# High VLT tint - Crystalline 70



## Rich+Cruze! (Apr 8, 2014)

I apologize for the lack of pictures, they are on my phone which does not come to work with me on this slow morning. However, you really cannot tell the tint is there unless you know to look for it (kinda like someone with black hair dying it black). Only time I can tell is when you have both the windscreen and a window in your field of view looking out of the car, and even then you have to look for it. 

Distortion through the film is not bad. Rear window has some slight distortion, but I can still read signs in the rear view mirror. I'm not sure if I would want this thick of a film on the windscreen though.

My Experience:
A few weeks ago I had all but my windscreen tinted with 3M Crystalline 70. While expensive, I can say I am pleased after this weekend.

While purely anecdotal, I want to say the tint is a large improvement. Phoenix really needs tinted windows, and I should have done this sooner. 

My commute home from work is five miles. If I park in the sun I really don't notice a difference between tinted and my commutes earlier this summer - the car is hot all the way home. However if I do park in the shade I feel less radiation coming through the window (driving north at 5PM has the sun coming through the driverside window).

What really inspired me to write this post was the last two roadtrips. The weekend before tinting I went to the Grand Canyon, and last weekend I went to Prescott National Forest, relatively similar trips. To the Grand Canyon I ran my AC full for the majority of the trip, even when the temperature sensor was reading 86F exterior. To Prescott, I started at full AC but dropped to "three" after about half an hour. This is driving through Phoenix still at noon, 100F exterior. This makes road trips in the summer much more approachable in the summer.


My Research:
First: with a silver car I think dark tinted windows are ugly (chrome would be good, but that is definitely illegal). Also, there is potential I may move with this car to a state requiring 70% VLT. This tint is technically illegal, but to get caught you would need a cop looking to ruin your day to take a very close look at your car.

I looked at three tints with similar characteristics, and some prices I found in Phoenix:

*3M Crystalline *(500USD): On the tint guys forum 3M is a polarizing topic, I guess they used their name on inferior products in the past. However for the top of the line stuff there just aren't many other companies which can bring this level of technology to bear, and this is a good film. May still be a little overpriced, but Hificruzer recommended this to me and he has a lot of experience tinting so I didn't want to over think this.

*Llumar Air 80 *(400USD): This is one of the only films that was built specifically for high IR rejection (most others offer many tint levels in addition to the high IR). I think that Llumar hit a sweet spot with this film, but the Crystalline 70 has better specs on paper (it rejects more visible light, and the specs are always open to question due to different testing procedures). If you are between this and the 3M I would say decide based on the tinter, as the films are comparable.

*Madico Wincos*(300USD): This film is actually a slightly different technology than the other two. This is lightly sputtered with a ceramic, while the others use many layers of film (I used to know more). Effectively, it means that this film is thinner, cheaper, and more IR specific. It supposedly has a light blue tint and a slight hazy look, however I have not seen it in real life. I suspect these are non-issues for high visible light tints. Also, for different metals this sputter technology blocks mobile reception, however Madico states this is signal enabling. Particularly without getting the windscreen tinted I suspect mobile reception is fine.


I was deciding between the Wincos and 3M, and what decided it for me was the 3M shop was only five minutes away, compared to a fourty minute drive for the Wincos. I guess that is my recommendation with this post: If you can find one of the big name tints with high IR rejection high VLT don't overthink it, and just decide based on the tinter.


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