We put white plastic verticals in our entire house in 1988 as a "temporary" window covering. We took them down last year when they started cracking. LOL We looked all over for different window ideas. I like contemporary, and I wanted the panels (like vericals, but wider and can't be turned on an angle), but at the time they were very expensive. We had a plantation shutter guy come out and give us a quote, and it was about the same. One note, I had called Sunburst Shutters first, and then saw a special at Expo. (Calling them myself directly turned out to be the cheaper route.) We decided that these would add value to our home, be beautiful, and easy to take care of. We were right. We love them. We plan to add some dummy curtain panels to the ones in the family room, and the living and dining room. Our sliders have big panels that slide to either side. They are awesome. We have three panels in the LR, and one in the FR. If you have wall space on either side, you could stack them and have the whole slider open. The only one I don't absolutely love is the one above the sink because he made it an acordian. I don't like the way it opens, but it was the only way to do it because of the cabinets. I just open the slats and I get lots of light. I like no covering over the kitchen window too, but because of privacy and security, I chose this. Splatters just wipe right off. All of the others can open up all the way to either side just like outside shutters. Here's a picture I took of it the night before our granite install. It shows it the best. Take a look at the morning sunrise. This is the only view of the kitchen nook. Here you can see the sliders. They look great with the slats open, or we can open it by sliding one or two panels. ...and for fun, here's my view from my computer right now. It's Florida...it almost always looks like that! Good luck with your decision!

They are correct. Most SGD with internal blinds have neither soft-coat low-e or an argon fill. Some do come with hard coat low-e but the blinds tend to offer the client much of the shading control and therefore control the heat. That is probably the biggest complaint (minus just malfunctions and failure) we get around older patio doors - heat and bleaching the floor.

If you already have a double pane door, the problem may not be the door. Before going into expense of adding another layer of drywall to the walls and ceiling and replacing the door, I would check other things. Like bathroom exhaust fan ducting...is it insulated? HVAC ducts. Plumbing vents. Gaskets on all the exterior wall switches & receptacles as well as ceiling lights. Recessed light cans? Pull a piece of door/ window trim and check that the space between the jamb and framing is insulated.

We are in the PNW and our architect recommended the Marvin or Western, which has a telescoping door system. We went with the Western door (3 panel) and saved money. We also did a flush threshold. The framers need to make sure to account for this so don’t let them forget it. Despite us telling our GC multiple times, the framers ended up having to go back and create the threshold lower so it would sit flush. Since you are in the PNW, you should account for rain on the threshold. Our door is under a covered porch so rain isn’t an issue.