Rain and Dashcam Visibility

[SonOfKorhal]

It has been raining, and I wanted to know if you know of good recommendations to keep visibility for dashcams (e.g., cars that do not have rear wipers/wipers that reach).
Thank you in advance.

 

[Panzer Platform]

I’m sure everyone has their own favorite brand of water repellent.
@Paul Iddon How has that stuff you’ve been using working out?

I’ve been using Rain-X since 1993.
I apply 3 coats on every piece of window glass, (front, rear, all side windows).
It lasts about a month, which is fine because it doesn’t rain that often in my region.
Here’s highway test footage of my 2010 Mercury Grand Marquis with a 4 channel dash cam, (two Viofo A129 Plus units).
Please forgive the lens adjustment, this was before I learned the importance of 50/50 road & sky.
By sheer coincidence “November Rain” just happen to be playing the radio while I was channel surfing. Lol

Here’s only the rear window;

Here’s road testing Rain-X vs. Nu Finish;

Here’s what the angle of my windows look like;

@BlackboxMyCar sent me some of these for test & review;
https://www.blackboxmycar.com/products/aqua-shield
I can see how these could be a life saver in the rainy / snowy Pacific Northwest.
For my application where it rarely rains I prefer to use Rain-X.
-Chuck

 

[kamkar]

Nu finish In Danish Nu mean Now.

Back on track, yeah nothing to do but use one of the many water repelling formulas, if you have side cameras it is also all you can do there.
I praise myself lucky i have a rear wiper and it reach the very top of the rear window, where i would have a single rear camera if i was not having several systems in my car, so it become a bit of a mess back there and absolutely not stealthy.

 

[Nigel]

(e.g., cars that do not have rear wipers).

Replace the car with one that is sensibly designed with a rear wiper!

(e.g., cars that do not have wipers that reach).

It is often possible to fit longer wiper blades than the standard length for the car.

If not then move the camera so that the wiper blades do reach.

It has been raining, and I wanted to know if you know of good recommendations to keep visibility for dashcams...

Use a dashcam that has the lens close to the glass, so that the rain is out of focus and doesn't cause much of a problem.

You appear to have already done that, although if you also take @Panzer Platform 's advice then it might be beneficial to have the lens a bit further from the glass because if the rain beads into really large drops then a large drop can completely block the view of a lens that is very close to the glass, and then at times the image can be very poor instead of just being poor where the drops are.

Most people manage to put the lens within the area cleared by the wipers, so there is no problem, other than that the wiped area of glass gets scratched, and then nighttime views have a lot of starburst issues from the wiper scratches, while outside the wiped area wouldn't show that.

 

[Vortex Radar]

I've switched from Rain-X to Aquapel. It lasts way longer and seems to streak less too.

 

[Panzer Platform]

I've switched from Rain-X to Aquapel. It lasts way longer and seems to streak less too.

I was hoping a representative of PNW would stop by. lol

 

[Panzer Platform]

I've switched from Rain-X to Aquapel. It lasts way longer and seems to streak less too.

Oh yeah, I agree 100% about streaking with Rain-X.
Over the past 10 years I’ve developed a technique to eliminate streaking.
It just takes more labor, that’s kind of why I apply 3 coats.
Since I have more time, than money I opt for the “cheap” Rain-X, and make up for it with elbow grease.
I was going to make a YouTube video about it back when I was comparing the Rain-X with Nu Finish but the laziness won. Lol

 

[Julian23]

I use Glaco Roll On on all my windows. With this, I don't need a wiper when going faster than 40-50km/h.
It lasts pretty well. I get between 3 to 6 months before the performance decreases, depending on the time of the year.
The dashcams handle this coating pretty well. Since the water drops are so close to the lens they are out of focus and don't mess with the image.