What’s the deal with local-made no-brand vinyl windows?
Two shops nearby “make their own” windows. One of them I’ve been able to confirm use off the shelf parts from Quantex and/or Chelsea Building Products, but I’ve not been able to figure out who the heck those companies are and if they’re OEM to some more popular brands. All their products seem to have branding named after the shop that builds them, so none have any hits on the web.
These places have been open for 20+ years selling custom made windows. People must be buying. I hear murmurs on the internet that these shops turn out product better than Pella or Anderson, but I suspect they’re churning out builder grade product and I want to be proved wrong. There’s published ratings for the windows and those are fine and dandy, claiming u-factors of 0.3-0.45, some outliers as low as 0.19. I can’t be sure about fit and finish or air sealing from these ratings though. I can look in person but I can only get a gut feel, I can’t do any real testing. (Edit: Just found their air infiltration ratings are 0.06 vs 0.2 with Anderson. I don’t know enough to decide if I think that signals “quality sealing and proper fit”)
I’m not looking for passivhaus grade windows, but if these local shops turn out a quality product I would love to have them. Anyone have any experience with this side of the world of windows?
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Local "no name" vinyl windows, as you've described them here, presumably are using the data recorded and on file with the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) which is a government/industry association that uniformly tests all windows, regardless of framing material, for specific thermal properties: U-Factor, Solar Heat Gain, Visible Light Transmittance, Air Infiltration and Condensation Resistance.
In the early days of window testing, say from the 70s through the 80s, the industry used to be solely focused on air infiltration, but today, with windows being as tight as they are, this number has been relegated to a "pass/fail" on thermal and structural testing. Anything less than 0.30 cubic feet/minute/square foot is a "pass".
Full disclosure: I work for one of those "local no-name" window manufacturers, but we've been doing it for 166 years, so I'm a little biased here but my recommendation: buy local.
My understanding is that Cardinal glass makes the glass for almost all windows sold in the US.
While they do make IGUs for the major national brands, by no means do they even come close to making IGUs for even the majority of windows. Most national brands manufacture a set matrix of standard sizes, so it's relatively easy to predict what glass size you'll need on any given day. The local (regional and even national) window manufacturers typically produce their own IGUs because it's faster and easier, due to the wide array of (mostly custom sized) windows they produce.
The quality will vary a lot from one to another. We have a local manufacturer, and they have a pretty poor reputation. I think most windows you buy are going to be mediocre, because mediocre is the standard. The vast majority of end users don't care at all about the performance of the window, they think one is the same as the next. They just care about price, and how it looks. It makes sense that local manufacturers are going to mold their business model to cater to those customers, just like most name brands. A window with a U-factor of 0.45 is abysmal, in my opinion. Even 0.19 is pretty meh, assuming they are citing center-of-glass values (most do, because it makes it seem better).
So, based on your perceptions of your local manufacturer, you generalize about the vast majority of window manufacturers? Fortunately for the auto industry, you were not located near a Yugo plant!
Since "mediocre" is purely a subjective term, it's pointless to comment on your assessment, however you are completely in error with regard to what "end users" want (again, probably extrapolated from your own personal experience), how local manufacturers "mold their business" to this "local customer" (who apparently all want the same thing as the next "local customer"), your assessment of a 0.19 U-Factor as being "meh" (what, I wonder, would you consider adequate?) , and finally assuming why COG value is used when calculating U-Factor (it's used because, it's, well, the CENTER OF THE GLASS AND IS THEREFORE ALWAYS EQUIDISTANT FROM THE EDGES).
I seem to have a touched a nerve. I was not using my local manufacturer as a reason to generalize for the whole industry, but to illustrate the point that quality will vary. Ironically, you are the one who generalized that the OP should buy local, without any qualification, implying that there couldn't possibly be terrible local window manufacturers.
Meh means it's not particularly impressive in the context that it was put forth as the peak of the performance range being talked about. 0.19 u factor is fine; you can get a lot better and you can get a lot worse.
A window is an assembly, and given that the frame is actually the weakest point from a u-factor perspective, adverting only based on COG value is not the whole story.
I don't claim to be an expert on windows, but I have shopped for them on several occasions. My experience is that not only do they not advertise the U values, when you ask about them they act like you're talking about fairies; like you are the first person who's ever asked about it before. It's like pulling teeth just trying to get some specs. That's how I deduce that the majority of people don't care. And if no one seems to care about the u factors of the windows their shopping for, it only makes sense that the manufacturers aren't going to put a high priority on it.