Window Tint - Does it really help

makes a big difference for me.

 

Just wondering if anyone tinted the windows D.I.Y? I tried on my last car it was a disaster.
Thanks

 

I live in Florida and have received a quote of $185. for lifetime quality film...charcoal or bronze tint (I have no idea which would be better!) - this company - very reputable - uses Solarguard or Lumar films -

anyone know of these and what the difference is?

This compnay used to use 3M - ..

thanks!

JO

 

Yes, window tint does help. I have only had the car less than a week but with that many glass windows it can only help to keep the interior cooler. Dropped her off at my favorite tint shop on Friday and she looks even better now. We had temps in the 90s over the weekend and we are expected to hit around 100 degrees this week. I don't have a garage to park her in so she sits in full sun a lot of the time. I like the fact that with now my back seats and cargo area are not as visible as they were before. No problems with being able to see at night so go for it.

 

There are only a few QUALITY window films. First, there's ceramic. The ceramic brands to trust are Formula 1 pinnacle, Huper Optic, and that's about it. Then, in a little corner of the room there's Madico Wincos and 3M crystalline. They are not a ceramic or metallic, but a nano multi-layered film that perform exceptionally. The only downside to Wincos is the slight blue hue you see from the inside, and the greenish hue you see from the outside. For quality, heat rejection, and overall look and performance, these are the ONLY tints to get, PERIOD!
aaron

 

Yes, tint does matter with that much glass...had them done the day after taking ownership of the car and haven't looked back. The interior is cooler when sitting in full sun here in DC area and the next accessory if not the mud flaps will be the vents on the window so I can roll the windows down some during the hotter month of August.

 

I've been browsing quite a few threads on tint. I'm sold on doing it with high quality tint. I have an installer lined up, but I'm looking to purchase the tint myself. The closest Forumula One dealer is 53 miles away. It's not out of the question of going picking it up, but I can't find any pricing online for it, guess they're going to make me dial a phone... The 3M Crystilline is online, but 1 roll is $189. So how much is the roll? Enough for one side, two sides, all windows... they never specify a size. Who'da thought getting good tint on your own was so difficult. I can buy a Prius engine online easily enough, but can't get any good info on some tint!

 

We just bought a 2011 Blizzard Pearl about 8 weeks ago. Which windows did you have tinted? Front? Rear? Did you get the rear hatchback window tinted too? We are debating on whether to get the front and hatchback windows tinted. Thanks! Chris

 

I'd tint as much as you can according to your state law, so check with your state law. Many people choose to ignore it, but if caught, you will be subject to a fix-it-ticket and/or tint removal, in which case you end up wasting a lot of money with nothing to show for it.

I had my hatch and rear windows tinted 18% since anything on the front windows is illegal in CA. If it was legal though, I'd probably do 30% on the front windows. Generally you want to blend the tint by going really dark in the back of the car, and gradually getting lighter up front.

 

I tinted mine with 3m nano carbon ( $189), it is a grey car and the grey color looks good. Combined with a sun shield for the windshield a good tint will make your interior last until the car is falling apart. Instead of having the interior slowly fade and crack or tear it will look new and fresh it makes a huge difference IMHO. Without tint the interior will probably not last 10 years and will start showing age after 5. Add a good annual wax job, and hope Toyota did a good job painting and you'll have a very well preserved car.

 

No longer true. The factory glass is already tinted around 75% and has a UV cut rate of 89-96% (100% in the windshield).

 

I have recently had my windows tinted and according to the wife it makes a small but recognizable difference. I also bought the Heat Shield for the front windshield which is bulky but keeps the interior from getting to hot. Of course it hasnt gotten over 85 here yet but the car is nice to get into when I use it on weekend days.

 

I find that tint really does make the interior cooler.

I haven't regretted getting tint at all.

 

I've had tinting on past vehicles, and once or twice had the unsettling feeling that it actually made things hotter, due to the dark tint absorbing heat. The front side windows were left untinted, and felt cooler in hot sunny days.

 

That's psuedo-science. I've never felt that. Tinted glass will feel hotter to the touch, yes, because it's absorbing the heat so that your body isn't. But you should not feel hotter sitting behind tinted glass than normal glass. No way.

 

It could be resolved: a couple of same gen owners, one tinted, one not: leave cars side-by-side in an open parking lot with digital thermometer probes through the top of the closed door glass.

Do one test, letting them sit a goodly time to stabilize, then swap the thermometers and repeat, as a check.

Maybe a proposal for myth busters? Except they're not happy if they don't get to blow something up these days, LOL.

Oh and: the cars should be the same color and trim level (both with/without sunroof, etc).

 

Those cars wouldn't be legal in NY and many other states. Can you provide a citation for your information. Perhaps a link to the glass specification on the toyota web site. All glass absorbs some UV ( [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet]Ultraviolet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]) but I've had cars that were parked out side with and without tint and the tinted cars interiors especially the back dash and top of back seats had vastly less damage. In the non tinted car (celica) the top of the back seat was virtually dust, in the tinted (corolla) really very fresh, not even noticeably faded. These were cars from the 80's and 90's. So maybe something changed but where's the proof? Short of some objective information I would go with tinting, a car that runs well but an interior that is deteriorated by the sun is not a pleasure to own, and fixing sun damage is prohibitively expensive.

 

modern cars are treated with UV protection and do have a little bit of tint. you can tell when light shines through a side window hitting the ground and there's a slight green tint to the window. well, at least toyota's windows are tinted green. as far as UV percentage, i am not quite sure, but i do know that aftermarket tint cuts out IR heat as well as decreases the rate of heat transfer from ambient outside heat.

NY law is front and side VLT 70%. So factory levels are legal. There isn't any other state that has a VLT requirement higher than 70.

 

Link please! I may skip it for the 2011 but will rpobably get the 2009 done. TBD

 

If it is hotter to the touch, it is (most likely) radiating more heat to your body as well. Radiant heat from an object depends on temperature and emissivity. If the glass absorbed the heat, and didn't get rid of it somehow (conduction, convection or radiation), it would just keep getting hotter until it melted.

Glass in a car isn't any different from glass in a house. It can do one of three things with any energy which hits it: reflect it, absorb it, or transmit it (which, is based (partly) on the frequency of the energy). Reflecting it keeps the car cooler, but has other issues. Transmitting it puts that energy in the car. Absorbing it puts that energy in the glass, heating it up, that heat will now move into the car or out into the world, depending on a number of factors like respective temperatures, emissivity of the glass, wind, etc.

Energy in the car is likely to end up as heat, and thus radiate long wave infrared, some of which will try to exit via the windows. Having windows that don't transmit those wave lengths of infrared, will mean that it is reflected back into the car or is absorbed by the glass, the upshot of which is a hotter car.

Dark tints thus increase the energy absorbed by the glass (visible wavelengths), and reduce the energy that gets transmitted to the inside of the car. The glass is now hotter, and will be giving up that heat both to the environment, and to the inside of the car. So the car will, all other things being equal, be cooler, since it is only seeing part of that energy.

If the air in the car were the same temperature, someone sitting in the car with tinted windows would feel warmer than someone sitting in a car with un-tinted windows, because they would be experiencing a greater mean radiant temperature (i.e. they would be surrounded by hotter things). If the solar panel fan keeps the air inside the car the near ambient temperature (not less, of course), then tint might actually make you feel hotter. It gets complicated at that point though.