Side by Side Comparison of: Thermwell vs 3M

Always performs as stated. Keeps rooms much warmer.

Excellent product, easy to use. The tape works well and the insulating plastic is easy to cut to size. I can tell the difference in the temperature of the house now that I've added this to the upstairs windows for the winter. It works really well and saves on the heating bill. It's not aesthetically pleasing, but it doesn't look terrible either. I'd say it's worth it. I especially like this product because it lets the sunshine in for the plants but keeps out the cold.

This is a terrific product. It's a pain in the butt to install if you try and rush the process. So take your time. Is it worth the money and effort spent to install this? Absolutely. I had no idea just how bad a draft there was in my house until I install this on my door. Once I was confident that there was a good seal, the sheet inflated up like a balloon almost instantly. There was a heck of a lot of cold air blowing in and a lot of my money heating up the world before I installed this. I bought 2 for 2 doors and there was enough left over for some small windows although I bought a few window kits too. The rewards are worth the effort. Your wallet will thank you later.

Covered 5 windows with this package and have plenty left over for more. I used this on our cold, drafty bedroom and after putting these on we noticed it was not as cold. These aren't miracle workers, but they will make a difference on your drafty windows. They do require some work to put up, but they are well worth it.

This really worked to help insulate my house with drafty single pane windows. If you stretch it properly, you will barely notice the film over the window and you can see out of it clearly. Made a huge difference.Tip: have a large clean surface (dining room table) to unfold the sheets onto for cutting. You don't want fibers from carpets etc to get onto the film or they could end up stuck between the film and window when you put it up.Also not that this does not stick to tile surfaces.

Dude, this is the most affordable first considered solution against the cold. Buying a heater comes after this purchase. Seal your windows this winter to moderate the heat from escaping easily through the windows. Follow up with a heater.I purchased this heater Lasko 5397 Ceramic Pedestal Heater with Remote Control from amazon as well. It's a done deal for a bedroom after that. Remember to turn off before sleep, it can make your space very very warm with both of these items keeping you toasty.

We have used two other brands over the years that were barely sufficient and their version of 'clear' view was questionable. Our windows are 60"x72" and 3M kit was easy for the two of us to install. The 3M Window Insulator Kit is nearly invisible. I say nearly because we have a slight wrinkle in the plastic in one of the windows which makes it obvious that there is plastic on the windows, our fault, not the fault of the product. We definitely will buy this brand again.

I have ordered this for the past 3 years. It works great for its intended purpose. The taor does pull up the paint on the door, but for the amount of money it saves, it's worth it. However, this last order, Amazon sent the wrong kit (See photo)... it should work fine and I would return it, but I don't have 2 months to wait, nor do I want Frost King.

I bought this kit twice for my co-worker. She sits in front of a drafty door, and in the winter it gets pretty cold in her office.The first time I put this up, it was a little bit of a hassle. It's the nature of the plastic - it's almost like using cling wrap.The second time I put this up I knew what I was getting myself into. I took extra precaution, and tried my best to get the plastic aligned nicely with the door frame. Some of the plastic pulled away from the door frame after I used a blow dryer to tighten the plastic (kind of like shrink wrap). I used some packing to cover the gaps in the plastic. It worked well enough.My co-worker told me she felt a signifiant decrease in the draftiness of the doorway for both applications. So, I guess this wrap can be a little forgiving as my first application wasn't as good as the second.Overall, I would suggest this product to my friends and family.

This product is amazing! I live in an upper flat of a house built in the later 1920's. The windows are new, but poorly insulated walls means a high heating bill. The window in my kitchen and bedroom were terribly drafty and I could FEEL the cold air seeping into the house. Since installing the plastic over the windows I do not have any leaky windows or cold drafts. The house remains evenly heated and I can sleep peacefully at night without the drafty cool air blowing through the windows. The reason I gave it a four out of five was because taping the windows and putting on the sealant can be a little tricky. The paper is VERY clinging, but sturdy so if you do not do it right the first time you can gently remove the wrap and try it again. Overall amazing product! I definitely made the right choice.

The window insulation kit actually works really well - if you can tape up the plastic and get it sealed correctly. I have large windows in my apartment with built-in blinds that I had to work around, and it was extremely challenging to install the plastic on my own. At least the plastic is repositionable on the tape. Once up, the room was noticeably warmer and less drafty, but it was a hassle to take down again in warmer weather. I think this would be really nice if you have seriously drafty windows that need sealing and have a friend to help you do the work, but for me the hassle wasn't worth using this more than one season. I ended up just buying some weatherstripping and using that between the window pane and sill for the next winter, which worked almost as well to block drafts and doesn't require as much work.

We bought these window insulators for our townhome windows. They are original so from 1994. We use them directly on our drywall. It recommends that you do not do that. We did not have another option. When removing them there was no paint or marks that were left on the window. There was one window that I cut short and was a constant problem in my bathroom. I don't know if it was short cutting or the humidity that affected the two-sided tape. I will say I could feel the cold air draft coming through where the tape and plastic came off. That had me believe that these insulators were actually working. Even though I messed up with the window. I did not have a problem with any of the other for you with those I did. But these were all bedroom windows and did not have the humidity from the bathroom. I still gave this 4 stars because I believe it was human error and not product error.

