Pretty Good Windows
Alright, so we are in the planning phase of overhauling our house and planning a new addition and would like to replace the legacy double hung vinyl windows. As a long time subscriber and listener to performance building content others have pointed us into the direction of European tilt and turn windows which seem like a great idea until you start to find and price them here in the US. Based on our research we have heard good things about Alpine, Zola, Cascadia, Interlux, and Intersign. My firs stop was to request a quote from Zola and the estimate came back at 35k so that’s a no go from our stand point. Has anyone else been down this road and have any recommendations for affordably priced energy efficient windows?
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We have shopped for windows for 2 yrs now and, within that span, have bought from four different manufacturers. By a long shot the most responsive, helpful one we encountered was ComfortLine Fiberframe (Ohio). I dont know if they offer tilt n turn configuration, though.
Yesterday I had an initial conversation with https://enerluxwindows.com/ near Omaha Nebraska. Their windows are fiberglass. For reference the guy I spoke with said a 36 x84 triple pane window with black/black was $985. However, they do not have anything that tilts and turns.
Look into Alpen windows out of Colorado as well. They do have tilt turn.
Good luck!
Inline Fiberglass makes Alpen, I believe.
I use Logic and Schuco uPVC triple glazed tilt/turns and have found them to be very reasonably priced. $35K could be a lot or a little, depending on how many and how large the windows are, and whether they are white or a color.
Michael, what would a Logic cost in a 36x84 ball park. Also what’s your opinion on the quality. I’m very interested in them.
Roughly comparable to a Marvin Elevate double-glazed window. They have several options so I would just contact them and ask. I have found their quality to be excellent, especially considering their performance and pricing.
Wasco Windows in WI has some tilt and turn, vinyl windows.
I went down that path and ended up buying Matthews Brothers (Maine) casement windows. Triple glazed 44" h x 72" w picture for $495 and triple glazed 44" h x 36" w casement for $405.
I got Pretty Good windows from Inline Fiberglass.
Thermal performance: great
Window operation: lackluster
Lesson: buy windows you can visit either in a showroom or trade show and try out the operation.
Fiberglass is a great alternative. I would trade some thermal performance for high quality function.
If you can't effectively close your window due to low quality operation, you're not getting advertised performance.
I guess the terms "pretty good" and "affordable" are somewhat vague, but for me the European triple pane are better than pretty good but not affordable.
Andersen 100 series casements will be a big step up from vinyl double hungs in performance with only a slight step up in cost. If you time it right Andersen runs some promotions on them and if you can stomach working with the orange big box store, open a free Pro Account and request that they "run the quote through the bid desk". Doing that saved me several grand on a window order a couple years back.