Choosing The Right Window Film For Your Car - Four Things You Should Know |
|---|
|
Lee Hope
March 18, 2013
1. Do you live in a hot climate, maybe somewhere like Florida or Texas or even the West Indies. If so then their are a few considerations you should be aware of before you just go out and buy a cheap window tint for your car. So, what is it to be, are you going to go for the cheapest product or flex your budget just a little bit and get a better quality window film. My point here is you need to spend a little bit of extra money to get a lot more benefit, if you buy cheap, don't assume the product to last anywhere near as long.
2. There're variety of opinions in the marketplace as to what constitutes a good window film, if you go to any good tint shop they will try baffling you with science, but by reading this article you have much more information at hand. They may talk to you about things like TSER, IR, VLT's and a few other technical phrases that don't really mean anything to you as the end user initially, so be prepared for their questions and stick to your guns when it comes to choosing the right product, but do take the advice on board.
3. Do your research on film brands and you'll see a few names are always at the top of the list, mainly brands like Llumar, Suntek and Global. These larger manufacturers have their own manufacturing facilities, there are a few other brands in the pot but basically in all, their are maybe 10 true manufacturers of window film in the marketplace and most will have a wide spectrum of products to choose from, starting with single ply cheaper products going through to nano ceramic / IR high tech products.
4. I also want to quickly touch on some of the things I mentioned earlier regarding the properties of the film, some products in the marketplace at the moment are being sold as infrared (IR) films, these films block out a certain spectrum of the sun, essentially the heat you can feel on your skin on a hot day, so you'll definitely feel cooler in the car with IR film. These IR figures may well be a lower than the TSER figures (total solar energy reduction) figures that some tint shops will push upon you, but don't be fooled, the TSER figure does not mean that you'll be cooler in the car, my advice is to look for a good IR film if you are in a warmer climate and if you are in a regular climate then I think a film with a TSER figure of around 50 to 60%, should be great for you. You will still get heat rejection benefits but not quite as much as an IR film but it will still be very noticeable on a hot day.