Acrylic vs. Hail

[Skip Talbot]

Does anyone have experience with Acrylic, Lexan, or Plexiglas and how well it holds up to hail? I'm building a housing for my camera and was wondering what thickness I should shoot for so that I don't have to worry about it cracking. The stuff should be much stronger than glass, but I'm wondering if I can get away with a 1/8" thickness as it gets considerably more expensive to double the thickness for large pieces.

 

[Greg Campbell]

How big is the window, and how is it oriented?

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

Skip,
I use the Lexan 1/8". It is stronger than the regular plexiglas and acrylic.
I have this on 5 different housings anywhere from 5" x5" up to 10" x10" and it has been beat with around 2 - 2-1/2" hail with no problems.

 

[Skip Talbot]

I was going to use a dome: http://www.cleardomes.com/domes.htm So hail stones will be directly impacting the top.

I'll probably be using a size similar to the 18"dia. x up to 9" high size. You can see it gets quite a bit more pricey to double the thickness on those.

 

[cedwards]

I just ordered domes from cleardomes.com. I ordered the 1/4 inch thick dome. I will be using it as a roof-cam on the van. The main use will be for the webcam. I ordered one spare dome in case of hail impact. The lexan is considerably more expensive and I would be more worried about scratching on it. I can replace the acrylic dome 7 times for the price of one lexan dome and every replacement will be scratch-free.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Those are the guys I was looking at, Charles. It looks like we are on the same page as I'm also planning on mounting it on the roof of my van. If its alright I'll be asking you some questions if and when I get stuck.

Yes, I agree that acrylic is the way to go. Its not as impact resistant as lexan, but acrylic is clearer, scratches less, and doesn't turn yellow from UV exposure. I'm just worried about how I'm going to keep the rain and dirt off of it.