Another unsolicited promotion for Rain-X, picked up my donor bus in Denver and drove it to Boise without a working driver's side wiper. They actually were closing stretches of I80 as we drove through Wyoming because of a blizzard. Without Rain-X on the windshield, we would have had to wait out the storm.
Good call on the Rain-X. I had been using Wash/Wax All on the glass and while I do love it it's not nearly hydrophobic enough to drive without wipers. That said if I have not clay barred the windshield either so I could also have some other gunk built up that needs to come off anyway that may have been hindering the Wash/Wax All.
Rain-X also helps for love bug season. If you don't know what they are, consider yourself lucky!
Simple solution to this problem was to purely go to a traditional metal framed blade. Was even able to bump up to a 26" so all is well with the world.