Brica Smart Shade, Black, Gray Review

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Lately, my 2 year-old has started getting a kick out of trying to yank the suction-cup sun shade off the window next to her car seat. (I had to use all 3 suction cups because the clips that came with the shade were too thick to allow the automatic car window to close). I tried both the Munchkin and Safety 1st car window shades, and the suction cups either gave way when my daughter tugged them (causing the shade to fall off entirely), or she ripped the material around the bottom suction cup completely off and bent the wire towards her face (which scared me half to death!). So I began searching for alternatives to the conventional 3-suction-cup car window shades. First, I tried the Britax 2 Pack EZ-Cling Sun Shades, Black, but the edges of the shade began to peel away from the car window in the scorching L.A. summer temperatures, and my daughter pulled it the rest of the way off. I didn't want to try the dark-tinted window film because unless you're a professional window tint installer (which I'm not) you inevitably end up with unsightly "bubbles" between the film and the window glass, and on top of that, the film often makes it hard to roll the windows up or down.

Desperate to find a workable window shade to protect my toddler from the strong L.A. sun, I did the broadest search I could think of on Amazon, and luckily, I found the Brica Smart Shade. (I ended up buying it from a local brick-and-mortar retailer). Because this window shade rolls up rather than down, there's no suction-cup within my little-one's reach, and the shade's roller is housed in a hard plastic casing that also makes it (toddler) tamper-proof. That plastic casing has 2 tabs that snap securely between the window glass and the door (interior), keeping the base of the shade flush against the car door/window sill. Then you pull up on an extremely thin but sturdy metal (not plastic) clip to unroll/extend the shade and then slip the clip over the top of the window glass. Unlike the plastic window clips that come with most of the 3-suction-cup window shades, the metal clip on the Brica Smart Shade has such a low profile that the window rolls up easily and closes completely with the clip on. I never roll the rear windows of my SUV down more than a couple of inches, so I can't speak to how easy it is to roll the window completely down with the Smart Shade on, but it was easy for me to crack open the car window. And I like that the Smart Shade gives me the option to roll the shade down when I'm driving the car at night, without having to remove the shade entirely (which is a real inconvenience with the cling-type shades).

The only reason I deducted a star from my rating of the Smart Shade is that it did have a bit of a "plasticky" smell when I first unpacked it from the box and unrolled the shade. The product packaging doesn't say what material the shade is made of, but based on the smell, I think it contains some level of PVC. PVC typically contains some pretty suspect chemicals, including phthalates, so we try to avoid exposing our little-one to it as much as possible. But since the vast majority of the car shades sold at retail contain PVC, I'd rather risk a bit of PVC exposure over sun exposure -and possible skin cancer -any day. (Plus, my car itself contains quite a bit of PVC/vinyl, so you pick your battles!). I put the Smart Shade out on my patio to off-gas in the sun for several hours, which reduced the smell to tolerable levels.

Other than the chemical smell, this product has performed as expected, and was exactly the toddler-proof car sun-protection solution I was looking for.

Grade: B+

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Just picked one of these up at our local big box store. Even though our SUV has factory tinted glass in the rear, the sun is still pretty intense for our infant during these hot summer days. We just upgraded our kid to a convertible car seat, so now there isn't anything to protect our kid from the sun. The Brica Smart Shade is a bit more expensive than window clings and other sun shade options, but it seems to be the best choice out there.

After installation, the shade covered a huge portion of the window, and actually looks pretty good if I say so myself! Installation was pretty straight forward. I put the window down almost all the way, then swung out the two arms on the bottom of the shade and stuck them in the space between the window and the door. I clipped on the shade to the top of the window and rolled it up and down a few times to test it out. The first few times the shade kept coming out of the door. Turns out that I didn't have it pushed down all the way onto the door. Once I figured that out, the shade works like a charm!

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Excellent product... no surprises as it works as advertised. From its simple installation to its ease of use on a daily basis, we are pleased with this purchase.

Honest reviews on Brica Smart Shade, Black, Gray

We've had the suction cup type, roll-down shades before. They come off, get tangled, have to be completely removed to operated the window. This model solves all of that and looks WAY better. Not too difficult to install on my 2005 Prius probably took me 3 minutes to properly seat the clips between the window and the door frame. I wish that it also came with some other mechanism to attach the upper clip to something other than over the top window edge, but that's not a big deal and would just make it more complicated. Not a design flaw by any means. I'm buying another for the other side of the car.

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I own two of these shades one for each car: Camry and 4Runner. The only problem is that the clips don't keep the shade pulled down very well. Even if you shut the door gently, the 4Runner shade almost always pops up. The Camry seems to hold pretty well. I think the style of window will determine whether this product works well or not. If you have a Camry (or similar) go for it. We're now looking for a suction-cup option to replace the shade in the SUV.

Otherwise great shade. Works well and is wide enough to block out most of the sun. Wish it worked in our 4Runner!!