"Has anyone dealt with Lux, Jeld-wen or Loewen? While we aren't necessarily looking for top-of-the-line (eg. Pella)" Lux is a mediocre at best product from what I recall, Jeldwen is lower than that. Pella in anything vinyl is on par with the Jeldwen. And Loewen does not make a vinyl product, a very good (high end) wood product however and light years ahead of Pella. If you truly want Vinyl, look at OKNA, Softlite, and several of the brands that are frequently mentioned here by the pros. Availability may be limited by your location however.

Vinyl certainly will come in at a better price point but may not meet the aesthtic that you are looking for. If that is the rationale for the move from vinyl, the question becomes is what is the other than vinyl look worth to you and how much of a premium can you stomach for it. The Marvin Integrity (wood - ultrex combo) is a nice looking combo and usually comes in that price range between nice wood and good vinyl. The wood interior is nice and it is a well regarded window by most who have used it. They did have some painting issues at one point, but that seems to be confined to a specific window of time. If you search for lkbum (poster on here), he had some wonderful pictures of an absolutely stunning waterfront build. I am still waiting to inspect the product when I go there this summer to vacation....ha!! I think you would be well served to look at that as well as maybe the Andersen 200 series to get a price comparison and see if you are willing to take the budget to that level. I agree with the past observations that the JeldWen is not preferable over those two options that I mentioned above. In vinyl, I would love to see something from Soft-Lite (Imperial LS), Sunrise, Okna, or Kensington Quantum 2. Those are all solidly built vinyl units that can be ordered in a new construction format. We provide a handful of custom builders around here with the Okna product from time to time for new builds or additions.

@millworkman So I'm not sure exactly how to explain it better, but I'll try again. This was verified by multiple companies that are certified Marvin installers, as well as a Marvin rep themselves. We have a home built in 1986 with 69 windows. Some of those windows are in rooms that have 5 to 6 windows across in a row. The original windows are made of wood, and have rotted out over the past 31 years. We are not candidates for inserts since the frames we have are made of wood and they are damaged to the point where they are not structurally sound enough to support a new insert, so we need full frame tear outs and installs. Does this make sense? Due to having so many windows in a row, and needing new full frame installs for these areas, we need to go with a company that makes a full frame product large enough to fit the space. If it was just a matter of fitting the frames with a new window insert we could use Marvin, but since the frames need replacing as well it is far more cost effective to go with a window that allows for a full frame tear out and install. Marvin does not make a full frame replacement that is 5 or 6 windows in a row (integrity/ultrex/etc). As a result, their product is not a fit for our particular house since they don't make a full frame product large enough for some of the applications. Everyone we spoke to said Marvin makes a great product, but it's better suited to traditional and more modern homes that tend to not have the large window arrangements (not floor to ceiling, just regular windows) that were common in the 80s. Whether or not they have good reason to make it or not I can't speak to... this is the house we have and we need a product that can accommodate it accordingly. Most people have said this is where Jeld-Wen shines, since their Auralast Siteline full frame wood replacements are high quality, have the same exact warranty as Marvin, and look great as well. After reviewing this site we called Kolbe as well and they are coming to the house in the next couple of days to look at our house as well. Just wondering if anyone has thoughts on these two products bc they're the ones that keep popping up as good applications for our particular house due to the number of windows as well as size of the some of the spaces.

The window brand is local to where I am, not a national company, and is called Elevate. The particular problems with these windows, which were vinyl (we are now getting aluminum clad), were windows out of square, broken window seals upon arrival, larger windows that sagged in the middle, latches (for locking closed) attached crooked, and interior gridlines off-center and cantered. This last one would be problematic under any circumstance, but in our particulate case, we have transoms that are not mulled to the windows below (they have a 6” piece of trim between them—companies check when the windows are mulled to make sure lines are straight), so we would have a window below that could be off 1/8 in one direction with the window above off 1/8 in another direction. It was easily visible to the naked eye and ridiculous looking. Finally, the biggest issue was that half of the windows arrived with no nail fins, although we ordered all with nail fins. We had taken brick off the exterior of our house so that we could install the windows with nail fins. The company has strongly stated that the problems were not usual, and did issue a refund, so I’m going to give them credit where credit is due. The could make immediate and responsive changes, since they are smaller and local, so hopefully they will. Apparently they had many quality control meetings after this situation and are looking to correct the issues. What have I learned from the situation that actually could be helpful to other people? Probably, in relationship to the suitability of the materials, I have since been told that vinyl windows are not very suitable when you have a very wide span. We have some windows that are 96 inches wide. I don’t know if that is true, but with the sag we saw in larger windows, I am guessing it has merit. All that said, I still find it incredibly difficult to find unbiased, helpful information online. I hear a lot of what is “good” and “bad”, but why specifically? I don’t find that info readily available. Like, why Sierra Pacific over Jeld wen (even though neither are preferred)? The extruded vs rolled aluminum? Anything else? Any particular things we should look for with casement windows that makes a difference? I am 100% sure that I could have made a better first decision had I really dug into it on my own—that mistake was on me, in part. I just wish I knew where to get educated.