For those that don't rec'd JW, my question is are these impact/hurricaine resistance windows?

What do you mean ristah? Jeldwen does offer Hurricane Impact products, still not worth much in my opinion but this sounds almost 100% like an installation issue.

Giving Jeldwen a chance to fix a design flaw in their premium Atlantic vinyl windows before I post my story on every builder / home improvement blog on the internet.

Jeld Wen has horrible customer service, and the quality of the products is poor. I would highly recommend using another brand.

I completely agree with Kristi Brink The product is very poor. and the customer service is just as bad. I understand the employees are probably very frustrated getting so many complaints and they refuse to do anything about the poor quality. I have been trying to get a rep out to make my door knobs work but they find every excuse not to come! The door knobs constantly fall off so I am forced to enter by using my garage code.

Please don't hate me but we have been nothing but happy with our Premium Atlantic vinyl jeld-wen windows. No issues such as ones mentioned in the forum. They look great, had good price point, and are easy to clean and open. They are installed at our house in Santa Rosa Beach, FL.

what about the Jeld-wen Bow Window? I need my old bow window replaced on my 1969 Ranch -front of house in KY, I was about to order the bow through Probuild in KY. Now after reading these reviews I scared to do it. The window price quote is approx $1.000 cheaper than MI brand and Alliance brand for similar bow.

Anything Jeldwen is awful. And hanging out in the bottom of the barrel with MI and Alliance Brand I am afraid.

We had a horrible experience with Jeld-Wen windows. Very poorly manufactured with oozing sealer coming out between glass and frame, rough and ugly seams, poor alignment between double-hung windows that prevent them from locking, failure of the spring mechanisms for assisting with window raising and lowering, scratches and surface defects on the wondow frames, condensation between the dual-pane glass. We had the Tech back onsite so many times that Jeld-Wen finally reimbursed us for the total cost of the windows. Even free, I hate these windows every single time I try to open or close them and am considering ripping the whole sorry pile of junk out of my house and replacing them with something else.

We bought 16 white Jeld Wen 4500 premium windows and 2 sliding glass doors. They arrived in a Lowes delivery truck with corner and bottom protection, and in great shape. They were true to size, installed nicely and look great. They replaced 43 year-old aluminum windows that were 1" less deep, so we had to redo the interior wood-wrapped trim. One cam lock was broken upon arrival, which is our only complaint. We would buy em again, but they have yet to be tested over time. Only paid $6000 for all of the windows & doors, because Lowes gave us a non-profit discount - 10% over cost. Praise the Lord!

Please report back in about 5 years. We would like to see some more long term feedback. Helps given a full picture of the product.

I ordered my front door through Home Depot & door they installed from Jeld wen was warped!! I paid HD up front & still waiting to get my unwarped door & winter is here!! Had to put paper towels in cracks to keep wind out, just getting the run around & very unhappy !

We just built a new home using Jeld-Wen wood doors and windows and spent nearly $100,000 on products. After immediately calling and asking for help to resolve small issues, we've experienced horrible customer service in trying to address what I consider to be small issues i.e., flush mount bolt for our front door, window flashing that was never delivered/installed by the builder and damaged hardware as a result of Jeld-Wen service tech visits. I would never recommend or use Jeld-Wen again for my next home - huge mistake. After contacting the CEO recently for help, no response - that says it all.

This is when using a good contractor comes into play. Most good contractors won’t use Jeld-Wen, they also don’t leave homeowners trying to resolve supplier problems. If you were playing the general then I could understand.

Do not buy jeld wen. We put in our new house built in September 2016. Rep came once the first year and replaced some seals. Still junk. ice forms on windows and have to put towels everywhere even with indoor humidity at 20%. Reps won’t even talk to us now.

research research!! Don’t buy cheap and get many opinions. Jeld wen is like used car salesmen. Sell you with promises then Drop you.

20% is way low unless you are subzero temps. That is unfortunate.

Jeld-Wen windows are the worst, absolutely the worst for customer support. Avoid buying these windows. It took 3 years to get a Jeld-Wen service person to correct poor window installation issues and when he did arrive it took two days to get the work completed. Up to that point we were using masking tape and foam strips to stop the snow from entering the home on many of our casement windows. This was a brand new home with $60,000 invested in triple pane windows! Avoid this company like the plague.

Sorry to hear of the difficulties. Did the builder give you "options" for windows or was this a track home development?

That is a hefty window schedule to be certain. Sorry this has been a crapstorm.

No, it was a custom home on a private piece of land. The builder took me to the show room, and they did a little presentation on the windows in a conference room. The builder said he wished he had these windows in his home. I trusted him and the rotten retailer who has been absolutely rotten about the whole situation. I also was overwhelmed with everything that had to be done at the time to research any further. It's a huge amount of work to shop and select everything when building a house. I'm not complaining because I'm very grateful for the privilege to build a house, it was very unexpected, but there's a lot more to it than a person would think. I'm noticing a few more windows that are getting the spots on them. Sigh. Thanks for asking.

