UV Protection from Factory Glass

Hello all.

 

I've been thinking about getting a window tint (ceramic) out here in Sunny Arizona. Before doing that I called Subaru's customer support center to find out any specs they might have on UV protection on factory glass on my 05 Legacy GT. Here is what the lady quoted (I assume she was reading it from somewhere rather than making it up on the fly!):

 

UV Rays Allowed Into Car:

 

Front windshield 0%

Front side windows 6.9%

Rear side windows 8.4%

Small rear windows 19.0%

Rear windshield 15%

 

She wasn't able to provide any info on whether it was UV A and/or B rays blockage being quoted.

 

If those numbers are to be believed, getting a tint job on your car to protect against UV damage either to your interior or your body isn't going to do much. That said, you can always tint for other perfectly valid reasons (appearance, additional heat rejection, etc.) You can tell the Legacy has some very light tint already in the glass when partially roll a window down....I guess that's how it is filtering most of the UV rays already.

 

Any thoughts? Do her specs seem plausible?

If that's true about the windshield that is great because I don't have to worry about my cheap Walmart sunscreen discs not having UV protection. I mainly got them for heat anyway.

Most glass can block ~80-90% of UV light. Put a slight tint on it, and you can block out a lot of UV.

 

I think the numbers are certainly very plausible.

The glass in the Lagacy definitely blocks UV rays. Darn Transition lens won't turn dark in the car, even with the sun directly in front.

I was going to say exactly what Halcyon said. My trasition lenses won't turn dark even if I hold them to the windshield glass. Never really realised why till now since I knew it was UV rays that make them go dark. It's great to know it blocks the uv.

Good anecdotes about the glass lenses not darkening....still going to get some window tint if for nothing else besides the glare that I get from vehicles behind me when the sun hits at just the right angle.

If you do put tint on the windows, don't forget the sunroof. All tints stop UV to the tune of 98%+. In AZ, you want maximum heat blocking power. Ceramic is good for that. Huper is about 20% better at stoping the heat at like 60%. Madico and 3M are around 40%. That 20% will cost double. Check huper.com and madico.com for the full specs.