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Skylight Warranty – It Is All In The Tube!

Most Tubular Skylights Only Have A 10-Year Warranty. MaxLight’s Have 20-Years. Why The Big Difference?

If you are considering brightening your home with tubular skylights, you need to consider that not all skylights are made equal. Most so-called “industry leading” tubular skylights come with only a 10-year warranty for the customer, whereas the MaxLight skylight, designed and manufactured in Australia by SolarBright, offers the industry best 20-year warranty on the tube.

Before we explain why, let’s look at the major components that make up a tubular skylight.

All tubular skylights consist of 4 major components:

• The Dome on the roof to collect the light for the skylight.
• The Roof Flashing that the dome is attached to. The flashing is also attached to the roof and creates a watertight seal for the skylight.
• The Tube that reflects the collected light down the skylight.
• The Diffusor (or lens) in the ceiling of the room to deliver and spread the light through the room.

MaxLight Tubes Vs Laminated Tubes

Why is there this major difference in warranties between skylight brands? The answer is all in the skylight tube. Specifically laminated tubes vs the MaxLight highly polished aluminum tube.

The tubes in tubular skylights need to be highly reflective to effectively “beam” sunshine light down the tube through your roof to brighten the room they are installed in. While most skylight brands use laminated tubes, MaxLight skylights use an aluminium tube with a super reflective anodised surface inside the tube to reflect the light through.

The tubes in laminated skylights are made of aluminium, just like the MaxLight tube – however there is one critical difference. On the inside of the tube they have a laminated plastic reflective coating applied to increase the light reflectivity of the tube. This reflective coating initially offers a small gain in light reflectivity, however from the day of installation the laminated reflective coating begins to deteriorate.

With continued exposure to the ultra-violet rays in sunlight this plastic laminated coating degrades, and the skylight begins to reflect less light into the room. The coating can also delaminate, peeling away from the aluminium tube altogether. This has a major effect on the skylight performance, decreasing the reflectivity of the tube which effects the amount of light coming through to the room.

With MaxLight skylights there is zero chance of delamination as there is no plastic laminated coating. The anodised tube performance does not suffer any damage from the UV light in sunshine. The tube has a reflectivity rating of 98% and performs over its 20-year warranted life time with only minimal degradation.

The benefits to the customer? Peace of mind with double the warranty. You get better performance over time with none of the degradation that happens with a laminated coating on the tube. Who would have thought that some skylight tubes degrade with exposure to the light they are designed to bring into your home?

Well, that’s why they only have a 10-year warranty!

Click Here to Visit the MaxLight Skylight Page

Read Also:

• Tubular Skylights and Traditional Skylights – What is the Difference?
• How To Choose The Right Sized Solar Power System