I purchased the 2 window kit for my extra large bedroom window. What is nice about this kit is the plastic comes in one large piece, which you can manually cut into two parts to use for two different windows. My bedroom window is really large (actually consists of two windows), so the uncut plastic was just the right size to use. I've noticed that our bedroom window is quite draft in spots, and when heating the entire apartment, the bedroom always feels significantly cooler. While is wasn't easy to install the window kit, I was able to put the plastic over the window by myself. I used a hairdryer on the highest hot setting to tighten the plastic up after it was installed. Once issue I was worried about is my window has a lip which is use to lift it open to open. I was able to successfully place the plastic around and under the lip, onto the frame of the window, and after heating the plastic film, the lip did not puncture the plastic. So far, I've noticed a lot less draftiness in the bedroom since putting this item up. Overall, the room still feels a lot cooler than the rest of my apartment, but I have noticed a generally positive improvement in the chill I'd feel coming from the window.

Very annoying to install. Followed the instructions to a T but then when it was time to stick the plastic on the Tape, there wasn't enough material to span across the window. I suggest cutting the plastic after it's taped to the window sill

I got this to reduce condensation on my windows, which was promoting mold growth. It did that somewhat, but the tape came loose on at the top on 2 of the 5 windows I applied it to. Ironically, when I removed the plastic from those windows, it took off some of the paint from the bottom of my window frames. So it was simultaneously not strong enough and too strong.The product did seem to reduce condensation on the windows where it remained up.

Easy to install, but I never felt like it did the job well. Maybe I was expecting too much, but it was still so cold inside our New England ground floor room.It comes in one long sheet, and needed to be cut to size. Our windows are pretty big, and it worked well. Make sure to hold it up to the window first, though, to make sure you can get two windows covered. I nearly cut it in half the wrong way, which would have been a bummer as it would not have covered even one window fully.

Our apartment was built in the 70s, you know, back when insulation was not a concern. Some friends of ours used this in their apartment and it worked great, so we thought we'd give these a try this winter to keep our place a little warmer. We watched the video and read the instructions. If you have vertical blinds you will have to take them down or else you will be ripping them down in frustration when you're halfway through. The plastic was hard to apply straight on the window, kind of like a screen protector on a phone. I think we should have allowed more than the recommended tolerance (but maybe our windows are crooked). It probably would have been easier if we had the window frames like the ones in the video. Unfortunately, it turned out that our windows were not made for this as they are inset square and the border is just a matte painted wall. When applying heat, the plastic started pulling off the wall and it took some of the paint with it (woops). One window worked great and is still securely attached. Overall, I don't feel like it made much of a difference in the temperature of the house, I think this would be better for someone who at least has insulation in the walls, but just has poor quality windows and wants to cut down on the draft. Also, the amount of plastic waste it creates is substantial and as an environmentally conscious person, I just can't justify throwing away this much every year. 3M should consider making the plastic reusable or recyclable!

I normally don't write reviews but since this product was an important purchase, I decided to. My home has no basement so it is on a concrete slab which means in the winter the first level of my home gets extremely cold. I have hardwood floors and have found no real solution to my problem. So I figured why not start with the windows and door. The product comes packaged nicely. You will need two people to do this. I did it alone and survived but it takes way more time and can be slightly frustrating. The film itself tears easily so be careful when handling it. I messed up a nice size piece. I wish the material was a bit more sturdy. So far, they have stayed up on my windows using the tape that was provided in the package. I have noticed slight wrinkles in the window application which lets me know some degree of cold air is escaping. Overall, this is ok. It's not the greatest, but it get the job done. I just wish the material was a tad more tough. You can't not see that I even have them on my window, which is a plus.

Pros:* Definitely stops draftsCons:* Difficult to put on the first time; tip: after putting up the tape, don't remove all the backing at once. Instead, expose a small piece of tape and attach the plastic to that. Then, expose a little more tape and attach the plastic to that. Work your way around the windows frame in this manner.* Does not survive gusty windows (with really drafty windows): We had a wind storm last night. The wind seeped in through window and inflated the plastic like a balloon. Strong gusts inflated the plastic so much that it pulled off from the frame.Summary: I love how it reduces the draft and stabilizes the temperature in my apartment, but I absolutely hate putting the plastic up and fixing it.

I used both this stuff and the 3M window film this winter. Going on, both were equally easy to use. Both had good adhesion with the tape. When spring came around, this stuff peeled paint off of my painted window trim. The 3M tape did not peel any paint. Any money I saved by going with cheaper tape went to buying new paint for my window trim. Be careful!

I was really disappointed in this product. I cut the sheet to size, cleaned the widow spent all this time to get it ready and the tape wouldn't stick to my paint. I then tried cleaning the paint with ammonia and then alcohol but nothing helped. Next time I am going to home depot and getting a simple plastic sheet. If you insist in trying this then I suggest you cut off a couple of small pieces of the included tape and make sure it sticks before cutting the sheet and wasting your time. That way if the tape doesn't stick you can return the kit. I ended up removing my screen and wrapping it with the plastic and using clear shipping tape to secure it before putting it back. It doesn't look good but it does the job.

