Choosing High-Performance Tilt-Turn Windows
Hi all,
I’ve been trying to find some window options that have tilt-turn as one of the styles they support. I’m in climate zone 5 (near Chicago) with all the bigger windows pointing south. This is what I’ve found so far.
* Zola – expensive, 18-20 Week delivery, U of 0.12, unknown SHGC
* Mavrik – unknown expense, unknown delivery, U of ~0.13, unknown SHGC
* Inline Fiberglass – not too expensive, 11-12 week delivery, U of ~0.15, unknown SHGC
* Broga – not too expensive, 8-10 week delivery, U of ~0.18 or 0.11, 0.4 or 0.25 SHGC
* Marvin – DQ’d, received word they are discontinuing their tilt-turn line.
Any of the windows would either be aluminum or or clad wood, trying to avoid pvc for thermal expansion reasons.
* Zola would be great (depending on final pricing), but that time frame is a bit long. Longer term support seems to be there for them though.
* Mavrik, (previously Prossimo), doesn’t look like there’s too much history here, so longer term support is a concern.
* Inline Fiberglass – Bigger company out of Canada, some reviews for longer term support indicate some issues.
* Broga sounds good but they have no history. The limited reviews look good, but the company was literally incorporated earlier this year. They seem to build out of Belarus.
Any personal experience with these (or other manufacturers) would be appreciated. Specifically about their ongoing support. Thanks.
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>Any of the windows would either be aluminum or or clad wood,
Inline, as the name suggests, is fiberglass -- but that still meets the "not PVC" requirement.
I'm finalizing an order with Inline now. It's been a bit slow so far, but not a bad experience. In terms of SHGC, they use Cardinal glass (though they make their own IGUs) and can offer at least combinations of LoE-180, 272, or 366 for the same price (i89 would be "significantly more" when I asked about that).
There's a handful of other Canadian fiberglass manufacturers -- from my brief experience asking Cascadia for information, I'd say they were very responsive and their product looks nice (they use Inline-manufactured profiles and Cardinal IGUs, but seem to be a slightly higher quality tier than Inline overall). Leadtime is currently 4+ months for them though, so that ruled them out for me.
In terms of clad wood, I also had a good experience talking to Cembra (https://www.cembra.us), an importer of Rieder windows from Austria. Their website doesn't have a lot of information, but the guy who runs it (Thomas) was very responsive to my inquiries and the pricing was competitive -- unfortunately I had to step down to fiberglass rather than clad wood due to overall project budget constraints.
Thanks, going to take a look at cascadia, their site seems to have the right info up in front.
Marvin dropping production of tilt-and-turn would seem to suggest a canary-in-the-coal-mines signal. The long-term support would appear to be a bit iffy: clearly, Marvin's support is now compromised (for those who'd previously bought their tilt-and-turns from them).
Margins aren't good enough. Figure that the costs vs more conventional windows is resulting in "consumers" shying away. Although I haven't yet costed out windows for my build I am starting to re-think tilt-and-turns (which I was sold on). I am going to put casement windows and fixed w/hinged transom windows as a Plan B.
Some folks have noted that tilt-and-turn imports from Europe can be cost competitive (to US versions).
Ya, I'm looking at imports, the Broga windows seem cost competitive, my main worry is long term support from any import.
For the record, I did get a quick budgetary quote from Marvin on their tilt-turn line early on. It was easily among the most expensive clad wood option, and almost double some of the quotes I looked at. It also wasn't clear if they supported full-thickness triple pane IGUs.
And to think of folks who shelled out for the Marvins to then see that Marvin has discontinued them.
Much has to do with the volume of production. Demand is low due to the majority of US builders building cookie-cutter boxes: their volumes are what the window manufacturers focus on.
I received a quote for clad wood Marvin T&T's and it was 300% higher than reputable T&T's from European manufacturers.
I looked at tilt-n-turn but the deal-breaker was that they open inward. So they take up space on the interior of the house and limit where you can put furniture.
You are right. It is a trade off exchanging the interior egress for the energy efficiency and longevity. I like outward opening casements, but I hate the failure-prone crank operators that often are the first thing to go on a window. This is in part to the operator complexity of the crank mechanisms, and also the wind shear on an outward opening window. I wish we could get outward tilt/turn windows, coupled with a pull-down shade style screen!
I'm an American living in Europe. Most people here use the tilt option on a daily basis. This operates like a hopper window. So it projects only a fairly small amount into the space and not at all at the window sill level. The turn option is normally only used in order to get at the outside window pane, for ease of cleaning from inside the house.
we supply high performance European Windows & Doors.
We are located in NYC but we do supply all over the USA, We have NFRC & Passive certified Windows & Doors made of Upvc, Aluminum, Alu-Clad & Wood.
Lead time around 12 weeks.
Don't hesitate to contact us if you are looking to get a quote for European tilt & turn Windows.
Visit our site for more information:
https://www.albaeuropeanwindows.com/
[email protected]
(718) 678-7401
Does that include shipping? I'm hearing at least 4 weeks just for shipping from Europe to NYC Metro
Take a look at Alpen.
https://thinkalpen.com/products/tyrol-series-windows-doors/
Made right here in the USA. I have two windows from them. When a part turned out to be missing, they immediately sent a replacement. Good email support, and nice guys. And they've been around awhile now. Surprised they're not already on your list.
I would avoid Marvin. When I looked into it at the time there was a lot of grumbling on forums about bad support, busted deliveries, and fishy sales folk.