There are months of the year when the sun can mean to be rather hot in Arizona. If you have a car, these times become some of those when you are likely to think about tinting including adopting darker shades for cars that come from manufacturing with some degree of tint.
Assuming that you have been through this experience or whichever the reason is as to why you are now thinking of tinting your vehicle, this is the right place for you to find the right information regarding what the law will require of you.
This is especially important because while AZ first wrote its legislation concerning this matter in 1994, there have been several amendments overtime thereby making things to be likely to confuse those who are not especially acquainted with how the law-making structures work.
To help you overcome this, the article sets out to present the coherent picture that has emerged overtime. Most importantly, my research captures the most up to date state of things.
Equally aware that the essence of law can mean to be lost in interpretation for lay people, I have ensured that the approach taken is one of breaking down the provisions relied on in simple language such that everyone gets the bottom line of their message.
About the contents, this work traverses both window tinting darkness and window tint reflection at full length the two being the most significant aspects of any state law concerning tinting.
It then goes on to highlight other parts of the Arizona law that are important to know in this regard before tackling some broad practical issues.
This way, I am confident that by the time you get to the end of today’s reading you would have become a little expert of your own. From there, you can interact with other stakeholders much more easily (I am thinking here of police and mechanics).
Window Tint Darkness in Arizona
Window tint darkness is the thing that comes to the minds of most people (especially those whose day-to-day was has nothing to do with car tinting) when the subject of tinting comes up. The way it works is that a dark film is going to be attached to your screen such that it blocks some proportion of the light that comes its way.
To be sure, not all darkness tint blocks the same amount of rays. This fact has necessitated that there be a standard measurement by which the variations are taken into account and it has come to be known as Visible Light Transmission also VLT.
VLT is calculated in percentages with the highest of them meaning that the tint that one is measuring would be allowing much more light into a car if placed on its window and the reverse is true.
Tinting darkness that is 90% VLT thus, would allow in light to chunks almost close to when the car is not tinted. By contrast, you would not be able to drive a car with its windshield covered by tint that is 5% VLT. Hence, states– including Arizona– find that they have to strike a balance somewhere on this range of possibilities taking into account the competing interests.
Prior to arriving at the degree of VLT that is to be considered permissible however, some factors are considered and as a result, different requirements will arise in the aftermath. One of these issues is the type of car that a person drives.
Since different cars have purposes and body buildings that are not similar and even going as far as to be contradictory in particular instances, there is a tendency for regulators to find that different requirements should be imposed in regards to VLT.
Common variations for vehicles include; Sedans, SUVs, Vans, and Trucks. Intriguing enough though, the law for Arizona ignores this notion completely. As we will see shortly, all cars are required of same VLT percentages a fact that some drivers will be happy to know given the difficulties that at times come with classifying cars now that some of them tend to have overlapping features.
Secondly, window tint darkness laws usually require that VLT varies from window to window given the different positions that they appear on a given vehicle.
Consider the window shield for example, it is important that it lets in as much light as possible such that the driver can clearly see what is ahead of them.
On the other hand, while not being entirely benign to the driving experience, one would be hard pressed to make the same case for the rear window. Indeed, Arizona window tint darkness provisions take these variations into account.
Here are the real VLT figures then;
- Windshield: tint can only be used above the manufacturer’s AS-1 line.
- Front side windows: the minimum VLT light allowed is 33%
- Backside windows: what VLT percentage is adopted is left entirely to the desecration of the driver/car owner. So it could by 0% i.e. with no light at all being allowed through and that would still be legal.
- Rear window: what VLT percentage is adopted is left entirely to the desecration of the driver/car owner. So it could by 0% i.e. with no light at all being allowed through and that would still be legal.
Window Tint Reflection in Arizona
Though most people do not realize, window tint reflection is the other important aspect of window tint regulation.
Practically, it serves the same role that tint darkness does just that it arrives at it through a different approach.
While the tint darkness method blocks light from entering the vehicle through the screen then, window tint reflection diverts it instead to elsewhere. It is the case then that you can only use either of these options one at a time. At least for one window.
Calculating the amount of light reflected is quantified in percentages only that this time the process is done by reversing VLT.
Rather than focus on the amount of lighting that gets to enter the vehicle, we are concerned with the light that gets deflected away under window tint reflection.
As for the considerations that usually guide law makers when deciding what percentages to eventually decide, they are not at all different from those discussed under VLT. First, the purposes or structure of cars are essential because it makes a whole difference how they reflect light.
A tall car or one that is fast for instance is likely to distort other road users with reflections for instance. That said however, again Alaska has no differentiations in window tint reflection because of this attribute. All vehicles are subject to the same standard.
The other factor is the window’s position on a car. Consider the fact that there will be cars facing both your front and back when on the road. That means that should either reflect too much light, then they will complicate things for other road users. Here Arizona regulations show differences.
