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Rain X - Mapmaker
I've read the archives. Personally:

Love it. Only thing that keeps my front screen clear as the 20 year old windscreen wiper motor is distinctly sticky.

Drizzle in the dark making it difficult? Turn those wiper blades off.

Side & back windows - a dream.

Long lasting - lasts forever. 6 months since I applied it, 5k miles, car lives outside.

I was very careful to clean & dry the screen first before applying it. Made an exception and used fairly concentrated washing up liquid on the screen. Never get any 'wash 'n' wax' type car shampoo near the screen.

Miss it on my 'new' car. Going to put it on as soon as it's dry one day.
Rain X - volvoman
I've used it on my cars with varying but slightly disappointing results. Given what you've said I guess I might not have prepared the glass as thoroughly as I should. I'll certainly try harder next time.

Oh and BTW - I always use a wash/wax on my car but how do you prevent it getting on the windscreen?
Rain X - Mapmaker
It does make the windscreen slightly hazy. But I think it's a price worth paying.

re your BTW - by being careful! If you move the sponge around on the roof, and the bonnet & metal sides, and then throw a watering can of water over it (yes, I live in a London street and have to keep the car round the corner) then you won't get much more than a splash of wax on the windscreen. Then use a proprietry glass cleaner on the window.
Rain X - volvoman
Yep - hazy is what I got. It sounds like it might be easier for me to wash the car in my normal haphazard manner and then just use the glass cleaner thoroughly as you've described prior to applying any RainX. I'd never thought about wash/ wax causing problems potentially so once again I leave this place better educated than I entered.
Rain X - Mapmaker
My brother swears by Halford's Professional car shampoo which he says doesn't have wax in it, but instead uses something else (surfactants?) to achieve the same effect. Haven't tried it myself.

I think that to avoid smudgy screens and juddering wiper blades it is well worth being a little less haphazard with the wax.
Rain X - Sooty Tailpipes
I used rainX once, and found it was OK at very high speed, but cause a load of beading droplets at low speed and when the wipers were put on, it smeared as the water sort of spread over and millions of microscopic beadlets.

I thought part of the problem may be glass imperfections were providing an achorage for the droplets, the glass is peppered with miniscule sand chips, due to high speed cruising.
Rain X - Mapmaker
My glass has a 'recorded' mileage of 70 odd thousand, but there are lots of little screws missing from the back of the speedo... Pretty certain the glass is (fairly) original too.
Rain X - pmh
Dreadful stuff. There is only one thing worse, trying to get rid of it afterwards, when you realise you have made a mistake. Yes it works in heavy rain, but drizzle NO!

However used on side windows no criticisms.


(.......and yes the windscreen was clean, brand new and cleaned before application).


pmh (was peter)
Rain X - Andrew-T
I like Autoglym Glass Cleaner, but I don't use it on the screen because I find it worsens visibility on the wiped area in the wet. Great stuff for all other glass.
Rain X - Carl2
I once had an old van with wipers that would just about make it across the screen. Just before an Mot I gave the screen a coat of Auto Glym car polish . Not window polish , the wipers slid across the screen masking any problem. I never found any problem with this bodge I simply gave the screen another coat whenever the wipers began to judder and slow down. Ive never felt the need to do this on any other car but this van was just being run into the ground. I thought that since the bodywork was always smooth and streak free why shouldn`t I be able to use this on glass. I expect I am just about to find out why.