All Season vs All Weather Tires

“All-season” and “all-weather” – the two terms sound so much the same that there can’t be a lot of daylight between the two, right? Well, not exactly. The two tire designs are similar but not identical, with different performance parameters and different tread patterns, construction and rubber compounds. All-season tires are designed for dependable year-round traction along with long wear, low noise, good road manners, a forgiving ride, and predictable handling. All-weather tires offer pretty much all of those properties along with enhanced traction in more severe winter conditions.

So which is going to be the right tire for your needs? We’ll dive in and take a little deeper look with this blog.

The difference between all-weather and all-season tires

Before the mid 1970s, there wasn’t even such a thing as an all-season tire. Instead, what you had to do was take off your highway tires when winter was coming on, and switch over to the heavy, loud, clunky “snow tires” or “mud grips” of the day, then switch back again once winter was over. That was when Goodyear saw a niche and filled it with the Tiempo, the first-ever all-season tire that was designed for year-round traction. Today, all-season tires are the biggest selling segment in the entire tire industry. They’re a compromise between handling & steering response, wet or dry traction, ride quality, long wear, and winter traction…but “compromise” means that they’re giving away some performance in some or all of those areas.

All-weather tires are designed for the same sort of ride quality, tread life, road manners, etc.m except with enhanced traction in winter conditions. Everyone who’s tried to get through deeper snow with anything but the best all-season tires knows that they’re going to lose their composure and start slipping and sliding when there’s more than an inch or two of snow on the road. All-weather tires are designed with a more aggressive tread pattern, deeper tread grooves, and angled grooves to channel water and slush away from the tire’s contact patch, a tread formulation that’s optimized for winter traction and a denser network of sipes, the hair-thin slits that provide hundreds of extra tiny biting edges to dig in and get through deeper snow or slush.

That edge in winter traction is enough to get most all-weather tires classed with the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service.

All-Weather vs all-season tires fuel economy

All-season tires have been around for so long, manufacturers have been able to really refine them and work in a lot of innovations and new features. The best, most up-to-date all-season tires use rubber compounds and tread patterns that are designed to cut rolling resistance and boost fuel economy, partly just by reducing the weight of the tire itself.

All-weather tires have some catching up to do when it comes to rolling resistance and gas mileage. Many all-weather tires mean taking a hit on fuel economy; it might not be a substantial difference, but over the course of a year or so it can mean spending another $100 or so on fuel compared to comparable all-season tires.

ADVANTAGE: All-season tires

All-Weather vs all-season tires in rain

This one is, in most cases anyway, going to be a tossup. Both all-season and all-weather tires are designed for good road manners, braking, and cornering traction on wet pavement. All-season tires are designed with broad circumferential grooves that channel water away from the tire’s contact patch, along with notches at the shoulder and angled grooves that help boost wet-weather traction and avert hydroplaning effect when driving through standing water.

All-weather tires are often designed with a directional tread pattern and chevron-shaped grooves instead of circumferential grooves, but the idea is the same: diverting water away from the tire’s footprint to boost wet-weather grip. Both all-weather and all-season tires are commonly designed with a tread formulation that’s rich in silica for improved wear properties and wet-weather grip.

ADVANTAGE: Tossup

All-Weather vs all-season tires in snow

No question about this one: all-weather tires are going to have the edge in snow.

Everything about the tread pattern, sipe design, and tread formulation of all-weather tires is designed for enhanced traction in snow and slush. That’s not to say that all-weather tires deliver the same kind of winter performance as dedicated winter tires, but they’re definitely superior to all-season tires once the snow starts flying. The tire industry’s Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating isn’t handed out lightly, as these tires have to be able to prove real-world performance in snow to be stamped 3PMS, and all-weather tires definitely deliver in that category unless you’re in snow that’s several inches deep.

Most all-season tires, on the other hand, are going to leave you futilely spinning your wheels to get going, slip-sliding your way around curves, or gracefully gliding to a halt when you hit the brakes.

ADVANTAGE: All-weather tires, for sure

All Weather vs all-season tires tread life

This one can be a little dicey, but in most cases all-season tires offer a better tread life than their all-weather counterparts. The extra rolling resistance that we mentioned earlier in the section about fuel economy can also mean a tire that is going to wear more quickly. Honestly, though, there’s a lot of room for variation here. When you’re looking for either all-season or all-weather tires, look for tread life coverage since many all-weather tires can also offer generous warranty coverage.

ADVANTAGE: All-season tires, but only by a nose

When to use each

So, it comes down to this: if you’re expecting tougher winter weather conditions but don’t want to invest in a set of winter tires, maybe all-weather tires are gonna be the way to go for you. If winters are more mild where you are and you just need a tire for your daily driver, you’ll probably appreciate the kind of traction, ride quality, handling, and road manners you’ll get from an all-season tire.

We should maybe mention price here too, since all-weather tires tend to be a little more expensive and all-season tires are all over the place price-wise, at about any price point you can afford.

Which one should you choose?

For most drivers, all-season tires are the best way to get the job done. That’s why they’re the biggest selling category of tires around and why they’re OEM for most sedans, minivans and crossovers. What they (usually) can’t do, though, is deliver confident traction in heavier winter weather.

If that part about winter weather sounds like you and your situation, then you should consider all-weather tires for the extra boost in winter traction you can expect from them. Regardless of what you drive, what your budget is or what your tire needs are, we’re confident that SimpleTire has the right set of tires for you and your vehicle!