for twelve years during which we use the wipers at some point almost every time we take the boat out.* I have no idea how much the previous owners in San Francicso Bay used the wipers during the 25 years before we bought the boat.

As to the wipers being a distraction, I don't even "see" them when they're running.* Perhaps it's because of all the years of flying floatplanes that have a diagonal bracing bar running directly across the windscreen in front of me.* (The Beaver doesn't have this but the Cessnas all do.)* Landplanes don't have this bar, but once I'd started flying floatplanes, it didn't take long for the bar to become totally invisible to me.* The wipers are the same way.* I'm not aware of them visually at all when they're operating, same as I dont find the wipers on a vehicle distracting.* All I see in the boat is the water ahead of me with no masking or distortion from water droplets, rivulets of water running down the glass, streaks, or scratches.* Our only requirement is a clear, unobstructed view of the water in front of the boat, and on our boat in our boating environment, Rain-X doesn't cut it.

You've gotta have good wipers and you gotta have good blades.* Otherwise I agree, wipers can make a mess on the windshield.* And maybe wiper blades don't hold up as well in hotter, sunnier climates like Texas, I don't know.* And yes, you do have to prevent the buildup of salt on glass.* We hose the boat off after every trip and we squeegee the washdown water off the glass rather than let it dry there.* We also keep a cover on the windshield when we're not using the boat to prevent the buildup of airborne dirt and soot.* So I'm sure all of this helps the wipers do a good job.



-- Edited by Marin on Thursday 25th of November 2010 01:54:19 PM

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

Hows about a clear view screen (CVS)?

 

[ralphyost]

In one of my old fishing boats I bought a $17 windshield washer system from auto parts JC Whitney. Worked great. Had the spray hose attached to the winshield wiper to help disperse the cleaner.
R.