I know this is an old post, but I just had to add my experience with these windows. I bought a cute remodeled bungalow and the owners proudly pointed out the new windows in every room, which was a selling point. they are absolutely the worst windows. I've lived in 100-year-old homes with the original windows and the home I sold with replacement windows and never before has my house been so cold in the winter with cool air coming through the seams and the windows themselves being ice cold. There is no noise protection, and or heat protection. I'd be better off duct taping plexiglass in the frames. I am a woman and don't install or know much about windows, but I immediately knew why I was freezing in my house and that these windows were inferior to any I've ever had including the windows I put in the house I sold.

I have been selling windows for years and they are terrible. The mitred corners look like puffy white caulking. Also, they only hire people as reps that have no experience in windows so they can fill there head with lies about their product. They hired a flooring guy that worked in our store and said it was better that he was a clean slate. When I worked at Depot, I would steer people to Milgard. When I worked at Lowes, I steered people towards Milgard or Pella. They're cheap and can only be good for use in a quick flip.

"When I worked at Depot, I would steer people to Milgard. When I worked at Lowes, I steered people towards Milgard or Pella. They're cheap and can only be good for use in a quick flip."

And JELD-WEN would differ from Pella how?

brand New fixed units with nail fins, taking on cups of water between glass and flimsy vinyl seal. POOR design, not sealed. Poor craftsmanship Trying to leave reviews, on the class action page, and of course it's not allowing me. Don't you love it when they tell you your email is already being used. But no place to tell them, you know it belongs to me. Packed up the job on thursday. A 2 month job. On Friday we had our first big rain storm in a couple months. Owners called and said water flowing in. Vac'd out of interior channel and could watch the water flow in like it was on a faucet. Meant it had to go down the glass, behind a weather-strip, into a 1 1/4" channel, 3/4" high, same set up as a slider, and have enough pressure to push the water up the channel, and into what would be the screen door channel, and fill up. The same vinyl extrusions for a slider are being used as the jambs with these units, as they are the same size as one half a slider so the grids match up Thinking I'm done. I'm now looking at 5-6 very long days to install ne units, And why would I want to install the same units. These pages are loaded with class action suits for similar problems. I can only imagine what the rep is going say. I don't want the same poor quality units. Who pays for all the other 400 in material. My labor? And then I go knowing my customer is getting a raw deal. TO properly fix. I would have to buy all new slider, side lite windows to match, 3' x 6'8" , 2000 alone. All the other material from my pocket, and all my time. Stressful not knowing how far jeld wen will go to back their product. And I can't find the class action complaint page.

"Stressful not knowing how far jeld wen will go to back their product."

Oh I think deep down you know how far they will go to back the products. They have proven it time and again. If they actually gave a dam there would not be multiple class action lawsuit pages.

"And JELD-WEN would differ from Pella how?"

You're kidding right? Pella may not be the best window available but they are much better than junk-wen.....like comparing a Hyundai Pony to a BMW. That's a completely misleading comment.

They are not that far off from each other depending on which line you are comparing. Until recently with Pella releasing the Reserve line Jeld-Wens top line was superior to Pellas. The Pella Designer series is as garbage as it gets and the Architectural series is about 25 years behind most similarly priced windows.

"They are not that far off from each other depending on which line you are comparing"
No offense but I find most window recommendations good or bad are from distributors that either sell or don't sell a product. That's why I typically like to hear from contractors that use all windows or from homeowners experiences.

There should be a full disclosure clause here; if you sell the window you are promoting or vice versa it should be stated. I've been told by sales people representing the most horrible windows on the market that they are top quality because of xyz...yet when you look at the homeowner experience it speaks volumes. Take a look at Pella reviews vs JW, of course some people will complain about anything but I would say 90% of the feedback on JW is negative and maybe 30% of Pella feedback is negative. Look at this thread....maybe the JW line you are speaking about is better quality...maybe...but look at the experiences shared here. Terrible customer service coupled with defects and mismeasurments will equate to a bad situation regardless of the quality.

Pella does not make quality windows or doors. Any decent contractor knows this. Would I choose Pella over Jeld-Wen, I probably would based on customer service. However there are other companies that make a better product for a similar price which is why I don’t see any value in Pella or JeldWen. For example Andersen and Marvin are are better options for sure.

"Pella does not make quality windows or doors."
I'll have to agree to disagree. From a value perspective I agree with you, Pella is expensive for what you get compared to windows from Anderson, its apples to oranges as Anderson is a wood window manufacturer in my opinion...I wouldn't use them for a vinyl hybrid. There are many local manufacturers, depending on where you live, but I think the Pella 350 is a quality window and I know several contractors who agree.

Pella 350 is objectively not a good window.

Would like to hear some opinions from non window salespeople on what windows are posdibly worth purchasing & why. Reading lots of horror stories is stressful when we are trying to actually figure out what windows to buy. Thanks.

