Window Privacy Film, Self Adhesive Opaque Glass Frosted Film, Non Adhesive Static for Office or Home (500x30in)

I purchased this film for a window measuring 1'x3'. The film kept rolling up on itself as I was measuring so I ended up cutting an approximate length and then used masking tape to hold the film in place while I removed the backing and began installation. Once the film was in place I used a razor blade to cut the excess from the top and side. From the inside the film is slightly tinted and from the outside the mirror has a cloudy finish. Hopefully that will go away once it dries completely. In daylight I can no longer see clearly into the room from the outside of the window so it is definitely working as intended.

I was pretty skeptical about this window film at first, but after applying to our kitchen windows- I am definitely liking it. I ordered these as a temporary fix to help cut down on the amount of heat coming in through our windows until we are able to replace the windows in our house- it needs a lot of updating. Let me preface this by saying that our home is VERY well insulated BUT it is around 40ish years old- it’s only inhabitants prior to my husband and I buying it in January this year was the man that built the home, his wife, and their children (2?). The AC unit is keeping up well, but it is also old and in south east Texas- it never gets a break. I keep the ac set on about 67° between the end of March until around the end of October to middle of November. Don’t come for me unless you live anywhere around Houston or south of Houston- cause you know how it is. The inspector we used prior to purchasing the home stated that the house was in great shape and there were no issues specifically with the ac and the house staying cool- but I want to ensure we can save every penny we can off the entergy bill and help our ac unit live its best life for the remainder of its life lol.Now onto the product: Rolls come with directions on how to apply. We cut the film to the length of the window panes, removed the protective film from the mirrored side, sprayed a little water on the mirrored side of the film then applied the misted mirrored side of the film to the window. We lined up the top edge and the right side edge with the same edges of the window pane and then using a squeegee, we got rid of all the air bubbles we could find. Using an old ID card, (you can use any kind of card), we pressed in the left side edge while simultaneously using an exacto knife to cut the film to the edge of the pane. Once it was cut nicely, we repeated that step with the bottom edge. Our window panes are about 9.5x9.5 so I purchased the shortest width of this roll of film. It’s a pain to cut to size before applying to the window because it keeps wanting to curl up but once you remove the protective film from the mirrored side, it’s pretty malleable.I got three pictures of our window during this process. The sides and back of our home is pretty shaded but first was at about 7:05pm yesterday (9/13/24). We did half the window and finished up today at about 7:10pm. Didn’t take long- in total maybe 1.5hrs only because we had to cut each individual window pane. During the day, even later in the evening (7-7:15pm) you can barely see anything through this film from the outside. At night though- you’ll definitely want to close your curtains.All in all, my husband and I think it turned out great as a quick fix until we replace all of our windows. (I HATE our windows with a passion). The film looks great and the while the width of the rolls could have been a little bit shorter- it still worked out perfectly, just took a little more elbow grease. Will update once we have the rest of the windows done and see if we start to see a difference in the Entergy bill.

Overall I like the quality and privacy of the film. It does block the sun rays in morning and afternoon. I bought these to apply for our full glass deck and storm door because of our dog’s snout always smearing up the glass, and toddlers making it look very ugly to look out on a daily basis. For some reason, they don’t touch the glass with the film on the doors. I didn’t buy a wide enough film for the door though so I tried to use leftover film from the one roll and the film color shade was lighter than the previous roll yet I purchased black in two rolls. So that annoyed me I ended up cutting and wasting product throwing it in the garbage.

Let me start by saying maybe it's me. Or not.My key beefs:* The - very limited - instructions that come with the product make it look dead easy. Don't believe it.* I assume the instructions were a direct translation from Chinese, so they didn't always make sense to me. Not a racist comment: just a fact of life. My wife is Chinese and our kids half Chinese.* No manufacturer's website that I could find. Clips on YouTube provided more info than the manufacturer.* Nowhere do they address any of the issues I detail below or give you any help on how to deal with them.The instructions tell you to clean the window - check. So far, so good. Then you're told to cut the film 10 mm *wider* than the window, but nothing about the length. I'm assuming they meant the length. Lost in translation? Trying to cut the width of the film would make the rest of this a complete nightmare. Next peel the - very thin - protective film covering the actual window film. Okay. Nothing too challenging so far. Now is where it starts to get tricky. "tricky" isn't the right word, but I'm not sure what is. You're told to spray the window with water and then spray the "adhesive" side of the film with water as well. Assuming the window in question is vertical, the water immediately starts running down the glass. Basic high school physics here. Then you're supposed to spray water on the adhesive side of the film as well, but the film rolls itself back into the shape it came in - rolled around a cardboard tube. I don't know how you can possibly spray water onto the film unless you have several people helping you hold the corners down. The drawing on the instruction shows one person apparently "hanging" - that's what it looks like - the film onto the window as if it were a piece of cloth or paper. Which it isn't, and it wants to roll itself back onto its carboard tube. So while you're trying to position it onto the window, it's trying to curl up back into a roll. Eventually I had my wife help me and after several tries we managed to get it positioned more or less correctly. "less" being the operative keyword here. Then you're supposed to put the original protective film back on the actual film, now on the window, so you can push the few bubbles out. "few" on the illustration - your mileage may vary. After pushing as many of the bubbles out as possible, frequently lifting one of the corners to get the larger bubbles out, we have it on the window, albeit with several small "creases", I assume the result of me squeegeeing the bubbles out.Long story short, I didn't find this anything like easy.My recommendation: know what you're getting yourself into, make sure there are 2 of you as you'll need more than your own hands. Read the directions and get everything laid out in advance. Be patient - I'm not, which doesn't help. Actually - hire a professional and watch TV while they struggle.HTH.