Medical Need for Automotive Window Tinting: Over the years, we have handled many referrals from Chico California dermatologists and other Butte County medical professionals for patients adversely affected by UV rays. Window film is very effective at blocking UVA and UVB rays and has been lab tested as 99% effective in doing so.
While California does not allow dark film on driver and front passenger windows, we can still assist you in choosing a safe and effective film to suit your specific needs. Ironically, after the CHP found that officers suffered from elevated skin cancer statistics, their response was to issue wide-brimmed hats rather than tint their vehicles. Two decades later, the legislature passed a bill allowing police vehicles to have the driver and passenger windows tinted, but left citizens with the same restrictive laws in place.
Accordingly, we recommend that consumers consider a spectrally selective (aka ceramic) type film that has high heat rejection, while still allowing the majority of light to pass through if compliance is your goal. Some cutting-edge ceramic films now reject nearly half the Sun’s energy while not noticeably altering the window’s appearance. It is not necessary to tint the driver and passenger windows dark to achieve UV rejection, as all our window films reject 99% of UV regardless of shade!
Additional Benefits of Ceramic Window Tinting:
Reduces glare from HID and LED lighting systems. Nearly every late model vehicle on the road today has absurdly bright lights that overwhelm a driver’s eyes when approaching or being followed by vehicles with HID or LED lighting. Tinting your car’s windows delivers benefits night and day.
Increased Safety: Automotive tinting is very effective at containing flying glass fragments in the event of an accident or accidental glass breakage. Because automotive glass is tempered, it normally breaks into thousands of tiny pieces. Windows with film applied contain those pieces, and in many cases, the film will hold a broken window in place until you can have it fixed.
It should also be noted that privacy glass typically does not block meaningful amounts of UVA or UVB, so privacy glass gives a false perception of filtering UV. We would also argue that heat-reducing window film increases safety as a cooler cabin reduces both fatigue and glare.
Free Testing: We offer free window UV testing and generally find that privacy glass blocks only 40 to 60% of UV rays. Factory tint (privacy glass) causes the pupil to dilate due to reduced light, allowing even more UV rays to your eyes than no tint at all, while often not reducing heat in your cab as effectively as window film! If you regularly have backseat passengers, it is important to protect them from UV rays with window film.
Guarantee: Our top quality ceramic tint is backed by leading manufacturers’ lifetime warranties. Our 4th generation films combine the latest advances in heat and ultra-violet rejection specs with state of the art manufacturing techniques, providing the best clarity and color stability. When you leave our shop, you will have a manufacture backed warranty good at any dealer nationwide. If you’ve ever seen a late model car or truck with faded, purple or bubbled tint, chances are that the tinting material did not contain adequate UV inhibitors in critical areas.
What are the critical areas, you ask?
Window film has four places where UV inhibitors can be placed by the manufacturer. They are the mounting adhesive, the laminating adhesive, and the two layers of film. Top manufacturers, like the ones we use, place the UV inhibitors at these critical points in order to achieve a long lasting film with minimal distortion over time. The factory where our film offerings are made is a vertically integrated company holding several patents for various manufacturing processes and literally makes their products from scratch without having to outsource any aspect of their creation. This results in long lasting films with exceptional clarity and performance.
Brands We Carry: SolarFx and Rouge Window Films. With over 30 years experience installing automotive window films in Chico California, Covert Window Tinting offers the following insights about branding:
Most manufacturers offer both high and low quality window films, and in our opinion, no single manufacturer is “the best”. From an installer’s point of view, we believe that a film that installs well on highly curved windows and lasts a decade or more is what counts most. What matters least is cherry picked performance statistics claiming 97% heat rejection. No Ceramic tint ever made rejects 97% of heat across the entire spectrum, and to imply otherwise is dishonest. The only performance number consumers should consider is called T.S.E.R., which stands for Total Solar Energy Rejected and the best films available today offer 66% to 71% energy rejection of the Sun’s entire electromagnetic spectrum using industry accepted testing criteria. We say this as Chico’s only window tint company licensed by the State of California CSL#955100.
Pricing: Automotive window tinting requires skill and technical expertise. We happily sell film to DIY installers because we believe that it brings a greater appreciation for the skill it takes to properly install this product. Covert Window Tinting has been doing high quality automotive installations for over thirty years in Chico and surrounding communities. We believe using high quality materials and installation techniques is just good business. Our prices reflect the quality and value we offer and we don’t quote a low price on the phone, only to attempt an up-sell once you arrive. To ensure quality installations, we remove door panels and other interior parts as necessary to obtain the best possible result for our customers. Please call, text or use our contact us page to get an estimate today. We can price most vehicles online with year, make, model info.
