I strongly recommend extruded aluminum cladding instead of roll-form aluminum. Marvin stopped using roll-form aluminum long ago because of the problems with wood rotting when water inevitably ges behind a thin aluminum covering. Most high level window manufacturers did the same. An extruded aluminum cladding is essentially an exterior aluminum window grafted to an interior wood window. In some designs the interior wood is more of a cladding. Obviously, this costs more to fabricate. As far as I can tell, Pella still uses roll-form aluminum (with bad joints IMHO) for all of their residential windows and calls it "EnduraClad". This puts Pella a whole notch (or two) below Marvin and Eagle in quality. I can't tell you more about Pella because I stopped using them in the 70's. Marvin's extruded aluminum cladding is available in 5 standard colors, 14 select colors, and unlimited custom colors. One of the select colors is Hampton Sage. Many other manufacturers offer surprisingly similar colors. I like Eagle but haven't used them since Andersen bought them. I did have some leaks at the perimeter of the sash and at the glass on two jobs but Eagle was good about replacing the sash. I've never had any trouble with Marvin. 400 The Andersen 400 Series Woodwright Double-Hung is a good window but is in a category of it's own because it is the only plastic clad wood window (that I know of). It doesn't always save much but it is preferable to many cheaper windows. The other 400 Series DH window (the TiltWash) uses the same plastic wrapped frame but the sash is of such poor quality (painted instead of clad and thin muntins) that I will not use it. Prices for windows vary greatly from town to town and between different kinds of distributors/suppliers so it pays to bid with several big outlets. I would avoid Home Depot and Lowes because of their inflated prices, poor knowledge, sloppy ordering, poor service, and intentional lying about delivery dates. Find the three biggest independent suppliers and give them one chance to price the job (with a minimum of discussion, indecision and revisions; these guys are used to dealing with pros). A contractor will get a better price because the suppliers want repeat business and are more likely to trust them not to "shop" the job by taking their price to other suppliers to see if they can beat it (like Home Depot). Buying windows isn't like buying a used car; the good suppliers make a small percent profit and need to move a lot of windows fast. Here is what a Pella roll-form clad sash joint looks like:

The quote was provided in Somerset county, NJ. I asked for a price breakdown to door and windows, because patio door is a must and windows could be optional that is why they came up separate. Also any suggestion for a built-mini blind to the Okna Elegante door? Would it degrease the weather efficiency? I didn't find any discussion about the embedded mini blind in the forum.

Wow! Those prices are pretty impressive. I only got one quote, but I guess I should shop around. I've been going crazy too deciding on windows. I wasn't happy with the Pella product at all, especially the fiberglass - it has a wood grain look to it and looked really cheap to me when we went to see a house that had it installed. Anyway, we have decided to go with Marvin, but can't decide between all four of their options - Modern, Ultimate, Elevate and Essential. Previous owners replaced original aluminum single plane aluminum windows with terrible beige Milgard vinyl windows. I wish we knew what the original windows looked like to get a sense of the style. I doubt they were originally double hung in this home built in 1978. They are LARGE and they replaced with cottage offset single hung with the lower half smaller. The seals are all broken so need replacing. Now we are racking our brains - Do we keep the single hung? Do we go more modern with top fixed and bottom awning? Or go double casement? ...ugh too many options! I'm also scared of going black on the interior although I always think it looks nice in photos. Your casements look fantastic!

I am not someone who posts reviews on the internet, particularly negative feedback. But, given how much false information and untrue ads are out there for the “high quality” of Marvin, I have decided to do what is right and post my experience with them on a few websites, such as Houzz. Four months after we placed the order, Marvin delivered the windows. Some of the windows had obviously been dropped before delivery. Scratches on the outer frames and bumps on the inner side clearly showed that. We noted the issues as they were unloading the windows and took pictures on their truck. They may claim that they have good quality windows, but when they are dropped it basically does not matter anymore as the structure of the windows is certainly compromised. As for customer service, the windows were delivered in April and we notified the vendor and Marvin of the issues immediately as they were still unloading the windows. Four months later, we are still nowhere and nothing has been fixed. They just delivered one wrong frame for a window which we never asked for a fix and they are not even coming to remove it from my property. No word on when they are going to fix the windows. Total mess on their side and non-existing post-sale support. === Update of October 2021 I got an email from Marvin regional manager today; and it's the middle of OCTOBER -- 6 months after installation date. They plan to replace the broken sashes -- get ready -- in JANUARY NEXT YEAR. This joke is not even funny. Stay away from this company at all cost. They couldn't care less about you once they have your money. Go with anyone but Marvin. I mean, the worst thing that can happen is that you get broken windows and they never fix it --- well, that's Marvin.