If you live in Perth, Western Australia and are considering getting window tinting done on your car, home or office, there are a few things about window film you should be aware of. The first is this, there’s a huge difference in performance between good quality and poor quality window film, which is why quality needs to be your first consideration. Good quality window film will last the life of your windows, but poor window film will only lasts 2-3 years in the hot Western Australian sun before it fails. So my first tip is this, dont get fooled into installing inferior film, it just isnt worth it!
HOW TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN WINDOW FILMS
The only way for a non-professional person to tell the difference between premium quality and bad quality film is price and guarantee. So when inquiring with a supplier, be sure to ask how long the film is guaranteed for. If its less than 12 years dont buy it. And be on the lookout for unscrupulous operators who offer you a guarantee on cheap film and hike the price, to make it look like its good film, but will either not be around, or simply do nothing if you get back to them because your tint has degraded. Believe it or not this happens and if it happens to you, your windows will start to blister, fade, go foggy or peel in as little as 3 years. So be warned, the cheapest price is usually the rubbish product! If you are looking for the best price on quality window tinting in Perth, try Precision Window Tinting, they actually offer a lifetime guarantee on all the residential window tint they install, which means you can be sure of the quality.
REASONS FOR INSTALLING WINDOW FILM
There are many benefits you can get from window tinting, and each particular film you use will package some of these benefits, so the first thing you should identify is the most important reason for applying window tint in your circumstances. Lets look at each advantage in a tad more detail so you can more fully the most suitable solution for your application. The main advantages of good quality tint are:
Heat Rejection: Good quality window film rejects heat by blocking up to 73% of IR radiation through windows. Thats cool!
UV Rejection: Premium window film prevents up to 99% of infra red radiation from penetrating windows. And as a bonus, it also eradicates 93% of glare, which does wonders for your view and means things look really cool!
Privacy: The right film will also provide daytime privacy, allowing everyone inside to be cooler, enjoy the views, and at the same time have total privacy from onlookers in daylight.
Safety and Security Films: These specially designed films stop glass from fragmenting on impact. Safety films are designed to withstand the force of human impact, while security films can withstand an explosion without shattering. Since the collateral damage from accidents where windows are broken comes from shards of glass spraying like shrapnel, or large sections of glass dropping like a guillotine, the major risks associated with safety are mitigated. It also stops your windows from being a soft and easy entry point for thieves, because both the effort and noise required to force entry is so noticeable thieves, would rather simply move on in search of an easier, softer target.
Style: Finally of course theres the matter of style. Good quality window film also makes windows look good; and for many people its the aesthetic charm that tinted windows provide that is the major reason for installing them.
SPECIFIC ISSUES RELATED TO CARS AND VEHICLES
The next point I want to discuss is relevant to vehicles and it concerns installing the darkest legal tint on your car.
Regulations vary, so use Google to check whats legal where you live, but in Western Australia the darkest legal tint allowed on a vehicle is one with a VLT (visible light transmission) level of 35%, on all vehicle windows (excluding the front windscreen, which cannot have any window tint except for a visor strip across the top), but you are allowed 20% VLT on windows behind the driver.
But heres my point about the darkest legal tint. Most cars already have a slight tint in the glass in the front windows, so this needs to be taken into consideration when adding tint to a vehicle. Consider the following:
If the factory installed windows on your car already block 30% of light, when a film with the darkest legal tint of 35% is added to this window, it will emit only 35% of light into a window that is already only emitting 70% of light, so the final VLT reading will be impacted by the combination of both tint ratings.
This is really important because if a driver inadvertently fails to comply with tinting regulations, the result can be a fine. But worse still, if a vehicle is involved in an accident and its illegally dark windows are considered by the court to be a contributing factor, this could result in the nulling of your insurance policy, leaving you exposed to the full financial culpability of the accident. And if thats not bad enough criminal charge could apply if property is damaged or people are hurt.
The final thing to consider is that by modifying a vehicle with darker than legal windows, the vehicle is deemed to be unroadworthy, which means the driver cant drive the car again until it has been put through a roadworthy test, in which case the illegal tint will have to be removed. Thats why the combined VLT of both the glass and film really should be considered when youre selecting the appropriate tint.
Summing things up, whats the critical takeaway from this article? When it comes to window tinting, make sure you use a good quality film and that your installer has the expertise to be able to offer you the best solution for your circumstances. That way youll end up with a range of benefits, instead of a series of problems. Also look for easily verified testimonials, a good number of Facebook testimonials is usually good social proof of reliability. Also see if your installer is certified by an industry association like WFAANZ.