My previous thread got locked so let me try again.

I had a 50% Llumar ceramic tint installed and it was amazing at blocking the heat but it never seemed 100% clear and it was a little too dark for my purpose.

Llumar has a new Formula1 ceramic window tint available that is supposed to be way better than their old stuff. Does anyone have experience with this product? How about Air Blue 80?

 

Bump - come one no one has any experience with these 2 tints?

 

I know someone that has the formula1 pinnacle 35/20. He used to live in houston and said it helped with the heat alot.

If you can find Insulatir, they have a 60 and 70%. The color is more grey than black. It is a ceramic blend and is great for the heat.

 

I am going to get my car tinted today with Formula One Pinnacle 35 all around. They offered the Air 80 on the windshield, but I don't think it's worth it.

Yesterday, I was sitting in some traffic here in SA, and I realized the sun was already toasty with no tint. I'll come back here and give you my thoughts and some photos after I have some sunlight exposure.

 

3m tint allthewayyy

 

Picked up the Max from the tinters. Went Formula One Pinnacle 35 all around and 15 on the back window. I also got Air 80 on the sunroof for a bit more heat reflection.

I haven't had the chance to drive in direct sunlight, but I'll keep everyone posted with my observations.

 

I'm certainly leaning towards the AirBlue 80 and would love to hear your thoughts on it HarvesterUT

 

FYI, my total price for this was approx. $475 (incl. tax) for the side/rear windows and sunroof.

The shop offered Air 80 on the windshield for an extra $200, but I passed on it.

 

I'm getting the Air Blue next Friday. I'll check it out for a week and then have the wife's Grand Cherokee done.

I'll check back in with some reviews in a couple of weeks.

 

Awesome T200, cannot wait to hear your thoughts.

 

I have been doing research on this, and finally decided to go with 5% tint.

Check this thread out: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1543931

Just as I figured, ceramic tint seems to be a gimmick, an over-priced gimmick.

 

09Max - I truly appreciate the intel on this and certainly don't doubt that guy's experience. But aside from saying ceramic tint is a gimmick, he doesn't explain why. Unless it's in the post you linked to (I didn't check it).

You've done research yourself - care to share what you found that makes the ceramic tint a gimmick? I haven't done any research myself. I just trust my tint guy.

 

Glad to share my findings. I have done a lot of web reading about ceramic tint. Lots of marketing from the tint manufacturers, and alot of positive feedback from owners (which I discount because I think once you spend $500 on ceramic tint, are you really going to admit you were wrong and wasted 4 times as much compared to traditional metallic tint to achieve equal results?)...

I have yet to read unbiased, scientific studies of ceramic tint being superior to metallic tint. If I have only used tint in a limited fashion, I would rave about regular plain tint being "super great".

However, I live in Arizona, and have had tint on various cars for 20 years. I have had 35% tint (legal limit here), 20% tint, factory tint, and 5% (limo tint). I can tell from personal experience in one of the hottest places in the US, that the darker the tint, the better the cooling. Many of the ceramic tint review are from people in much cooler locations, so that discounts their opinions as well.

The unbiased review from a 26 year + tint professional weighs more than all the positive ceramic tint reviews the car owners, simply because he has nothing to sell, nothing to hide...in fact he would make more money endorsing ceramic tint...that is a sign of true integrity to me.

If ceramic tint was equal in cost, or 10% higher in cost than metallic tint, I may go for it. The fact it's 3-4 times more expensive, and has "ghosting" issues, gives me pause. I just don't buy that some new fangled ceramic tint is 3-4 times as effective as metallic tint. Not unless people can show me unbiased, scientific reviews, side-by-side vs metallic tint.

By the way here's another review I found: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...5123711AAmF2HM

The answer is from a ceramic tint shop in Florida:
By the way, all of my vehicles are tinted, and I've been using GPS, smartphones, and other gadgets for many years, never had an issue with metallic tint interfering with anything, ever.

 

Nice. Thanks for taking the time to give us your thoughts and some of what you found.

