The heated blades (the ones from Geno's Garage, I'm assuming you're refering to), work pretty well. There's a heater wire the runs the entire length of the rubber refill which keeps ice from forming on it. My only complaint is that ice still tends to form in the joints of the metal blade and that keeps if from flexing to conform to the contour of the windshield. This will cause them to still not clean the windshield properly.
I've got 2 years on mine and I will be buying new ones next fall. I pulled the heater wire out of the old ones the other day and slipped a length of heatshrink tubing over it and shrunk it down. Next fall, I'll attach this heater wire to the metal blade at each joint and wire it in parallel with the new heated refills. Hopefully, this will keep the ice from building up at the joints. I hate having to roll down the window while driving and grab the blade and slap it against the windshield to break the joints loose!
-Jay