Vinyl Sliding Glass Patio doors and Replacement Windows

Some vinyl sliding doors and replacement windows will last for decades with no maintenance other may cost hundreds of dollars in repairs.
After installing doors and windows in local homes for over 30 years, DP Door is uniquely qualified to help you compare various brands of patio doors and windows for your house.
Window manufactures all seem to claim they have the best windows and patio doors. Some promote their windows with great advertising but fall short when you ask them for service. Since our reputation depends on the quality of what we install we look past the advertised claims.
At DP Door we have tried many brands and seen them a decade or two later. We learned what to look for in quality and will share that with you. The 5 steps below should help you to compare different replacement window and sliding glass patio door brands.

STEP 2: GAGE OF TRIM The z-bar is the exterior trim that makes the replacement window or sliding glass patio door a true retrofit. It is about 20% of the cost of the door or window. Cheaply made doors and windows will have a flimsy exterior trim.
Bootleg doors and windows will not have a true z-bar but just a stick on vinyl exterior trim. (they use interior trim on the exterior)

All z bars are about the same width, it is the thickness that varies between manufactures.

A good z bar is at least 1/4" thick. Anything less is just single ply with no honey comb structure inside.

A single ply will bend giving an unpleasant ripple effect.

Brent of DP Door Co. Rancho Cucamonga installing a retrofit windows in a house. His right hand is on the Milgard z-bar exterior trim.

STEP 3:Residential Window Latch: Doors and windows in your home need to be safe but the lock can still look good. The locking device on some are the old replacement vinyl windows are lever and cam. The new built in locks are very nice. People actually will make a comment on how good the locks look.
Of course sliding the window and feeling how smooth it slides and locks is something no article can describe. Most vinyl windows will slide 10 times better then your old aluminum windows so even a cheep one may be a surprise at first. After the initial shock compare brands and you will feel and even hear the difference between high quality replacement windows and the mediocre ones.

This is a Single Hung Milgard window, a horizontal slide would look the same if you turned the picture sideways.

STEP 4:Dual Pane Window Grids; In wood windows they were called mullions. They are for looks not structure. Most are between the glass so there is no cleaning to worry about.

When comparing quality look at the joints were the girds intersect. There should be no more then a smooth consistent hairline space at the joints.

Look at the stock that the grid is made of. The material is made from a sheet of aluminum that is rolled into a bar shape. There is a seam along the length. The seam should be barley noticeable.

2nd Ave Upland job:

Even if you don't want grids looking at the quality of the girds will help show you the manufactures attention to detail.

STEP 5: Residential Window Warranties:

FULL LIFETIME WARRANT VS LIMITED LIFETIME WARRANTY

Dual pane windows in homes need a good warranty. If the seal goes bad and the glass fogs up, it is very expensive to replace.

What is nice about doing windows for 30 years is we get to see who stands behind their warranties.

Talk is cheap and the interpretation of warranties vary.

Example: brand A; Lifetime warranty, Brand B; Limited Lifetime warranty.

5 years after having your windows installed in your home you call your contractor about a problem. You find out your contractor is no longer in business. OK, so you call the manufacture who the warranty is with. They say they will come to your house and inspect it and give you a decision. Brand A takes care of the problem in about 2 weeks. Brand B refuse to help you.

Why? It's just the way it is.
In our experience our most popular brand (Milgard Windows) has by far the best customer service.

Other top brands are very good but some manufactures are just not to be counted on.

Milgard Windows Has the best warranty in the business.

Anderson warranty reads well, surprisingly some problems with customer service.

Jeld-wen is a good window but the warranty covers labor for only 2 years. Labor is the most expensive part of a repair.

Milgard has a Full Lifetime Warranty. In our 20 years of installing their product we have never had a problem with Milgard service. They have replaced windows that they really could have gotten out of. They should be praised for their generous policy.

Other brands have Limited lifetime warranties that do not cover the labor after the first 2, 5 or 10 years. The labor can be the major part of a repair, so when we see that a limited lifetime warranty does not cover labor after 2 years, we consider that a 2 year warranty.

Milgard Windows and Doors
Best in the door and window business

Full Lifetime Warranty
to original owner, 10 years to next owner.

Anderson limited Warranty
Well known name, one of the oldest and largest window manufactures.

Limited Warranty

20 years on glass, 10 on non-glass parts

Jeld-Wen Limited Warranty
very limited

From Jeld-Wen web site: [Skilled labor2
(where deemed necessary by us) to repair or replace any component is provided for two (2) years from the date of manufacture.]

Those are the 5 steps you can do yourself.

The next items are also important.

We have a info page that has a lot of perhaps boring information about comparing fiberglass, wooden, aluminum and vinyl patio doors and windows.

French doors: are part of Milgard's Woodclad and their new Milgard Essence collection. The Milgard Essence is everything we like about wood french doors and windows with a powder coated fiberglass exterior. The Milgard Essence is the state-of-the-art in windows and french patio doors. The cost to quality, durability and aesthetics makes it the best upscale window and best French patio door.

• Welds
• Exterior Trim Gage
• Lock & sliding ease
• Grids
• Warranty

Glass:

The glass is the most important part of the window.

It is why we have windows in our homes.

In the past the problem was that clear glass does not block heat from the sun. The old tints helped some but not a lot. 

Now there is low e glass.

Low-e is is amazing. It is a major break through in energy efficiency. low e blows away tints.

As unfair as it may seem the big guys get first dibbs on the latest technologies. So Low-e from Anderson and Milgard is one to two years ahead of other brands.

The name of the low-e is called a lot of different names; Milgard is SunCoat, Anderson is High-Performance Glass.
There is low e2, low e3, and low e4.

low e2 is very good, low e3 is stronger for harsh direct sun light, low e4 is water spot reducing glass.

Low-e Glass is made from Cardinal Glass and PPG not the window manufactures.

Get the type of glass in writing, you can check the shipper later to see if you got it. There also are tags on the windows that the installers will remove. If you pay for low e3 then the tag should say low e3.

If you're still not sure, put a white piece of paper behind the glass it should have a slight green tint the same as the windows in our showroom.

Spacer Bars;

The space between two pieces of glass is maintained by a spacer bar. These vary from manufacture to manufacture. There are many arguments on which type of spacer is best. The spacer bar is very important since a failure would cause the window to fog up and the glass would have to be replaced.

The number one problem with dual pane windows for homes is a failure of the spacer bar.

A failure will cause moisture to collect inside the window. This will stain the window.

Cheap windows have a high percentage of failure. Even the best windows have occasional problems.

You need a good window to reduce the chances of this happening. You need a good warranty that covers parts and labor just incase.

link to window index

Claremont office with Small showroom 909 625-6000
In the Claremont Village

Rancho Cucamonga Main Location with Large showroom
In the Sunrize Center   909 989-1477