The provia storms are very good. Price is fine, maybe a hair high if it does not include wrapping, but its a great price if it does. I agree overall with the advice provided so far on replacements vs storms, it really depends on the individual circumstances. It can be hard to justify spending that much without getting he other added benefits of replacements ( ease of cleaning, lower maintenance , potentially enhanced property value, better energy efficiency, etc), however if your existing windows can be reconditioned to the point of operating smoothly and looking good, adding the storm to that can definitely get you pretty close in those areas but with cost savings and maintaining the original integrity of the home. As wow alluded to, you could certainly take those dollars that you save and put them to air sealing , insulation , etc in other areas of he home and increase your energy savings exponentially.

Well...I am not sure Hurd is a great example of how a wood window should do, but if it were my home, I would be looking at something that is not wood for long term durability without any concerns. Fiberglass, composite, or vinyl fit that billing a bit more solidly than does wood.

In some cases you can not use an older R22 indoor unit paired with a newer R410a condenser. In many cases these kinds of conversions are a bit on the risky side, as you need 'SKILL' to do the conversion. You will probably lose a little efficiency because the system is not matched, but if you have a matched beautiful looking system you may not hit the efficiency numbers anyway if the work is done inadequately. Two sides to every coin, if you feel me. The efficiency you lose by not having a matched system is small provided that the install is done appropriately / line set sizing is adequate / duct work is adequate / system charge is done properly. All these things take skill and require knowledge. For obvious reasons, namely being the cost of equipment it can work. I have done this many times, including at a home I live at now (temporarily) as I make changes to this home as my heat load will be changing at this home. The other side of this is that older copper coils were made much better than anything today. If you put in a new system and the system leaks refrigerant in the indoor coil, your efficiency numbers are a pure myth with that of a quote unquote 'matched system'. So sometimes you have to read between the lines. I do not recommend 'ANYONE' buying equipment on line. If you buy it, the warranty (if needed) falls on you the buyer. Work of this nature stated in this post requires not only skill, but also in depth knowledge of ALL BRANDS of air conditioning equipment. Not just a select few. Because you don't know what to buy, it is never advisable to buy products on line. A fan boi, should never be used for services of this nature. I service the Katy, Texas area.

@dadoes good point and examples of plastic gears, seems likely an engineering decision to create a replaceable weak link to protect the mechanism similar to a shear pin. In the case of my machine’s common Maytag transmission, the aftermarket has a solution shown in the pic below. This seems to be the “shear pin” which fails. Not an easy job to remove and disassemble the transmission, and in my case replacing all 3 bearings and two tub seals was a good move given the age and hard use. Paying a pro to do the job would be cost prohibitive, but for a DIY’er it’s doable and cheap.