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Nice. Almost appears to be no tint and with a bit of a bluish hue effect. Does the Llumar marketing claimed specs meet you expectations - high VLT but still plenty of heat rejection and a modest reduction in glare? I'm torn between 60- and 70 and I won't see until the vehicle is delivered to my driveway. I'd like a little more darkness, i.e., Stratos 50, but the samples I've seen it it's looks a bit too dark. During daytime in unrestricted sunlight I prefer the 50, but at night especially if raining the 70 is more acceptable to my eyes. Too bad there isn't a Stratos 60 .
The Xpel is more smoke colored at 70 and the Stratos is more blueish like the mercedes stock windows.
Either one looks pretty much clear in the sun and a little tinted in darker light.
I had the Llumar Pinnacle on my previous car at 50. My wife's current car is Stratos 50, and my wife had 30 on her car before that. I have also ran Air 80 all around on cars. At this point, if you don't like tint there is always Xpel 80 or 3M air 80, which only leave a slight blue hue. There is also 3M crystalline 90. Then, there are the previously mentioned 70s.
At the end of the day, with black interior, the darker tints just straight up keep your car cooler. I have a friend with black vinyl wrapped rear windows. That is as insane as it gets. He does it so his kids are never in the sun but it seems extreme to me.
With light interior, you can go lighter with the tint and it does seem the same performance but intuitively, even with nano ceramic, if you go darker, you get more of the heat rejection you can feel and less light comes though, period. There are a ton of youtube videos using artificial lights and etc. but in the SoCal direct over 100f sun, you can only really minimize the pain.
In any case, the 50 on my wife's car would be too dark for my Porsche. Here is my old Audi in 50/same color as my porsche in the driveway (sorry for people who have seen this pic. before). The car is in the shade here. I cannot tell a difference in performance of this (Pinnacle 50 on all windows including the glass roof) and Stratos 70 all around on my 911.
I just DO NOT want dark tinted windows...however, global warming, so this is as cool as the summers might get...I NEED TINT!! lol. FML.
One last thing I think I said before is, I also paid to have dealer installed when new Huper Optik 40 taken OFF my 911 when I got it. After a few years, I started having to drive from LA to Tahoe every 3 months or so. I was getting COOKED in summer on the drive, so I had to do something. The Stratos was not a magic bullet but it makes it so I can keep the car cooler on those over 100f drives AND it keeps more UV off me.
I couldn't live without a dark tint in Texas (20%). That said, when I moved to Connecticut I started to dislike the tint. I'm back in Texas now but my 997 is no longer my daily driver, so I am considering doing one of the higher end ceramic tints thats much lighter (eg 50-70%)
Thanks JamesSinger for the detailed info and comparison photo of your old Audi.
Sorry but I couldn't help a slight LOL on your comment about friend that has black vinyl wrapped read windows to protect his kids from sun. That is indeed extreme. Helicopter parent extraordinaire? Maybe the lack of safety of having no visibility (i.e., blind spots) out of rear portion of the vehicle should be a larger concern for the safety of his kids. Aka missing forest for the trees. Not judging. Any parent is always trying to protect their kids is as best as possible, but there is a point of conflicting goals based on probabilistic results.
You've basically confirmed what I already suspected. Whatever tint VLT level I choose, I had already decided on Stratos due to the performance specs and YT videos comparing heat rejection etc of Stratos vs. others. At this point it's down to the aesthetics of the 50 vs. 70 (i.e., darker tint or virtually "clear" tint). With the incoming GTS 4.0 being Gentian Blue with all black interior I've reached analysis paralysis with the potentially slightly higher light/heat/glare rejection with 50 vs. the aesthetics of the virtually clear windows with slightly lower light/heat/glare rejection of 70. The TSER difference on Stratos 50 vs. 70 is 10% or less. The largest differences are obviously VLT at 20% reduction in 50 vs. 70 ( VLT 56 vs. VLT 69) and glare reduction at approximately 75% (37 vs. 21).
Anyone that has a Genetian blue (or similar blue) with or without a black interior have photos comparing a 50 tint and/or a 70 tinted car?