Below are the real figures;
- Windshield: no reflective tint allowed.
- Front side windows: there is not to be more than 35% reflection from the tint used.
- Back side windows: there is not to be more than 35% reflection from the tint used.
- Rear window: there is not to be more than 35% reflection from the tint used.
Other Window Tint Regulation in Arizona
If I was to share with you the full documents containing tint law regulations of Arizona, you would quickly realize that it is composed of more than window tint darkness or window tint reflection.
At the same time, the patience that it would take for you to comb through every bit of it is of a kind that most people do not have.
This section therefore attempts to highlight the other crucial things that you should know whilst avoiding the temptation of being sloppy and therefore losing the reader in the details.
Okay then, let us start;
- Side mirrors: recall that we saw under window tint darkness that you could choose to adopt 0% VLT tint for your rare window. Should you do so however, it will be required of you to make sure that your car is installed with two side mirrors.
Law makers included this provision so as to ensure that there remains a way in which drivers in these scenarios get to keep in touch with road users coming from behind whenever they hit the road.
- Colors under window reflection: knowing that some colors are more reflective than others, Arizona limits the usage of certain colors. That said however, there is a very limited number of shades that are not allowed. In fact, they are only two of them i.e. Red and Amber. To that extent, there is much freedom still allowed to car owners.
- Stickers and certification: Talking of liberalism, Arizona neither requires tint manufacturers certify their films when being purchased by drivers nor does it ask that the drivers have stickers indicating the details of the tinting placed on vehicles when on the road like some other states do.
It is important to note however, that this does not mean that there are no modes of ensuring that tinting laws are followed. If it is not a big concern to you thus, you may very well attach a sticker on your just in case. The law has created exceptions for these cases i.e. a sticker not larger than 5-by-5 inches can be placed in any of the lower corners of the windshield. Additionally, a sticker not larger than 7-by-7 inches may be placed in any of the lower corners of either the front side or back side windows.
- Medical exemption: It is now a norm under window tint law that persons likely to be negatively impacted by a state’s restrictions because of medical complications will be allowed special treatment away from what applies to everyone else. Sicknesses that usually fall in this bracket include; lupus, albinism, melanoma etc. Basically any disease that makes is dangerous for one’s skin or eyes to come into contact with light or heat levels that are normal for everyone else.
In Arizona, any individual who wishes to be considered under this bracket is required to obtain an official document from a physician indicating the specifics of their illness after which they would attach it to an application and tender it in to Arizona Department of Transport (ADOT). ADOT’s medical review department will then examine the request and approve it if it finds that it is genuine.
Once permission to use extra tint is obtained, then it can be relied on to tint a vehicle belonging to the beneficiary or one that they frequently travel in. Important to note is that medical exemptions cannot be extended to the VLT percentage standard of windshields.
- Penalties: Using tinting that does not conform to the standard stipulated in law is illegal conduct that is subject to punishment which is usually in the form of a fine.
Usually the process starts with a police man or woman pulling you over when they become suspicious of the VLT levels of your tint. Once you have packed, they place a tint meter on your car windows (i.e. an equipment that reads VLT levels of films) to verify whether their gut feeling was well placed.
Should they find you in wrong, you will be issued a fix-it-ticket which in Arizona is known as “Equipment Repair Order”. And as the name suggests, you will be expected therefrom to replace or remove the tint dressed on the window (s) in question.
Note that if five days pass before you act on the order then you will be fined $250. It is also only after the passing of this grace period that the offence in question will accrue on your criminal record history.
In the event that the tint is illegal but you can prove that your request to the company which placed it on the windows was that legal tinting is used, then the responsibility will shift to such parties. Sometimes, these matters will be arraigned before courts of law in which case you will need to adduce evidence to support your claims which may include but not limited to receipts.
If the courts establish that you are not in fault, then it will request the company/individual in wrong to make it up to you.
Conclusion
Having looked at the law, it is also important that you appreciate a couple of practical aspects if you are going to appreciate the holistic picture of tinting dynamics.
While it is impossible to cover everything in this category unless I was to write another piece on this subject alone, I will tell you about my best two items on this list. Ready?
- Service providers: it is important that you do a bit of homework on the person/company that you eventually decide to work with in tinting your car. Ask questions like how long such businesses have been around as well as whether you could find someone for whom they have worked just to double-check.
If at all you are still torn apart on this issue, you could checkout Smarfilm. In testament of their dedication, these guys have branches in a number of cities in the state including Tempe, Gilbert, and Mesa.
- Subtle benefits: everyone appreciates some things about tinting e.g. maintaining privacy and the medical challenges aspect that we have now covered. That said, there a couple more things for which there would be more people engaging in the practice it they knew what it is that they were missing on.
One that intrigues me is about keeping heat out: yes, not just the light. Because of this then, cars that are tinted take longer for the inside to get wasted/old.
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