Ceramic window tint cost vs. benefit
- Thread starter 92saturnsl2
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- Jul 22, 2023
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I just got 25% on the sides with ceramic to match the rear. I also got the windshield tinted at 70% since it's the #1 source of heat from the sun, not the sides. Love it.
I wonder why they price it so much higher? The process is the same but the material cost is higher. It was $300 for standard and $400 for ceramic for each of mine.
Could just be market pricing. It's not like the shop he went to was higher than everyone else either. I suspect shops know what each other are charging and just go in the same ballpark. What would you think if 3-4 shops all charge $650 for ceramic tint on a sedan (5 windows) and one shop charges $350 for the "same" job ? I'd be suspicious of the "cheap" shop !
Pretty much any reputable tint brand provides product data sheets that provide you with some standardized metrics that you can compare tint to tint.
For example:
I would ask what brand and model they are using.
For example:
I would ask what brand and model they are using.
The shop confirmed they used what I suspected. Xpel brand, and they sent me the spec sheet via E-mail.
They said if the bubbles don't go away within 7 days they'll take care of it. There's only two I notice now (about 3/16" in diameter) and they don't seem smaller after the first day.
They said if the bubbles don't go away within 7 days they'll take care of it. There's only two I notice now (about 3/16" in diameter) and they don't seem smaller after the first day.
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Do we really need "online calculators" to multiply 0.18 times 0.7? Any cheapie 4-function calculator can do that.
Not everyone knows how tint percentage is combined or what variables might be involved. I'm no tint expert. Obviously when I got the result it was clear that it was simple multiplication. Do you want your cookie now?
Ceramics don't have a metal base, that would cause signal interference. Metallic-based tint do cost signal interference, since I had them on my Passat, as the shop recommended the Llumar ATR tint, and it killed my AM/FM reception as the antenna was integrated into the rear quarter window.
I've gotten Xpel ceramics on a couple vehicles, but only this year have I been taking one of them to work (and thus leaving it out in the sun all day). While it indeed gets warm inside, it isn't blisteringly hot like it was beforehand. If it lets the AC keep up on really hot days, I'll be satisfied.
looks like an excellent tint!
The Mercedes dealership where I got my car had a demonstration set-up that showed the effectiveness of the tint.
They had a heat lamp set up (infrared) with two small sheets of tint set up on a swivel in front.
One side had regular tint, the other was ceramic. You could feel a HUGE difference in the amount of heat that you could feel by holding your hand in front of the lamp and switching the tints. It sold me!
The two samples were the same level of tint, but the ceramic side admitted much less infrared through.
They had a heat lamp set up (infrared) with two small sheets of tint set up on a swivel in front.
One side had regular tint, the other was ceramic. You could feel a HUGE difference in the amount of heat that you could feel by holding your hand in front of the lamp and switching the tints. It sold me!
The two samples were the same level of tint, but the ceramic side admitted much less infrared through.
Finally had some luck taking photos. Tint isn't easy to capture in photos, in anything but overcast conditions you see nothing but yourself holding a camera and a bunch of reflections.
Overall the installer did a decent job. There's one window I'm going to see if they will redo. It's one of the back quarter windows (rear door); there's lots of little pinprick size bubbles which aren't going away in one area. Aside from that, there's a few imperfections where dust got trapped- they started out as small bubbles but after sitting in the sun for a few days they've leveled off / closed up perfectly. Nobody looking at it more than a couple inches away would ever spot them. The ceramic heat rejection qualities is well worth the extra $100-- night and day difference.
Overall the installer did a decent job. There's one window I'm going to see if they will redo. It's one of the back quarter windows (rear door); there's lots of little pinprick size bubbles which aren't going away in one area. Aside from that, there's a few imperfections where dust got trapped- they started out as small bubbles but after sitting in the sun for a few days they've leveled off / closed up perfectly. Nobody looking at it more than a couple inches away would ever spot them. The ceramic heat rejection qualities is well worth the extra $100-- night and day difference.
May I ask how much did you paid for it?
That's gonna suck in a snow storm, at night. Just don't try to back up.
Shop charges $285 for regular tint and $385 for ceramic.
The certified XPEL authorized dealers here in California charges $1000 for a job like that.
There are plenty of fake XPEL tints out there.
That deal is too good to be true.
Could very well be; I'll mention again that I never asked the shop what they were using, nor did I ask about quality options. They gave me two choices: regular or ceramic. I inferred that it was XPEL brand by the displays and dozen or more unopened yellow/black XPEL branded boxes stacked in the corner of the shop in plain view. Perhaps there's a market for counterfeit tint that these folks got ahold of; I'll never know.
Comparing prices in Kentucky versus that of California, surely you realize those are polar opposites. You may as well be comparing different countries. I'll play the devil's advocate with your too good to be true claim with these facts:
The median household income in CA according to the 2020 census is $85K. I won't waste your time citing averages which skews the comparison much further. Median household income is 45% less in KY.
Median home price in CA? $>750,000. Same for KY: $250,000. The tint installers in CA want to buy homes and live the American dream just like everyone else does. Given that the actual film is a small percentage of the price compared to labor, it's not a surprise to me that no installer in CA would touch a tint job for $385. Where I live, one would go out of business VERY quickly if the going rate was $1000.
At the end of the day, perhaps it's counterfeit stuff, maybe not. Or they stack empty boxes of XPEL tint for decoration. Or they use a cheaper film if you don't ask beforehand and lied after I'd asked. I'm certain that the vast majority of their customers care nothing about brand, they just want a quality job and the shop to honor their lifetime warranty. I'll have a better idea how good a shop it is when I bring it back this week to [hopefully] have the rear quarter window re-done that has a bunch of tiny bubbles in it that won't go away.
The VLT percentage had me worried, but It's really not that bad. I purposely took pictures where there was not much light on the windows (otherwise the camera captures nothing but glare/reflections), so the pics make the tint appear darker than it really is. It's lighter than my previous commuter car, which was my benchmark-- didn't want anything darker than that one.
Ask me in 20 years when eyesight declines with age, I might change my mind
