Anyone Familiar with Enerlux windows?
I have been scouring the net for info on fiberglass window manufacturers and I have gone to see a Marvin Integrity install, Alpen install, etc., but in all this time of looking, I had never seen the name EnerLux until today. I am not sure why, other than they look to be very small.
I see very little when I search, other than a few videos on youtube that try to show off the strength of their product. Their energy efficiency claims look great, but not listed in the NFRC site so I am not sure where they get the info. I plan to call them tomorrow, but wondered if anyone had used them or dealt with them before. They are in Nebraska. The product looks to be of very high quality with their method of joining miters, the Cardinal glass options, dual or triple pane, insulated frame, Kynar coatings–impressive on paper(or monitor, in this case).
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Found a bit more--it's listed here as a startup looking for investors http://www.invstor.com/users/paul-vonderfecht
For those who may come along later--I have spoken with the company extensively and talked to a dealer. I am very impressed. They appear to want only the highest quality in every facet of the window. The frame and sash seem indestructible. The Kynar paint is the same used on metal roofing, so it should be tough. The hardware is German(Roto). They offer many of the Cardinal glass options. They are going to start spray foaming the interior of the frame/sash so every void is filled. They even offer to send you a full casement window(smaller size) for $175 which goes towards your purchase if you go with them, or return it and they will give you $125 back. It's a leap of faith to do a purchase, but they do seem to be freaks about quality. I am waiting on a quote to see where they land price-wise. I have a Marvin Integrity and an Alpen 625 quote to compare.
Hi Kevin -
I'm starting to research fiberglass window options for new construction we're hoping to start in Spring 2018. Would you be willing to share some of your analysis with me on the Alpen vs Marvin vs Enerlux? It would be greatly appreciated...thank you!
Nik
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Email sent Nik
Hi Kevin,
Did you end up going with Enerlux and if so how did it turn out?
Thanks,
Rich
Kevin,
Not sure if you are building at an altitude over 4000' or not, but if you are, be sure to check on whether or not the argon gas will be available. When I was doing windows for my home at 8000', I was shocked to be told by Marvin (and others) they would not ship that high except with air fill only. I went with the Alpen and have been very pleased with all but the paint. In fairness to that though, the sun here is really wicked.
My series were 525-S . Non-operable are u-.15 ,operable u-19, which I think is the same as the 625 you are looking at. Faded paint aside, I greatly enjoy being able to sit next to 3 windows in the breakfast corner without feeling like a vampire is sucking out my body heat.
Kevin, wondering what you ended up with for your windows, and your experience.
I too am wondering what Kevin or Nik ended up with. I am starting a new home construction in Wisconsin and am trying to decide between Enerlux, Marvin or Alpen.
I know it’s been a while but how was accurate Darwin for shipping and lead times and price. I also live in Wisconsin and have been interested in fiberglass windows. I feel like duxton, accurate dorwin, and enerylux are about where I’m at just curious if you wouldn’t mind elaborating more on your experience with them.
I'm looking at Alpen and Enerlux for the north side of my house after getting Marvin Essential fiberglass on the south side. I'm not disappointed in fiberglass as a window material, but I am disappointed in Marvin fiberglass windows. The aesthetics are AWFUL on the Marvin's. The entire base of the awning window is ABS plastic -- cheap look and feel and whiter than the fiberglass. The entire top of the lower sash on double-hung windows is ABS plastic! The screens are the cheapest possible garbage they could get. The white of the screen frame is whiter than the stone white of the fiberglass. And the screening material is cheap polyester. making the view through them terrible. A big name and expensive price tag does NOT equal quality. And, the customer service is terrible. Before I purchased the window, I asked the local sales rep and Marvin customer service if there was vinyl or plastic on the windows beyond small parts and seals. I was told no. I'm now looking to re-screen all the screens and get replacement parts for the plastic sections so I can take them to a wood worker and see if I can get them fabricated out of wood. A window person told me the mull piece that joins two double hung windows is "hideous" -- two fiberglass sections that sandwich an ABS plastic section running the vertical length of the window. He suggested I cover that with wood. I posted about my experience on another website, and Marvin dealers jumped all over me about how I didn't do my job to research the windows thoroughly (because, of course, it is the consumer's fault that a product is misrepresented and generally crappy!).
Dot - Thanks for posting. It's hard to get specific information like this.
I just installed Enerlux on my entire house build. My initial idea had been to use Pella (my local construction team liked them), but Pella's prices were outrageous for my trapezoidal clerestory windows, which made Alpen and Enerlux both actually more cost effective. I have to say that the people at Enerlux are amazing to work with, super friendly and helpful, and the product is great. We had issues with my project I won't bore you with, but they stepped up and took care of everything without issue. You can't go wrong with Alpen either, they are a top notch company with top notch products and they have been around a long time. Alpen has more choices in window styles than Enerlux, but for equal specs, Enerlux will likely be a tad cheaper of the two. BTW, the Denver construction market now hates Pella, as they have devolved with horrible customer service issues, delivery issues, quality issues, etc.
Andrew - the Enerlux windows are appealing. Did they have any issue with the Argon or Krypton sealed windows shipped to Colorado (> 5,000 ft)? Are you in Denver or a higher elevation? I didn't see anything in their warranty (or other descriptions) about gas fill and high elevations.
Hi John, All our glass comes from Cardinal, which has a 20-year warranty for seal failure. Additionally all our products that are manufactured for high elevations come with breather tubes installed in the glass unit to equalize the air pressure between the panes to that of the air at your elevation.
