Car magnets falling off when cold?

[Quark]

we have a spike in customer complaints about car magnets falling off the cars. Can’t pin point any other specific reason but cold temperatures ? Customers who complain the most tend to insists that they frequently remove and clean the magnets / car surface / follow all the care specs - that may actually add to the issue (freezing)?

 

[Notnormal]

assuming the corners are rounded? if not the points might not be contouring to the car with the cold and causing them to blow off

 

[Quark]

assuming the corners are rounded? if not the points might not be contouring to the car with the cold and causing them to blow off

Of course

 

[Quark]

Magnum magnetic 30mil with laminated ij35 print on a newer dodge promaster cargo van:

“...Order xxxxx Purchased 10/31/18 Cleaned and prepped surfaces after 2 weeks the left side fell off! Sitting in the driveway, just fell off! Cleaned both surfaces and re applied, again after short but it fell off, and now the other side fell off while I was driving down the road. Terrible product”
~Customer

 

[Notnormal]

im curious what you figure out on this.

 

[Quark]

 

[Sindex Printing]

I tell my customers the put the on their hot water heater for 24 to 48 hours before using them full time. I had a sales rep tell me this years ago and I have never had any issues with them falling off.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I stopped selling magnets a few years ago... Too many disadvantages in offering them.

 

[BUCKY]

The metal is just too thin and recycled now days which makes it difficult for magnets to stay on. We haven't sold magnetics for years.
Talk your customer into just doing graphics on the trucks or tell them they can just buy more everytime they fall off.
If it was a 1985 van you would not see this issue.

 

[Billct2]

The bigger the magnet the bigger the problems. That combined with a decline in quality of both magnets and metal. And the recommendation to remove and clean under them is great, except in cold weather. Unless the cleaning and installation is done inside the cleaning fluid may freeze before it evaporates and cold magnets don't stick well.

 

[2B]

1. The newer vehicles have less material that is magnetic
2. Magnetic sheeting seems to be weaker than previously bought
   
3. Have had numerous issues with Magnum
   1. Switched to Car-Safe, much better results

we have customers now sign a waiver on magnets that they carry no warranty, are not guaranteed to stick or stay on the surface even if they follow the care sheet to the letter

 

[fresh]

View attachment 138204

I'd never sell a magnet this big. If a customer insisted, I'd make sure they signed a disclaimer stating we are not responsible for failures.

 

[Gino]

We still do lotsa magnetics and over the last 40 years or so, maybe only a handful of problems, which were clearly the customer's fault, but we replaced them, anyways. However, being the professional here, are we not supposed to know what we are or are not putting on these vehicles ?? Isn't it our job to guide these people towards the best outcome. Only if they go against what we recommend could I see having a waiver signed, but if something fails, it's gonna fail rather quickly, don't ya think ?? Having a community like this (s101), we can tune into problems nationwide and we should know of any hazards happening with particular brands of magnetic or makes of vehicles.

If you'd go to a any other professional kinda business, you'd want that person to know his job inside out...... why are we different ??

The best one was for a guy a while back, who ordered a pair for his vehicle, gave me the sizes and we printed and lammed them. Only to have him b!tch at me they were no good. Turned out his vehicle was plastic. I did not replace or take them back.​

 

[signmania]

We've never had a problem with Magnum's magnetic for digital printing, which we either apply cut vinyl on or 3M's IJ180 with 8518 laminate. We tried the IJ35 with 8509 laminate, but I noticed after a year or so the edges tended to curl up slightly. We always radius corners. I am interested in the "applying magnetics to a water heater" angle however. I'd like to know the reasoning behind that. My customers seem to lose them (in order) due to 1) not applying them properly (going over body crease or side mouldings), 2) forgot and lost them in a car wash and 3) they get stolen in a parking lot.

 

[rjssigns]

Maybe it's the calendared material contracting at a different rate than the magnetic substrate. I use 2mil with laminate for all magnets and don't have issues in northern WI.

 

[Dan360]

Just across the border in the same climate, my guess is it's the size and the materials used for newer vehicles. We're seeing more and more over the years people just shy away from magnets for vehicles because they want something large or have concerns with the magnets falling off. We've never run into any incidents of a magnet falling off, but basically only do 24x18 or 24x12, nothing larger for a vehicle. We use Magnum and IJ35.

But as mentioned, newer vehicles with less magnetic materials have been bringing magnet sales down over the years.

 

[Tattoosleeve]

We also try to steer customer's away from magnet as much as possible. With that being said we've found it beneficial to use wrap material instead of intermediate for the same reasons mentioned above. Always round corners and also tell our customers that in cold weather the magnets WILL fail and/or wreck their paint jobs. The reality is that even though customers say they are ensuring a completely clean surface on both the magnet and the door, the majority of the time customers are just slapping them on without a care in the world. We live in a climate that is colder for 5-6 months. The cold weather makes the material more rigid and brittle and particularly at higher speeds the wind will grab them. We also generally make our magnets 12" x 24" and wouldn't attempt to do them at the scale posted in the sample image.

If you'd go to a any other professional kinda business, you'd want that person to know his job inside out...... why are we different ??

Because we are not like every other professional kinda business in that the industry is completely self-taught. I can't speak for anyone else but my knowledge and skill in the industry is compiled from years of personal experience, digging up information myself (through suppliers or on resources like S101) moments of epiphany or the graciousness of other local sign shop owners divulging their knowledge. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that a product marketed by suppliers and manufacturers for a specific purpose should be functional for that purpose. The smaller shop where the owner is still involved in production/installs may not have the time to research all the ins and outs of a product each time something new is requested. Of course we learn that taking the time on the front end to understand the product will save time and problems in the long run. Still,

 

[Gino]

I know musicians who are self-taught and they're monsters on their instrument, but I also know musicians who can't do squat and I know musicians who have had much training. While the well-trained musician can do a lot, he might not have the same feel, but technically he/she is good. There are other professions which will allow one to get into it without any formal training or knowledge and those are the very people I would steer away from, if I knew ahead of time, they were hacks. Doctors, marine biologists, anesthetist or a physical therapist to name a few....... would you want them to learn job by job...... on you ??

The difference between someone who trained or went to school to be in the sign industry and you is, they have a basic hands on background. They've been shown a lotta the ropes and have answers, better than having an epiphany. I'd like to see that look, when you tell the customer, uh, yeah, we can do that, cause we just push a button and it works. Between the software and our distributors, we have you covered. No one has any real hands-on practical knowledge here, but it should work.

We flatbed print our magnetics, so we have no real issues with what most here are complaining about, but when someone gives us a plastic or aluminum vehicles, we hafta give them the bad news right up front, instead of having someone come back and make us look like a fool, because we didn't do our homework.

 

[eahicks]

I tell my customers the put the on their hot water heater for 24 to 48 hours before using them full time. I had a sales rep tell me this years ago and I have never had any issues with them falling off.

What is a hot water heater? Why would you heat hot water, if it's already hot?

 

[sardocs]

Looking at the photo of those mags the issue is obvious, the design has a connection to ground.