We are about to complete construction of our whole house renovation. We have an entire house of new Sierra Pacific windows and doors (25 windows of various sizes and 2 doors). These windows and doors replace 8 year old Andersen 200 slider windows, Andersen 400 french doors and Andersen 200 sliding door. We looked at various brands - from Marvin, Pella, Andersen, Kolbe, etc. We ultimately went with Sierra Pacific for a variety of reasons - our contractor, who used to build high end home developments, put in a lot of Sierra Pacific windows, and had overall positive experiences with them. Our architect, who designs mainly high end homes, specs out a lot of Sierra Pacific windows and has SP windows in his home, and had no problems with them (except for the handles). Ironically, our architect did spec out Andersen 400s in our house (that was when we were going to reuse the Andersen 200s in the back of the house). We were able to get the look that we wanted (simulated divided lights) in the grid pattern that we wanted, at a budget that was workable for us (given that we are now 15% over budget on our construction, I'm glad we didn't spend more for the windows). Finally, when we compared window performance against various brands, they were within range of each other, and they were going to work ok in our relatively mild climate here in the SF bay area. I also stopped by the SP showroom and customer tech support center one day and talked to a lady who handles some of the customer calls. She told me that in general, most of the calls she takes in are for customers who had issues with the handles, weather stripping, etc. or minor things (of course, take that with a grain of salt since she works there and can tell me whatever she wants to disclose). However, her comments, along with my home developer turned contractor (in the recession) experiences in installing many of these windows, have helped us feel comfortable. The windows are in our house now, although we are still a few weeks away from completion. Some things in general about the windows from my personal experiences 1. on the doors, handle operation felt different that with my previous Andersen 400 french doors. It wasn't as smooth, and had a more clunky feel to it. The same was observed with the operation of the locking mechanism. It wasn't a rough operation, it just didn't feel as "substantial" as my old Andersen. This is not a comment about the quality, longevity, but more about the feel as compared to my old Andersen. 2. We had casement windows and awning windows (no sliders). We never had casement windows before, so I have no basis of comparison with our old Andersens. The crank operation was easy and smooth, although I wasn't crazy about the handle design. It also was very easy to latch the window shut once the window had been closed. the handles were not all solid construction, but rather metal sheet that has been rolled and formed into a handle. That may be why the tech support person said handles was an area they get calls on. 3. One thing I wasn't sure about, and it seemed a little suspect to me, was their "leaf" weatherstripping at the bottom of the window. It didn't seem to me that it could keep out the drafts, as it looks rather insubstantial... I realize with the windows latched shut (especially with casement windows), you would get a pretty solid seal against the elements, regardless of this leaf weatherstripping. That said, I don't know have any first hand experience with this potential area (since we haven't moved into the house yet). 4. at the corners where the aluminum cladding comes together, the joints were in general well done. I noticed a couple of windows where it wasn't as nice and clean looking as the others, but it does seem to be well sealed. 5. a little bit of a nit, but in most of the windows, the mounting flanges were powder coated just like the aluminum cladding on the window frame. There were a couple of windows where in one section of the mounting flange the powder coating was thin or not there. The mounting flange is going to be hidden and covered by the trim boards, so it doesn't matter anyway, but I would have expected the painter to just paint it so that every square inch of the cladding, whether hidden or not, is coated.. (that's just me). 5. Overall, the windows seem well built, although I can't comment on the design. So far, I'm relying on my architect and builders experiences on longevity and it seemed to be working ok for them. 6. Although SP offers a lot of different color options for the aluminum cladding, I found that in our case, we weren't looking for a radical color and that we could have found something similar with the other windows that would have worked for us. I think for us, it came down to how much more we were going to get for the additional cost of going to Marvin and whether that would be worth it to us, versus spending that money somewhere else for an upgrade. Ultimately, we felt that given our climate and the window design we had, the SPs were good enough and that going with other windows wouldn't have given us a noticeable increase in value. Hope this helps.

Pete, I can understand while you might initially find that distasteful. Protect from price competition? Kind of. Not nearly the full story though. Let's say that you made a widget, and your widget was better than others on the market. You spent a lot more money researching and developing your widget, and spend more on materials and labor to produce the widget. This widget needs to be installed by qualified individuals to work properly. Now let's say you are in an industry where any Joe blow can become a professional widget installer with no certification or training and there is a very small initial investment needed to start a business widget installing. Basically any drunk with a hammer and a tool belt can do it. With all of the time and money that you have spent building the brand and quality of your widget, wouldn't you want only highly qualified, vetted, reputable, and financially stable widget installers putting in your product? Of course you would. You would not want people to think poorly of your widget because of a jabroni installer right? This is what you will find with nearly all high end window products, and for that reason. Does that limit price competition? To some extent yes. It limits it to companies that have a good reputation and volume, and have to charge a minimum price to be able to sustain that. The neighbor guy that works for beer money cannot get it. Whether you believe it or not, that offers some protection to you as a consumer in addition to helping the dealer of the product as well as the manufacturer protect their brand. Why can Pella and Andersen sell to anyone then? Because they have built their brands into household names many years ago when there were far more cratfsmen, and fewer rip off artists. You can certainly find a ton of bad reviews about each of them today, however their reputations were cemented long ago for the most part, whether deserved today or not. This is also why most of the other manufacturers that are available anywhere for anyone to buy, are not very good. They are made to meet a low price point, and they know that there will always be a steady supply of people that buy on price alone. That is their niche. Okna and Sunrise and other high end products operate differently. Frankly if you don't like the way that is done, you are severely limiting yourself when it comes to quality choices. Lastly, are there companies that take advantage of exclusivity? Sure. Sometimes they do that without the manufacturer protection if they are shady enough. I know of a company that sold the same window that was $189 from a national chain for over $1200ea by just making up their own brand name and brochures. Pretty shameful. A patio door equivalent would be $5k for a mediocre door. Again, $2500 for a very good door is reasonable.

Moisture between the glass would not be caused by poor installation. Rather, it would be caused by a defective manufacturing issue or due to some type of unusual situation where the normal wear was affected. For instance, extreme variations in temperature due to orientation or something going on regarding the interior of your home. I design and specify windows for homes in Florida almost all of them on the water or close by. Sierra Pacific offers a 30 year warranty on its 2605 finish and 20 year warranty on its patented Coreguard wood treatment and I would consider those windows. Andersen performs well too but they reduce their 20 year warranty to 10 years when on the coast. In my 40 year career, I have had great success with Andersen and SP and would run away from Pella if you are looking for an aluminum clad wood window. Just my opinion based on more than a hundred installations.

My problem is that I loved our custom made plantation shutters in our front window until the green windows happened. I leave the shutters open now, have taupe curtains hanging in the windows between them, and I’m on the fence about taking down the shutters. I’m still mad. And to add to my anger, we had a “new” window hire at Lowe’s (we discovered was fired months later) who insisted we could only get new Pella 350 in equal halves instead of the larger size on the upper window, replacing exacwhat we had. This changed the look of our beautiful custom shutters, which no longer were set at the proper position of the openings for the new windows. UGH!!!!!!!! Sorry for venting….