As a window tinter I decided to help you guys out and answer a lot of questions.
It's not about price. If you go to the phone book and call two dozen tint shops to find the $99 special....you're getting what you're paying for.
It's less about brand. Almost all brands make good films, okay films, and crap films. Rely less on brand name. Some are obviously a bit better than others, but just because you have ABC brand doesn't mean it's better than XYZ because they might be installing the cheap stuff!
What is it all about? A few simple questions:
1.) How many years of experience does the installer have?
This can be a problem at larger shops that have 20 installers.
2.) What kind of warranty does the film have?
a.) Is it a lifetime nationwide warranty?
b.) Does it cover fading and/or color change?
c.) What is the brand name and film line? (then research it on the internet)
3.) Ask yourself, does my car have GPS or a built in radio antenna? Do I have keyless entry? Remote start? Anything using RF?
a.) If yes, you need a dyed film or a ceramic film that won't interfere with RF signals.
b.) If no, the world is your oyster
A 35% window film containing metal can cause 7 dB of signal attenuation along the RF band that automotive accessories operate on. What does that mean? For every watt transmitted about 1/4 of a watt gets through the glass! That will cause a drastic reduction in distance and reception. A 5% containing metal has up to 15 dB of signal attenuation! That's 1/30th of a watt getting through.
Here is a video demonstrating the reception differences between a metal free (MADICO Charcool) film vs a metalized film (Suntek HP):
YouTube - Metalized window film vs metal free cell phone reception (window tint)
4.) Ask friends, "Where'd you get your tint job? How does it look? How was the service before and after the sale? How well has it held up? Are you happy?"
5.) Ask yourself, "What benefits am I looking for?"
a.) How important is heat rejection?
b.) Do I just want the windows dark?
c.) Do I want that bling-bling chrome look?
6.) What are the legal limits?
a.) What's the penalty for illegal tint?
b.) How unsafe is it?
c.) Will my insurance company cancel my insurance or deny my claim because of illegal tint?
d.) How sue-happy are people in my area if I hit them while willfully driving a car deemed "unsafe" by my state?
7.) Do I have a coupe with a dot matrix?
a.) How will they solve the problem of it not sticking uniformly to the matrix?
b.) Do they guarantee it's appearance?
c.) Keep in mind the industry standard is to do nothing to it. Cutting it off is unacceptable, but tinters that take pride in their craft use one of many solutions available to satisfy 7b.
Once you narrow the field down to good installers that are offering good products with good service...then worry about price.
Plus, not all films are created equal.
1.) Dyed. Originally though to be cheap, there are now many color stable (non-purpling) dyed films out there. They're GPS/radio safe. Usually, heat rejection isn't the greatest, but some do okay. Examples would be Global Quick Dry Plus, 3M Color Stable, Madico CharCOOL, Llumar AT CH, and a few others.
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2.) Metalized (Hybrid, HP, etc). This is a dyed film with a small amount of metal in it. Some are color stable, others are not. It's by far the most popular out there currently. Sometimes it effects GPS and/or AM radio reception, sometimes it effects FM too while the defroster is on. Examples would be Llumar ATR Charcoal, Madico Onyx, Global HP Charcoal, 3M Tint-FX HP, etc.
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3.) Full Metal. The bling! Offers awesome heat rejection. Mid to high reflectivity. It will fubar your GPS antenna! LOL.
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4.) High end films. These are specialty films. Mostly ceramics or other super duper technologies to provide exceptional performance. Expect to pay a lot for these. However, you can get 70% VLT films that offer over 50% heat rejection! Or you can get a dark GPS safe film with superb heat rejection and low reflectivity! If you have to ask how much, you can't afford it! But typically they cannot fade, cannot change color, and offer awesome benefits. Well worth the money.
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I hope this little guide will help you in getting the tint job your vehicle deserves! Why put an $89 hack job onto a beautiful new expensive automobile?
A reasonably priced ceramic tint job from a quality shop will give you excellent heat rejection, last as long as you own the car, and not cut your keyless entry distance in half. Compare that with a hack job by a shop that puts out tint jobs as fast as they can with the cheapest imported tint they can find!
