Although wood windows look nice, they do come with a price. They usually arent as air tight as the high end vinyl offerings such as soft lite, okna , or sunrise. wood absorbs moisture and that can warp the sash just enough for more air and also rot the wood. Bear in mind low end vinyl easily warps as well but not the higher end. heat can also dry out a wood window. Also, wood windows dont have as much weather stripping as higher end vinyl or some of the engineering features such as an interlocking sill. Extruded products offer a wider variety of energy efficient features opposed to wood. integrity windows do have a basic wood interior. that said, with the right conditions, very very cold temps, ive actually seen very high quality windows have that problem. Its rare but it can happen given the right conditions. i can see it occurring in the chicago or dakota area.

I was looking at some of my old posts, and wanted to post the solution to this issue, in case others have the same. In my OP I mentioned that I had talked with 2 painting contractors. Well, "three's the charm". The 3rd contractor, which I hired, told me painting the stile of the sliding glass door was not a problem, and would not need the panel to be taken down. He said he uses a narrow offset paintbrush to get into that space. This guy definitely was experienced. He painted the stile like he said, and his arm/hand were so steady as he went behind the panel to the stile with the brush (sliding door was ajar), and it looks perfect. No need to take down the panel. Here is a pic of the kind of paintbrush he used, though his was narrower and thinner.

corten, what are your priorities in choosing a window? I do like the Integrity option that WoW mentioned above, however I'd qualify that recommendation by saying that is IF you value a wood interior over high performance. Most wood and fiberglass windows (with the exception of some Canadian brands) are a bit lacking in performance, particularly air leakage. If the appearance of vinyl is acceptable to you, a premium vinyl product will likely offer the best thermal and structural performance that you can find, and do so at a lower price point comparatively. Below is an actual testimonial from a client of ours, I've only obscured the brand of the window that she chose so that this does not read like a commercial: "In replacing my windows, I first tried Marvin Infinity fiberglass double hung windows in one room. I hated them from the first night because the air infiltration was very high, the top pane would drop slightly letting more cold air in, and the fiberglass conducted the outside cold. I replaced the Marvins within a few months with the ****single hung windows, mainly because of the low air infiltration ratings, and because it was the only high quality single hung in the area with the .01% air infiltration rating. After living with the **** over the winter, I was pleased enough that I replaced the rest of the windows with **** single hung. I have been very pleased. Customer Service after installation also has been very good" Again, the Integrity and to some extent Infinity are good windows, just make sure that they fit your goals for the project, which to some degree is form over function... Just some food for thought.

Update: I went with the Andersen 400 with 8 full divided lights, and it was installed today. Much to my shock and great dismay, while the "frames" of the doors are wood, the centers with the divided lights are all vinyl. In other words, as expected, the exterior of the door is all vinyl, but the interior is part painted wood and part vinyl. I'm incensed! Why would I pay the added expense of wood if I was okay with vinyl grids? It looks awful to me, and I can't believe they think it's okay to use 2 different materials on the interior. All the seams where wood meets vinyl (and the many small gaps where they're supposed to meet) are jumping out at me. The place where I bought it said they'll have their Andersen liaison reach out to me when he gets back from medical leave. Has anyone else dealt with this and had Andersen make it right? Is this some recent product change? I paid almost $4,000 just for the door, and almost as much for installation. Grrr!!