Personally, I've had tint on all of my cars as well and definitely notice the difference, especially since all of my vehicles have either been black or dark gray. It's hard to judge the interference with my primary device being my cell phone in my car (no NAV).

I do like to hear people's thoughts (professional installers and consumers) simply because everyone has a preference whether they have something to sell or not. I'm sure if you line up 10 individuals with 26+ years installing tint, they won't come to a consensus. However, I do respect what they have to say because they're in the business and can translate the technology and concepts to the consumer. At the end of the day, it's about what the product does for me. It's like reading some of the product reviews on Amazon.com. Some people will rate a product low because they got poor customer service or they bought something like a dual iPhone/iPod charger and rated it low because they couldn't sync their devices with iTunes while it was connected to the charger. So, it's good to hear from others but I know I have to take it all with a grain of salt and make my decision.

 

From personal experience I say ceramic tint is no gimmick. I had Llumars top ceramic tint in 50% on one window and their top metallic tint in 30% on a different window. In direct sun I could feel almost no heat through the 50% ceramic and feel significantly more heat from the 30% metallic. Location Charleston, SC - a sub tropic climate. Having been to AZ & lived here my entire life... Our summers are worse than yours. 115* with 15% humidity is like fall. Try 100* and 95% humidity

 

So, it's been a couple of months since I had the Air Blue 80 on and so far it's been great. Visibly, with the naked eye, it's completely unnoticeable. I wear polarized sunglasses and can briefly see it from certain angles when approaching the Max, but from inside, it may as well not even be there.

Night driving caught me off-guard for about a day until I got used to it. If you've ever pointed a laser light at a wall and see how the light spreads, this is the same effect oncoming headlights have, albeit at a much smaller degree. It's only noticeable initially because your eyes aren't used to it. But once your eyes adjust, everything is fine. Vision and clarity aren't hindered at all, even in the rain with oncoming lights and wipers going.

Blaxima has the black interior also with the dual panel roof. Without tint, it gets cooking inside. There is a very noticeable difference in cabin temperature. I've been waiting for the heat to come so I can get a better feel for it. The couple of days we had peeking in the 80s was a good start. I park out in the open - no shade in sight - and the windows are always completely up. Coming out at lunch around noon, the cabin is warm but not hot. After work it's the same.

I also got the roof tinted as well to keep the heat down. They all help tremendously in keeping the cabin cooler. I'm very happy with the AB80 and would definitely recommend it to others.

 

Your metaphor with the laser light and a wall is beautiful! I had not been able to communicate to other poeple what I was seeing but that is it perfectly! Based on that alone I will not be purchasing AB 80 or any ceramic again I guess :-/
I couldn't get passed that distraction and do not want to return to that.
Thanks for the review!

 

You're welcome. Glad it helped you out.

 

Anyone have windows tinted with 3M Ceramic CM series? Looking for pictures. I want to go as dark as I possibly can, legally only 50% . Have seen a few Maxima's that look great, but no idea how dark they are. Have heard that ceramic tends to look darker then the traditional films.

 

the ceramic tints, or any tints over 130 bucks is a rip off.

a lot of manufacturers give u a lifetime warranty with the more expensive stuff, but you hardly keep your car for over 4 years so it's pointless.

I'm going to stick to the basic tint.

 

^

I respectfully disagree there are huge differences in tint.

I dont believe ceramic looks darker. Just a high quality metallic tint will do the trick. But 50% is not going to look dark at all regardless of which type of tint you get.

 

damn 130 is a good price for tint here in mass it is around 200 for a maxima

 

price depends on quality of work and the film here in PA around philly you can get cheap tint film done by places for like $130.00 but gurantee that tint will fade quickly. Then there are places that use high quality film such as Llumar and some cut everything by hand and of course they'll be more.

I paid $270 for my whole car done by the place I always get mine done.. Which I'm fine with because if I even scratch the film I bring it to any Llumar dealer in the US and get it reinstalled...

 

good to know i was told by installer if i go legal which is 35 i will have warranty.

if i go darker i am on my own

 

I have the Formula 1 tint all around and Air Blue 80 on the sunroof.

Been very happy with it so far.