Grande1124 - "Pella 350 is objectively not a good window." Just because you use the word objectively doesn't mean that's actually the case, typically when laying out an objective argument you state the facts on which your argument is based, otherwise it just seems subjective. So why are they not a good window? I'd also like to know, do you sell windows and if so what brand?

Ceavig - do your own research. There are many good window manufacturers that may even be local to you. Don't take the advice of sales people or contractors that have a relationship with a manufacturer. In my opinion they always put down everyone else's windows except for the ones that are the most expensive because they know their windows will be so much cheaper you won't go that direction. Read reviews, everyone has bad reviews but you can see some manufacturers have nothing but bad reviews....ie JW. We have had Pella and LePage...both were vinyl and great in our opinion. They are a little more expensive but you get what you pay for. I'm pretty sure Grande sells or installs Marvin from his posts and he is forth coming so take his advice with a grain of salt.

You are the one promoting the Pella Window incessantly on here. Perhaps it’s your motives that should be questioned. There is absolutely nothing particularly impressive about a Pella 350 series window and I challenge you to tell me what the positives are.

If you insist on going Vinyl there are far superior options over Pella. Soft-lite, Sunrise, Okna to name a few. Anyone that has any window experience at all is well aware of this fact.

The 350 is dated with its pocket sill design, bulky profile and lower performance numbers. Contractors develop a relationship with manufactures/ brands for a reason and a good contractor would not be using the 350 since there many options that are better and at a lower cost.

Pocket sill is a NON-STARTER for me when there are so many good windows with sloped sills.

Grande - I'm not promoting Pella at all I'm just offering my opinion as someone who has used them and from contractors I've spoken to. To say they are garbage is contrary to what I have experienced and heard, of course there are better windows and there are also personal preferences involved. However I would bet that you are a window salesman and your comments should have that disclosure so people can understand what your motive is.

Comparing JW to Pella is laughable...just look at the comments on this thread. I also steer clear of anyone stating something as fact...with no eveidence to support their "facts". "Anyone in windows knows this, it's a fact" is a very adolescent type comment. If you don't like Pella fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but try to state reasons other than obscure comments packed with innuendos.

I am not saying Pella are the best windows, I'm saying they are decent and in my opinion I would use them over JW just from a support perspective. I don't know the other windows you suggested but I did say there are many local manufacturers that offer good alternatives...perhaps those are but I personally don't know.

I already stated I would choose Pella over JeldWen overall. However as has been expressed on here by many others, the 350 series is just not a good window at all. If a Builder is telling someone it’s a good window it’s because he’s capitalizing on the brand name in order to maximize his profit. Most homeowners don’t no any better so the sales pitch is “I’ll put in Pella 350 series windows, they are better than the 250 series. The customer figures they are getting a good deal. I see this all the time, happened a lot when Andersen owned Silverline too. I am not a Window Salesman, at least not directly as in I do not sell windows to Builders or Homeowners. I am in the window Industry but prefer not to divulge who I work for on Social media. Not saying you but people are crazy stalkers these days.

millwork and Grande which casement widows offer the best bang for the buck. looking at Marvin fiberglass. LocaLocated in Ohio

New construction or replacement? Marvin fiberglass (Essential or Elevate). Okna, Sunrise or Softlite in a casement window will offer better performance values. What were you looking for the interior to look like? Wood or a white finish.

New build All white in and out. Thank you for commenting

I would probably consider one of the vinyl mentioned above first.

Two and half years old and supposedly coastal series. Pure unadulterated junk. Even Andersens out perform and thats the pits folks. Not to mention warranty? did I just mention ”warranty”? Biggest misstep ever made.

I had JeldWen premium Vinyl windows in a house in N. cal for 10 years with no problems.

Pete E

If you claim you had no problems with JeldWen Junk, Im assuming you have’nt lived in your home for 10 years?

Peter E

If you are claiming that you had no problems with JeldWen junk / garbage windows, Im assuming you have’nt lived in the same home as the JeldWen junk ?

I purchased and installed a Jeld -Wen V-4500 slider in 2015. The outside slider window just shattered no reason . Called customer support for warranty. They said it's not under warranty. I won't buy or install anything from Jeld wen ever again.

Not sticking up for Jeldwen here but no one that I am aware pf warranty's breakage like that on a 10 year old window.

+1 @millworkman

Most companies have no warranty on Sliding Glass Doors because of the manner of use and the fact that they often take flung rocks from lawnmowers which would not be the fault of the door.

Many will have a 1 year glass warranty against breakage which would cover about 99% of the instances in which there might be an inclusion or stress crack that is on one of the cut edges.

10 year old, could be any number of things, but it's unlikely it was a defect that just manifested in this case.

Like @millworkman , not a JW apologist, but I am not sure you would have gotten a different answer from ANY supplier in this case, let alone them.