Yeah the black vinyl is extreme. I just think it is AZ. He grew up in SoCal and had dark tint on all his cars. Then, when he moved to AZ, he really started doing stuff to BLOCK the sun. I am pretty sure it is just straight up 3M black vinyl wrap on his 3 back windows of his SUV/Kid Hauler...lol. There is probably some specific reason he does it. I will harass him about it next time I talk to him. He also might have been joking and I didn't get it when he posted about it. ...but yeah, I thought SoCal Heat was bad until I spent time in Yuma and Tuscon.
Tint is definitely a rabbit hole. When my wife got her tint a few months back on her Bolt, it came down to XPEL vs. Stratos. In the end, with the 50%, I could not tell the difference, so I went with Stratos just because I already have an installer here for that specific brand she has gone to a 3x over 10 years. However, I have seen some of those YouTube videos like TheTintDude or whatever saying he prefers the performance of the Xpel but at that point, who knows.
I am obsessive and most of my posts are TL;DR, so here is the main point: I have to drive to my mom's in 2 weeks. It will be over 100F for 400 or so miles. I usually end up at 1k miles for the trip. Before tint, I was driving with the AC at LO and on high and I was still uncomfortable. With the tint, I just set the auto AC at 68 and cruise.
I get the AZ is.🔥. We lived in Dallas for years many moons ago and at the time 100F was an extreme. Now in SE after years in the north and it's back to 95F with 100+RF. I'll take that over 20F or subzero and garaging the vehicle for 4-5 months all-day, every-day. AZ though - no thanks!
I checked into XPEL and since my chosen installer "swears by" the Llumar series and especially Stratos, decided to stick with it. If the specs comparing Stratos 50 to 70 is analogous to "splitting-hairs" the differences between Stratos 70 and XPEL XR Plus 70 is splitting nanometers. Just MHO though.
No worries on TL posts. I suffer from that malady. Good info on the AC setting.
117° here yesterday, no option for me, got to have it! I have FormulaOne Pinnacle Ceramic to protect the interior as well as hopefully shave off a couple degrees.
117° here yesterday, no option for me, got to have it! I have FormulaOne Pinnacle Ceramic to protect the interior as well as hopefully shave off a couple degrees.
Looks great, what % VLT did you do? I’m in the same heat and looking at the same tint brand as you, torn between 15% and 25% for all glass. Going with 50% windshield for my Gentian Blue Pcar.
25% looks still bright to me on a friend’s with the same exterior color in black and %15 is what I’m leaning , for sure I don’t want it blacked out limo tint.
I went with 15%, I have lived in the desert for a bit so I have always leaned to the darker side. This was the only car I thought about going lighter but just decided to go with my usual. The installer told me that this ceramic tint is closer to 19%. After I got it installed I felt like it might be a little too dark but it is growing on me.
If it helps you out, I can DM you a few more pics...
I went with 15%, I have lived in the desert for a bit so I have always leaned to the darker side. This was the only car I thought about going lighter but just decided to go with my usual. The installer told me that this ceramic tint is closer to 19%. After I got it installed I felt like it might be a little too dark but it is growing on me.
If it helps you out, I can DM you a few more pics...
Thanks so much I really appreciate your affirmation , as I too noticed the 15% is on the lighter side which is great both ways for us in my book… 15% it is. Thank you again, your pix and feedback here will do no additional pix needed :-)
First thing I did to my 997 is strip the tint, I like the sportier look of no tint. If it was my daily and I lived in a hot state I’d have to have something and I might be interested in one of the newer ceramic films that looks almost clear. My other car or daily driver tho has tint for sure.
I'm in Florida and legal limit is 30% for front windows, which is what I went for.
I may have been able to go 15% on the rear quarters.
Makes a huge difference, night and day. Still feel a bit toasty on days close to 100 degrees, might go for the banner on the windshield or full windshield 50% tiny in the future.
Edit:
Xpel premium is the tint I had installed. They had ceramic but price was about double
I feel like I'm reading a thread where everything is written in Chinese! I don't get this at all....you couldn't give me a free tint...nothing attractive about it in my book....and I live in Southwest Florida which has been steaming lately.
07-16-2023, 07:42 AM
