Not all Frosted Window Films are the same!

We live in an older home with a lot of issues and one of them concerns our back door to our patio from our sunroom. The door has double paned glass on it, but unfortunately the seal has broken so you can see moisture collect inside of it. We decided the easiest way to "remedy" the problem was to cover the window with some "frosted" film so we did not have to see the moisture condensing between the panes. But the question was, what film? There are a bunch of them available so we had to select something to try on the door.

The first place we tried was our nearby Lowe's store which had a bunch of Gila brand film. We selected what seemed like the typical adhesive based door sized  film that cost about $25 after tax. We thought it could not be that hard to put up and look nice on our door. So one day my wife ran out and purchased it at Lowe's and we commenced to install it on our door window. We made our own soapy water solution and followed the directions to apply it to the window. Unfortunately it made a big ugly mess. The adhesive kept sticking to the door and left marks and creases on itself. We tried pulling it off a placing it back down and there were still bubbles and adhesive marks. I squeegeed my little heart out removing bubbles, adding more liquid and everything else and it still left marks and did not look very good. We ended up ripping it off and throwing it away.

I knew we actually had applied some frosted window film to some interior windows in our main office in our department at the university, so I asked our receptionist what they used. She said they had purchased some frosted Artscape film from Staples and put it up in no time with just water and a squeegee. I checked what Staples had and found 72" x 36" etched glass film there for $36 which seemed a bit high, but looked exactly like what they put up in our office. Upon checking the same item at Amazon, it was only $30 there and it was also their #1 best seller in "stained glass" panels for windows (i.e. their best selling and highest rated film.) Why didn't I go check at Amazon first?

So we ordered the Artscape film on Amazon and it showed up a few days later at our front door. When we removed it from the box we noticed it was much thicker and easier to handle than the Gila film had been. It also came with its own squeegee and we read the instructions much more thoroughly this time. We pre-measured the film to fit our window with a 1/16" allowance and cut it cleanly with just a pair of scissors after drawing guidelines on the paper backing. The paper came right off and the two of us were able to place the film on the wet glass and remove and readjust it properly without it leaving adhesive marks on the window or the film. Then using the sturdy little black squeegee I was able to squeeze out all the bubbles to make a very nice looking frosted window.
We did have to trim the film a little after application but we squeegeed it down afterwards and it looks quite nice.

We would definitely recommend the Artscape non-adhesive film and would avoid the Gila adhesive based films if we were to apply any more film to other windows. The thicker non-adhesive film is much easier to work with and does a much better job making a clean looking frosting on a window.