I finally got annoyed with Rain-X and decided to try something different. I've never managed to apply rain-x without getting streaks or wiper judder. As much as I love its effect on water, I generally hate the stuff so I ordered some hydrophobe from Detailing Shed a couple weeks ago and put it on the car over the weekend.

The instructions for hydrophobe are:
- spray on a wet screen
- leave for a few seconds
- hose off.

First I cleaned the glass with Halfords glass cutter (whatever else you think of Halfords, glass cutter is pretty good at cleaning all crap off windscreens, including rain-x). Then I hosed down the windows, sprayed on hydrophobe, gave it a couple of seconds and hosed the windscreen again. So far so good. Got a bit of a shower on the motorway on the way home today and happy so far - the water ran off immediately, no need for wipers, and no streaking when I put the wipers on at lower speeds.
As it only went on on Sunday I have no idea how long it lasts.

Pros: retard-proof application, works as advertised
Cons: None (yet)