Word, preach brother…
I ended up getting Accurate Dorwin windows for my house that I built last year. Could not be happier. Great service and the windows performed flawlessly through the last two years.
I am so glad I went the route that I did.
I'm looking to hear more about Enerlux windows in particular vs Alpen. I'll be building at 11,000 feet in Colorado with 11,5000 HDD and will have a large south-facing window wall. We are in the drafting phase right now. I'll be posting for input soon, but would love to hear more about Enerlux and Alpen. Thanks!
I was needing to replace windows in a house that was damaged by a hail storm. Those that have installed Enerlux windows, what are your thoughts?
Leaving this here for anyone who might be searching for info on Enerlux in the future. I recently had all the windows in my house replaced with Enerlux. Overall, I would recommend them. Feel free to ask me anything.
Can you talk to me about the look and feel? We're building, and Enerlux quickly got me quotes that are slightly below Marvin Elevate triple-panes w/ Argon fill. Builder likes Marvin because he can get them through his local dealer, but I've heard not great things about the finish on their fiberglass windows.
What was the communication / shipping process like w/ Enerlux?
The look and feel are both top notch. They are weighty and very substantial; nothing flimsy about the build. The casement hardware is nicely understated (depending on color choice, I suppose) and quite low profile. Our final two contenders were Enerlux and Marvin Infinity (no idea how those compare to the elevate line) and I would say they are comparable in terms of finish from what I could tell and both are superior to Pella’s replacement fiberglass offering in that regard. Enerlux offered what I believe are some minor advantages over the Marvin, like thicker IGUs, foam-filled frames, Flex-screens, etc. - at a slightly lower price point.
Communication with Enerlux was good. We went through one of their partner installer contractors so most of that as well as shipping was handled behind the scenes, but I did contact them directly prior to contract award via phone and email with some questions and they are very responsive. Really what you might expect from a smaller operation - call up, get a human, get transferred to the right person, have a nice chat with a knowledgeable representative. I’ll copy an excerpt from one of the emails below. I think it speaks volumes.
Our order shipment did get delayed due to delays at the glass factory. No fault of Enerlux - they use the same IGU mfr (Cardinal) as all the top window brands. There were a couple other issues as well, one a result of miscommunication between Enerlux and the installer contractor and another that was Enerlux’s fault. They addressed everything in due course.
One thing to note: the WOCDs they use, while arguably the best in the industry, are borderline incompatible with the window design. Most of mine don’t auto-engage like they’re supposed to and the middle sash seal on one window had been cut by it. Again, they addressed it best they could by sending replacement parts and the contractor did their best to adjust them into proper operation. At the end of the day, I just don’t care all that much though because I’m not constantly disengaging them for it to become a nuisance.
“Ryan,
Any small issues that might possibly come up (hardware, weatherstrip, etc.) we will just send to you with no problem at all. EnerLux is committed to our customer service and product quality. We will take care of any problems that are relative to our product. We have never left any single customer in the dark, quite frankly I would be more worried about the big brands and their customer service rather than EnerLux.”
Are these windows easy to retrofit install? How are they holding up. Did you get a sliding door from them as well?
I don’t have a point of comparison for ease of install, but I’ll say “sure”. It was a two-man operation and I witnessed several of the installations and nothing about these windows seemed to make the install any more or less difficult than what I imagine another brand would be. Except for maybe the weight, which is primarily a function of the IGU. Our installer didn’t remove the sashes to install the frames of the operable units, which he could have elected to do, and that seemed to make the hinge side screws a little more of a challenge and obviously retained the bulk of the weight, but was faster. On a retrofit, the degree of difficulty will be mostly determined by the specifics of the house (e.g. condition of the salvage frames, plumbness and squareness of the opening, etc) and the finish work required to ensure water-tightness of the building envelope. There simply isn’t anything that complicated about installing a replacement window itself, be it Enerlux or some other brand - shim it plumb and level, screw it down, and seal around it. Done. Then comes the work of covering your tracks and making sure water can’t get where it’s not supposed to.
They’re holding up great! They are just over a year old though so not sure how much we can read into that. But, I don’t find anything about these windows that would lead me to believe that they won’t be at least as long-lived as any other brand. In other words, I can’t think of much they could do to make them more robust, and I can be very critical.
I did not get a sliding door from them or anyone. But their video (I consumed every bit of media I could get my hands on) about the special heavy-duty Australian-made rollers they use as well as my experience with their windows would put them at the top of the list if I was in the market for one.
For anyone interested in pricing info, Enerlux quoted me ~5-10% less than Pella or Marvin for similarly-performing casements + sliding glass door. Builder spent a long time on the phone w/ them and was impressed with their reps' ability to answer his questions. We're building with Zip R-12 and will need deep window extensions, and they took the time to give him lots of info on how to flash and seal things appropriately with their units.
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A little anecdotal thermal performance data for you:
We recently had some zero degree nights, and being as all the info I could find about proper window interior surface temperatures was based on zero degrees ambient, I decided to take advantage and break out the multimeter and thermocouple. What I found from a couple of sources was "A standard double-pane glass window holds a temperature of approximately 44-deg F when it is 0-deg F outside. High performance windows will be able to keep your windows around 56-deg F."
So I taped the thermocouple to the inside pane of a LoE-27o IGU in an operable casement and let it reach equilibrium between the 0-deg outside temperature and the 69-deg inside temperature and my reading alternated between 57 and 58 deg. So pretty much right where it should be, or maybe even a little better, for "high performance" double-panes. I then taped it to the window frame, waited for it to stabilize, and it read 65 deg.
I don’t see Anderson A series mentioned here much. How do they stack up to the above mentioned windows.