Bridgestone Dueler HL 422 Ecopia Review: This tire is part of the H/L (highway luxury) tire series of Bridgestone. It specifies features of two different product lines of the company- Deuler and Ecopia. Thus, you get comfort, and fuel efficiency from these tires.
The fuel-saving features and an extensive replacement warranty make this tire both Eco-friendly and budget-friendly as well.
Examine the treads on these tires closely. They hold the key to knowing which to choose. In fact if you visit my "tread design" page, picking the right tire would never bother you.
Nonetheless, it does not outpace high-end all-season tires because its traction features can get a little better (especially, wet traction).
Table of Contents
Design Features
Right off the bat, you see that the Deuler H/L 422 Ecopia has a compact tread design with small blocks arranged in close proximity in three rows and bulky shoulders.
The central rib is formed by independent box-shaped blocks (pink colored), while the other two are semi-continuous and have traction notches halfway through their edges (green).
Siping pattern varies on different blocks as they are oriented in multiple directions on most blocks. Especially on side ribs and the inner side of shoulders, they are very efficient and are marked diagonally (with green color).
Same diagonal siping is also seen in the central row as well.
If we move towards the sides, the shoulders are quite hefty, specifying a high contact between the tread surface and the road.
These blocks have textured with various sipes and notches.
You can also see a small continuous rib is present on the inner side, which makes the shoulders look evern bulkier.
On corners the tire’s sides come in to play and overall, these shoulders do okay but only on dry.
The tire does not impress in handling at all, as you’ll see below.
How does it perform?
On a dry road
On dry pavement, Dueler’s traction is fairly reliable but it stands as the median performer in the test. That is why it covered a good braking distance on dry track.
Likewise, its laps time was the longest in the test (compared to others we tested along).
All in all, we would rank its performance reliable but relatively less than other top-tier all-season tires.
Still we compared its values with a (best performing) reference Summer and winter tire, so you can get an idea.
| Grip | Handling | |
| Reference Summer Tire | 115.48 ft | 60.4 mph |
| Reference Winter Tire | 147.6 ft | 58.3 mph |
| Dueler HL 422 | 133.27 ft | 57.5 mph |
Grip is measured by stopping the car from 60 mph and the distance it took to stop is measured in feet. In case of handling, the overall average speed on laps is calculated.
So, this data shows us that the Dueler is good when it comes to dry braking. So good enough grip.
But just okay when it comes to dry handling. As even the winter tire has better handling speed here.
Over the wet and slippery road
The Dueler H/L can really benefit from some wet traction. The tire’s numerous sipes still don’t really provide it with enough biting power.
So, what’s going on here?
The Dueler H/L 422 with its continuous circumferential grooves and multi-directional sipes, has a tread design that resists hydroplaning very well, but it also reduces a lot of the tire’s contact with the surface its on.
So, the tire, is not able to perform so efficiently. Following is how it performed against two of the best high performing reference tires.
| Wet Braking | Wet Handling | |
| Reference Summer Tire | 159 ft | 45.7 mph |
| Reference Winter Tire | 166 ft | 44 mph |
| Dueler HL 422 | 190 ft | 41 mph |
This shows that this tire performed rather poorly even with so much sipes and traction notches.
v good in dry braking. not good in dry handling bad in wet braking and handling.
Traction on Snow:
But these notches are able to perform really well on snow.
Dueler H/L runs very reliably on icy paths, and we can credit its tread rubber for this efficiency.
Its tread remains flexible due to NanoPro silica blending, presenting good traction even when the temperature has fallen below zero.
Its stopping distance on snow was just a few feet shorter than the high performing winter tire.
| Snow Braking | |
| Reference Summer Tire | 191 ft |
| Reference Winter Tire | 77 ft |
| Dueler HL 422 | 81 ft |
This proficient snow-performance is made possible with a comprehensive tire construction as its tread depth, design, and composition all three acts synergistically to enhance snow-traction.
Fuel efficiency
This tire is also retained good efficiency on the snow as well.
This tire ranks best among eco-friendly all-season tires on snow during the test.
Fuel efficiency is the special feature of H/L 422, like other Ecopia tires.
Its rubber is optimized to reduce rolling friction and it has fuel saver sidewall construction as well.
NanoPro technology ensures homogeneous blending of carbon black and silica molecules, leading to smoother rolling.
On top of it, grooves and numerous notch-like voids in the tread pattern effectively minimize the contact between road and tread, reducing rolling resistance and energy consumption.
Thus, you would need to spend less on fuel when opting for this tire. (And you’ll also put less carbon emissions out there as well.
Is it comfortable and refined?
This tire also does a great job at softening the impacts on the road.
Besides focusing on the efficiency of the tire, they also focused on the “L” part of the H/L. Luxury.
And how they are making this tire comfortable is based on a lot of things going on here.
First, the sidewalls are harder, so impacts can be cushioned. 2nd, it’s tread allows it to have equal pressure points, so the impacts are distributed. 3rd, if you look at the sipes in the central area (see in design section), you’ll see that the blocks have rounded edges, this prevents tire’s deformation and allows smooth braking.
And the 4th and my favorite one, is the variable pitch technology (atleast that’s what they call it). And on this tire, the compact placement of blocks against the shoulders are for exactly this purpose.
Let me explain. Most of the tire noise is generated from the open shoulder blocks, as that’s where most of the air particles are going to go in and hit walls (sideways).
But this tire features a circumferential rib along the shoulders.
As it aids in dampening the sound as the air moves in, leaving less space for sound to resonate.
Side Note: You’ll find this in many H/L and Highway tires.
So together, all of these features make this tire pretty comfortable.
Durability and Warranty
Durability is again another benefit that comes from its optimized tread composition. Its high-silica tread can endure frictional pressure and heat fluctuations.
It can resists abrasive damages and prevents chips and punctures. NanoPro technology and sturdy sidewall construction also add to the resistive properties of the tread.
Hence, it gets a good score for longevity and marks the UTQG treadwear scale at 640.
Bridgestone also backs its long-lasting performance with a limited replacement warranty that stays effective for five years, up to 65,000 miles.
To Summarize:
So to conclude, these tires are overall a great option if you own a crossover, SUVs and minivans. In other words, if you are a family man (most of the time, its ture).
That’s because this tire would provide you a very comfortable and noise free ride, but you can’t expect any performance out of them like with high performance tire.
Still, the tire could use a little more wet traction. So be careful with them there, if you are planing to own a set.