It's not about price. If you go to the phone book and call two dozen tint shops to find the $99 special....you're getting what you're paying for.
It's less about brand. Almost all brands make good films, okay films, and crap films. Rely less on brand name. Some are obviously a bit better than others, but just because you have ABC brand doesn't mean it's better than XYZ because they might be installing the cheap stuff!
What is it all about? A few simple questions:
1.) How many years of experience does the installer have?
This can be a problem at larger shops that have 20 installers.
2.) What kind of warranty does the film have?
a.) Is it a lifetime nationwide warranty?
b.) Does it cover fading and/or color change?
c.) What is the brand name and film line? (then research it on the internet)
3.) Ask yourself, does my car have GPS or a built in radio antenna? Do I have keyless entry? Remote start? Anything using RF?
a.) If yes, you need a dyed film or a ceramic film that won't interfere with RF signals.
b.) If no, the world is your oyster
A 35% window film containing metal can cause 7 dB of signal attenuation along the RF band that automotive accessories operate on. What does that mean? For every watt transmitted about 1/4 of a watt gets through the glass! That will cause a drastic reduction in distance and reception. A 5% containing metal has up to 15 dB of signal attenuation! That's 1/30th of a watt getting through.
Here is a video demonstrating the reception differences between a metal free (MADICO Charcool) film vs a metalized film (Suntek HP):
YouTube - Metalized window film vs metal free cell phone reception (window tint)
4.) Ask friends, "Where'd you get your tint job? How does it look? How was the service before and after the sale? How well has it held up? Are you happy?"
5.) Ask yourself, "What benefits am I looking for?"
a.) How important is heat rejection?
b.) Do I just want the windows dark?
c.) Do I want that bling-bling chrome look?
6.) What are the legal limits?
a.) What's the penalty for illegal tint?
b.) How unsafe is it?
c.) Will my insurance company cancel my insurance or deny my claim because of illegal tint?
d.) How sue-happy are people in my area if I hit them while willfully driving a car deemed "unsafe" by my state?
7.) Do I have a coupe with a dot matrix?
a.) How will they solve the problem of it not sticking uniformly to the matrix?
b.) Do they guarantee it's appearance?
c.) Keep in mind the industry standard is to do nothing to it. Cutting it off is unacceptable, but tinters that take pride in their craft use one of many solutions available to satisfy 7b.
Once you narrow the field down to good installers that are offering good products with good service...then worry about price.
Plus, not all films are created equal.
1.) Dyed. Originally though to be cheap, there are now many color stable (non-purpling) dyed films out there. They're GPS/radio safe. Usually, heat rejection isn't the greatest, but some do okay. Examples would be Global Quick Dry Plus, 3M Color Stable, Madico CharCOOL, Llumar AT CH, and a few others.
2.) Metalized (Hybrid, HP, etc). This is a dyed film with a small amount of metal in it. Some are color stable, others are not. It's by far the most popular out there currently. Sometimes it effects GPS and/or AM radio reception, sometimes it effects FM too while the defroster is on. Examples would be Llumar ATR Charcoal, Madico Onyx, Global HP Charcoal, 3M Tint-FX HP, etc.
3.) Full Metal. The bling! Offers awesome heat rejection. Mid to high reflectivity. It will fubar your GPS antenna! LOL.
4.) High end films. These are specialty films. Mostly ceramics or other super duper technologies to provide exceptional performance. Expect to pay a lot for these. However, you can get 70% VLT films that offer over 50% heat rejection! Or you can get a dark GPS safe film with superb heat rejection and low reflectivity! If you have to ask how much, you can't afford it! But typically they cannot fade, cannot change color, and offer awesome benefits. Well worth the money.
I hope this little guide will help you in getting the tint job your vehicle deserves! Why put an $89 hack job onto a beautiful new expensive automobile?
A reasonably priced ceramic tint job from a quality shop will give you excellent heat rejection, last as long as you own the car, and not cut your keyless entry distance in half. Compare that with a hack job by a shop that puts out tint jobs as fast as they can with the cheapest imported tint they can find!
