Caribcarol, Lowes vs Pella Store are very different when it comes to pricing. The Pella store will be much more. Also keep in mind that the Pella Stores are not affiliated with Pella the window manufacturer. The Pella Stores are owned and operated by a completely separate entity unrelated with Pella. They just sell their product and got permission to carry the name. So they are really no different than Lowes. As Mike told you earlier Lowes carries the Proline window with the LoE/Arg filled glass as their standard choice. The Pella Store doesn't use this as their norm to give the customer that rock bottom price. This gives them another sales tactic to mark up your window. The cost of having LoE/Arg added to your glass is really very minor. What they will charge you is different everywhere you go. It can range from $25.00 to $150.00 believe it or not. Lowes will by far give you a better price than most anyone else. Lowes is very limited on what they can get from Pella in certain cases. So make sure they can get what your looking for. It's hit and miss on their installers. You'll have to do some research to make sure your getting the best they can offer. Good Luck!!!

We are just finishing our kitchen remodel so haven't really used our new doors/windows. We went with Pella for the windows, specifically because we wanted the mini-blinds between the panes. The only reason we did not go with Pella for the patio door is that the screen is on the inside. There have been previous posts regarding that issue. At least several people have commented that, during a warm night with the door open, bugs congregate on the screen which has to be opened in order to close the door. Personally, I did not want to look at the screen from the inside. BTW, we have now had Pella service out here three times and have another call scheduled. Two windows arrived scratched, one mini-blind chord was broken upon delivery, and the mini blinds in one window are out of alignment. Also, one screen frame is out of square. We are about to replace windows in another part of the house and I will not go with Pella again.

There is a class action law suite due to the design of these windows. I had a pro out to my house and its not fixable unless you totally replace your windows. All my windows have the issue. http://www.freedweiss.com/Pella-ProLine-Windows-Investigation.shtml

Hi, this is not a "better" or "best" answer :-), just sharing our older research data. ProLine is Aluminum clad while Integrity is Fiberglass, so they are not Apple to Apple. Here is some 3-yr and 3-month old info: 1. Pella was using "rolled" aluminum at the time. Extruded Aluminum supposedly has more uniform strength and thickness. This seems logical. At a window shop, we saw a cross-sectional view of extruded and rolled. The difference was along the "bent" edges. The extruded had uniform thickness and thicker too. The rolled looked good on the outside but around each sharp "bend", we can see slightly thinner metal. Will this be a problem? I really do not know. 2. Pella uses Endura coating versus the Kynar coating to protect the Aluminum. Kynar is used on cars to protect against light chip, dent, scratch and to protect paint from fading. Kynar is supposedly better but I am not chemist. :-) We do have experience with Kynar on our door. After wind whipped gravel smacked our doors, we could find no dents and no scratches. No first hand experience with Endura. 3. Fiberglass is a tough inert material and moves very little in heat and cold. It moves just a hair more than glass. Aluminum moves several times (5?) more than glass. Vinyl moves a lot in heat and cold, a large number of times (10?) more than glass. We opted for solid wood, so no first-hand experience here. 4. We found two reports (3 yrs ago) of fiberglass windows not working well at a UC Berkeley parents/homeowner's forum. One had to do with joint seperation/splitting. One had to do with seal failure. Forgot to write down the brand, sorry. At the same time, some 10+ homeowners happy with their fiberglass installation posted their positive experience. So may be just the 1% defect in the 99%? 5. Wife and I love wood so we are very picky when it comes to wood. Based on what we saw then, and taking directly from my old notes :-), Pella had noticeable gaps while Marvin seemed tight. Pella wood choices were ho-hum while Marvin wood choices had tight beautiful grains. If you plan to paint the wood, then it does not matter. We learnt at end of our research that there is really no "best" or "better". With all things being equal (Aluminum vs Aluminum, Fiberglass vs Fiberglass), we do pay for what we get. Cheaper competing models made with similar material are not always bad but manufacturers do have to compromise in various places to save cost in order to lower price. We, as buyers, just need to know where those compromises are. We can then decide if we should pay more for less compromises or pay less for more compromises. Nothing beats looking at and touching the models in person. Good luck to you both.