Gloss Meter

[Ronin47]

Looking to buy a gloss meter, only for vehicle paint and testing gloss of different polishes, lsp’s etc. My question is, how relevant is 20,60,85 degrees? Would a 60 degree meter suffice?

[Mike Phillips]

I think I remember Meguiar's had one and got rid of it.

The reason why is the a machine cannot take in all the elements of appearance that the human eyes can perceive.

Just sayin....

But for sure a cool marketing tool.


:)

[TheSteelFoX]

I work in a paint lab, every batch is tested for gloss and although we have multiple gloss readers, we only read on 60 degree.

[PaulMys]

I think I remember Meguiar's had one and got rid of it.

The reason why is the a machine cannot take in all the elements of appearance that the human eyes can perceive.

Just sayin....

But for sure a cool marketing tool.


:)

Funny, when I read the OP, I thought "My gloss meter is my eye". Lol

Not disparaging the OP's post in any way.........

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Larry C has a 60degree Elcometer and has a video on it. Wow spending $2k to say "that's shiny." :)

[Loach]

I've got one that measures at all three angles but the majority of my readings are on the 20° setting, I haven't tested much with the other angles. 20° is more suited for higher gloss surfaces, and 85° more for low gloss surfaces. 60° is a good all around angle and most of the gloss meters that are within a reasonable budget are measuring at 60°.

[fightnews]

I honestly thought people were joking when talking about gloss meters

[Ronin47]

I've got one that measures at all three angles but the majority of my readings are on the 20° setting, I haven't tested much with the other angles. 20° is more suited for higher gloss surfaces, and 85° more for low gloss surfaces. 60° is a good all around angle and most of the gloss meters that are within a reasonable budget are measuring at 60°.

So 60 is fine for car paint yeah?

[BudgetPlan1]

I honestly thought people were joking when talking about gloss meters

Way outta my league/budget but sure would be fun to have.

Appearance is such a subjective thing, especially when using a new product that 'appears' to add a new visual dimension to the surface.

[boomdone]

Larry C has a 60degree Elcometer and has a video on it. Wow spending $2k to say "that's shiny." :)

Well, some people spend that much chasing the newest wax/sealant/coating trying to find the 'shiniest' one on the planet. I'd never buy one but I could see it being useful for a manufacturer or detailer trying to provide objective claims.

[Loach]

So 60 is fine for car paint yeah?

Yes, 60° will be fine. One of the differences between measuring at the 20° and 60° angle, is the 20° is more sensitive if there's any haze in the paint.

Gloss-Meters.com has a good explanation and picture:

"The acute measurement angle of 20° gives improved resolution for high gloss surfaces. Surfaces that measure 70 GU and above at the standard angle of 60° are often measured with this geometry. The 20° angle is more sensitive to haze effects that affect the appearance of a surface. The different gloss of these two samples is more clearly shown in the 20° readings."

http://www.gloss-meters.com/images/redtiles.jpg

So you can see the reduction in gloss readings when going from a lower haze to a higher haze surface is going to be less sensitive with the 60° (loss of 1.7GU) compared to the 20° (loss of 8.1GU). Another thing you can see from the picture is you're not necessarily going to get the same readings depending on which angle you're measuring at. At the higher gloss range I'm not seeing such a large difference. I went out just now and the test panel measures at the 105.3°GU range at 20° and 102.5GU at 60° and 103.2GU at 85°.


Larry C has a 60degree Elcometer and has a video on it. Wow spending $2k to say "that's shiny." :)

Exactly, that's the problem with these glossmeters. If I would have bought my Rhopoint new I would have spent $2,800. The information I'm getting out of the meter is not worth anywhere near that dollar amount. It's an accurate product, the repeatability is fantastic and it will absolutely detect different products on top of the paint. But gloss by itself is a very limited statistic, the meters that measure beyond gloss like distinctness of image, haze, image quality, these are the more relevant subjects to determining paint quality but they're just not affordable.

Peak gloss of most LSP's is not found until it has been washed. Any oils or residuals left behind by the LSP on the surface can (and most likely will) negatively impact the measurements coming out of the gloss meter.

[Calendyr]

Ordered one yesterday, should get it sometimes this week. Here in Canada, 200$ off Amazon.ca, same one was available on E-Bay for 145$ but it was from China... so I decided to pay the extra 55$ and not risk a defective unit or a package that never reaches me for some reason (like the vendor not sending it maybe).

The unit I got is the same one that Forensic Details uses for his videos.

So I think this will be very good to make promotional videos, I will be able to put numbers to the paint gloss improvement for each type of prep/finishes that I offer. Also it will help me evaluate techniques and products better. I see no downsides to this purchase.

[Ronin47]

Ordered one yesterday, should get it sometimes this week. Here in Canada, 200$ off Amazon.ca, same one was available on E-Bay for 145$ but it was from China... so I decided to pay the extra 55$ and not risk a defective unit or a package that never reaches me for some reason (like the vendor not sending it maybe).

The unit I got is the same one that Forensic Details uses for his videos.

So I think this will be very good to make promotional videos, I will be able to put numbers to the paint gloss improvement for each type of prep/finishes that I offer. Also it will help me evaluate techniques and products better. I see no downsides to this purchase.

Which model are you getting?

[Calendyr]

Which model are you getting?

ETB-0686

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_G90tpmJUk)

[Ronin47]

ETB-0686

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_G90tpmJUk)

Thanks, ordered it too.