I've never seen a lever handle on a Marvin patio door but if these are swinging French doors it is easy to believe that you need the additional leverage of a lever handle to make the locking mechanism work properly.

yes, these are swinging french doors. ok, thanks for your input. guess they are right and i have to just deal with this. thanks again, renovator8!

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!!!! You can get the Marvin Ultimate French doors without a lever. What is tripping you up here is the multi-point locking mechanism. Nix it and you can have whatever you want for a handle. The multi-point locking mechanism is what requires the lever style handle. We didn't care for how you could really damage your door frame if someone had flipped the multi-point lock with the door open & then tried to close it. Our Marvin rep then pointed out if we were willing to forgo the multi-point lock, then we could use a matching lockset to what we were using everywhere else in the house. So while we were planning to use Marvin Integrity windows, we were going to use the Marvin Ultimate doors for this reason (The Marvin Integrity door only has the lever with multi-point lock option). Bottom line--as long as you're using Marvin Ultimate French Doors & you're ok forgoing the multi-point locking mechanism, you can order the doors without it & use whatever handle you want.

Mydreamhome, thanks for this. How irritating that they never give me helpful information, but rather a brick wall! Anyway, can you further explain what you mean about damaging the door with the lock flipped--not sure I follow. Is the door as safe and tamper-proof without the multipoint lock system? thanks!

Since a French door is inherently insecure the multi-point locking system is primarily for a better air/weather seal which is important for an 8 ft door unless you live in a moderate climate.

Here is a link that might be useful: discussion of this issue last year

With the multi-point locking systems, you have the bolt that extends out into the secondary door (or door frame if you only have 1 door) at the level of the handle, you have a smaller "bolt" that extends out of the top of the door into the upper door frame and one that extends out the bottom of the door into the sill. When the lock is engaged, all these bolts are sticking out. If someone engages the locks with the door open then tries to shut it, the bolts slam into the surrounding frame and damage it. Walk into just about any showroom with French doors on display and take a look at the frames (especially the upper frame). That was one of Pella's selling points was that their mechanism was made to push back into the door if the lock was engaged with the door open and you then tried to shut it. After it was shut, the locks slid back out of the door and into place within the frame & the door is locked with no damage to the surrounding frame, sill or adjacent door.

If you're worried about not having a multi point system for security reasons, you can always do a regular deadbolt and slide bolts at the top & bottom. Typically the slide bolts will be much longer than the short little bolts on the integrated multi-point system for a higher level of security IMO. My thoughts on this is that its overkill--if an intruder wants in, he's going to find a way--odds are he will just break the glass and turn the locks whether multi-point or deadbolt. Plus deadbolts & slide bolts are easier to remember how to operate--there is usually a trick to engaging the multi-point lock system. I think with my Mom's doors you have to turn the lock a couple times then flip the lever up to engage the lock.

Your secondary swing door of the French door set should bolt in place. That's the biggest part of how the primary swing door is secured when locked.

Hope this helps!

Yep, it is for the multi point locking system. I don't have one on my current french doors and they are very insecure. The cremone bolts are pretty obtrusive looking. . . . I guess it depends on how many french doors you have, but I wouldn't want them on all of our french doors.

Actually, I wish I had multipoint lock systems going in my basement. We have fiberglass doors down there for cost reasons and it is a little concerning.

Even though I am not a lever person, the levers on the french doors are no biggie to me. I guess I see them in every magazine on every french door (all the higher ends one have the multipoint), and knobs everywhere else. I am a bit concerned about usage though - we aren't used to them and I don't want our doors banged up by teenagers who don't know how to open them!

"The cremone bolts are pretty obtrusive looking. . . ."

Unless you hide them inside the door.

The ones I have are inside the door and very insecure. The larger exterior ones would work better I guess . . . That brings up a good point though. If you forego the multipoint locking with Marvin do they substitute the interior bolts that other french doors have that don't have multipoint?

Multipoint locks sound pretty awesome. I have a ton of French doors and they really aren't very weatherproof at all, especially in a heavy wind or hard driving rain (or both, yuck).

I think one of the big reasons for a multi-point locking system on an 8ft dor is that it keeps the door from warping. We have them and have been told to keep them engaged most of the time to keep the doors straight. We had a couple of 8ft french doors that came in warped. Pella asked us to keep them locked for a while to see if they would straighten out. When that didn't help, Pella replaced the doors. I'm not sure what recourse we would have had if we nixed the multipoint locking system.

BINGO, you would have next to no recourse as I do believe the warranty an most doors now requires the multipoint for the door to be warrantied for warping, and or air or water infiltration. There is no doubt the multipoint lock is a much more secure locking door but it come with the price being that you need to use a lever especially in a 96" height as a knob will not give you the necessary leverage to properly engage the locking system. As far as damage from the hardware not being engaged properly think of the damage if the door leaks water from being warped or just in general as double doors are wont to do to your finished floors?

"We have them and have been told to keep them engaged most of the time to keep the doors straight."

No locking mechanism is going to be strong enough to resist warping.

See the link below for a discussion of how wood changes shape and size with moisture content.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chapter 3, Wood Handbook