Why do the Llumar tint shops take risk with darker film? Is Llumar slightly lighter?

[dman777]

I live in texas where the  law states the front roll ups have to allow more than 25% light to come in. 

All tint places that I  have known tint the front roll ups with 35%(with no exageration......dealerships included). With one exception, the two Llumar places I have found use 30% instead. Why do they take this risk? Is it because Llumar films(like Pinnacle) are lighter than most other films? 

Edited October 13, 2019 by dman777

[no ma'am]

Because we're not worried about it metering too dark as it almost always ends up between 29/31 installed. Other manufacturers film can meter much darker than what it says on the box. 

[dman777]

Oh.... that makes sense, thanks.

I prefer a light tint at 35%. No one in town that sells LLumar does 35%. It was up between Johnson's InsulatIR, which does sell at 35%,  and the Pinnacle at 30%. Curious, does Johnsons keep to the 35% accuracy or is their tint darker than on the box? 

 

[no ma'am]

The difference in 30/35 is negligible and without documentation I struggle to identify which film was installed when trying to match a window that's been replaced.

[Tintguy1980]

3 hours ago, dman777 said:

 Is it because Llumar films(like Pinnacle) are lighter than most other films? 

[DynamicATL]

Llumar films are always lighter out of the box than the shade listed.  For example, 35 out of the box will be closer to 39 for Llumar films.  We also carry 3M which tends to hit dead on the shade listed on the box.  3M CS 20 can easily hit 13 once applied on the glass...Crystalline roughly the same.  So we always have to take that into consideration when selling the films.  35% is our legal option (GA can hit as low as 29 to be legal), but I have seen 3M CS 35 hit as low as 28 on certain vehicles.

Edited October 13, 2019 by DynamicATL