It's fairly effective at what it claims to do, but installation is a messy nightmare. I thought I was getting something that would sort of self cling, but this is not the case. I bought three boxes and two are unopened because I have zero desire to recreate the nightmarish installation process beyond the one window I did. I'll be finding an alternate solution. I gave it two stars because the one window I did install this on is passing through noticeably less cold temps that the rest in my house.

We just tried putting these on our windows this past weekend. Oh my goodness...it's a lot of work. It takes hours to do this. Not really at all what I expected. It's pretty much like plastic wrap on your windows held with tape....which would have been much less expensive. I can't really tell one way or another if they are helping or not. There is way more plastic wrap than tape. We ran out of tape much sooner than we ran out of plastic wrap. I wouldn't recommend these. I would not purchase again. I plan on sending the other two boxes we got back for a refund.

My husband and I worked for an hour to get this installed on just one window. It was far more time consuming than we anticipated. Plus, even with a very thorough blow-drying, it still looks like cellophane across the window. After installing on just our bedroom window, we decided not to use the rest of the kit, since the other windows in our house are more visible to neighbors and guests, and quite frankly, this stuff is an eyesore. In all fairness, our bedroom has been noticeably warmer since we installed the plastic. So if you don't mind trading aesthetics for warmth, this product may work well for you. We have three young kids though, and the plastic is not very thick. I'm pretty sure one of them will poke a hole through the plastic long before winter is over.

This product is receiving some of my wrath for the gigantic oversight of the people who built my apartment next to a dc metro station and thought single pane windows was an efficient choice-miserable failure. However, I decided not to worry, because even though the noise from metro buses, rail cars, and the general public cannot be remedied now, I can at least protect myself from the abysmal cold drafts that come from using champagne flute glass for windows. For a person that is patient, doesn't mind repeated failures and spending double to replace the materials that you wasted because the tape is stuck and ripped the original film you received- this product is a find. I partly blame myself for my frustration with this product, I was intimately aware of how much I hate using saran wrap to cover food stuffs, and this is basically the same thing only the food is much bigger and awkwardly positioned. Because I became incredibly frustrated, I do not know whether this product actually works, I've heard it may, but that's certainly not a rousing endorsement.

I've used window insulator kits for many years. I've tried pretty much every major brand, and 3M used to be my favorite. The quality of the tape and the plastic film always seemed superior. It would stick well, but removal was easy and rarely resulted in damage to the paint on the window frames.Over the past two years I've noticed a dramatic difference though. Every brand I've tried but one now uses inferior double sided tape that just can't hold up. The plastic will literally just pop free around the edges after a day or two. The only solution is to use a layer of outdoor weatherproofing tape over the edges of the film once everything is in place.Finally, after going through five brands, I decided to try out a bargain brand from one of the local hardware chains and found that brand is still using a quality tape, but inferior film. So I've ended up mixing and matching to get a workable solution. At the prices now being charged for these window kits, it's really sad that such steps are needed.

I bought this as a gift to help my mother and she has used this product for years. But she said something was different about the tape this time. Well now all of the plastic keeps pulling off the windows she can't keep it on no matter what. I'm very disappointed She cleaned the windows and the frames like always.

Sealing windows is something I do every year. I’ve always stuck to cheap plastic and weather tape. This year I thought I’d try the prepackaged deal just to see if it would work. Yet, I would of been better off buying plastic wrap and duct tape. The “scotch” technology is worthless and did not stick. Used on painted walls after I thoroughly washed with soap and water (left 15 mins to dry). Don’t waste your time.

Extremely difficult to use. You will spend a lot of time and the most time trying to get the paper cover off the tape, a procedure that is expected to take seconds, but frankly can leave you giving up in frustration, never to get the cover off. Long fingernails required. You know how when the scotch tape sticks to the roll and what a pain it is trying to find the edge and peel it off, well that's what you have here, and in spades. If you want lots of frustration this is the product for you.

super difficult to apply on bigger windows

I'm really disappointed in these. I put up window film inside my house every winter. This is the first time I tried this outdoor window insulator kit. I followed the directions exactly......and 6 of the eight window, the plastic has come undone from the tape so the plastic is just blowing in the cold wind now. I'm going to try another brand next winter.

The included adhesive tape is too narrow and not sticky enough. I installed as instructed, and woke up to the window film on the floor. The tape was still stuck to the window frame, so was not a problem with the frames surface... it just doesn't stick to the plastic. Try another product, this one's a dud.

Complete garbage, don't waste your time or money on this trash. The tape that came with this isn't even strong enough to hold up a thin sheet of plastic. I used some gorilla tape to hold the sheet up. This thin sheet of plastic does nothing to stop cold or drafts from coming through your window. I ended up using a foam insert on the window and threw this waste of money in the trash.tldr: get a foam insert for your window. It's cheaper faster and actually works unlike this product.