<p>We are going through the misery of window replacement in our home. Right now there’s only a couple that absolutely must be fixed, but we can tell that we eventually are going to replace a whole lot of windows. We’re attempting to fix many of them with rotting sills, but we know it will just delay the inevitable. It’s going to be very expensive.</p>
<p>Our house gets a huge amount of exposure to rain, the windows get blasted because there are no awnings. The windows there now are wood, and we’re trying to match them. We’re thinking the best option is the Milgard Essence windows, with aluminum exterior and wood interior. It seems like the optimal way to match the current windows, but still be really durable. We considered vinyl, but these windows seem more appropriate for the house. I have looked at several brands, but Milgard has an awesome full lifetime warranty and reputation. They sell mostly on the west coast, and are one of the leading sellers over here.</p>
<p>I don’t want to only listen to window dealers, as they are just trying to sell their product. What do you think, am I wasting my money here with a more costly window, or is it worth it?</p>
<p>My S tests windows for a living. He says Milgard are among the best. Our house has them-they are 57 years old and not s problem with them (although they are not wood). We had a problem with one of the locks and they were able to tell S exactly what to do and what replacement piece he needed even though this model is no longer made. I believe they are more expensive than most, but he said they are worth it (for me).</p>
<p>57 year old windows? That is amazing. And the windows they are making now, with fiberglass exteriors, can last forever. Not that I’m planning on living that long, but I don’t want to keep replacing them. We have some old Craftsman (?) wood windows that have all sorts of rot on them, as the old wood windows weren’t that good. A house with 57 year old windows is a good recommendation.</p>
<p>We went with Milguard because they claimed they had a lifetime warranty–it was NOT worth ANYTHING! Shortly after they were installed, the aluminum pins which held the screens in place all corroded and had to be replaced. After that, many other parts rusted. We kept trying to get someone from Milguard to help us get new parts and honor their warranty. They FINALLY sent someone after we called them for YEARS. He took a look and wrote up an order of the parts he said we needed but said that he would have someone call us about the warranty that he did NOT think applied. Sure enough, we were called by Milguard and they said that they would NOT honor the warranty for ANYWHERE in Hawaii because they consider Hawaii all a highly corrosive environment!</p>
<p>We said, fine, we just want the parts and will pay. They shipped the parts–not ONE of them were suitable or fit the windows in our house! We complained and asked for a RMA so we could return them. They hemmed and hawed but finally gave us the RMA and said they would give us a full refund, including postage both ways. After several months, we finally gave up and had the CC reverse the charges on our CC for all of this.</p>
<p>H did a LOT of research and was finally able to locate some of the parts we needed to fix the windows. The windows in our house that were installed are only about 10 or 15 years old. They have NOT fared nearly as well as the original stainless steel louvers that were in the house when we purchased it over 25 years ago. The crank handle housings for the awning windows are made of cheap pot-metal and just fall apart and corrode. The sliding windows are OK, but the awning windows have definitely required a LOT of research by H and a lot of repairs and maintenance.</p>
<p>H got the window replacement parts from a 3rd party vendor. Probably away from salty environments like HI, you should not have nearly the issues we have had. Perhaps Coralbrook and other remodelers can weigh in with their experiences. Our neighbors got some other brand the other year and have already had to have the company come in and make some repairs as well.</p>
<p>Yikes, I think you got completely ripped off, HImom. What a crappy experience. I can’t believe the people you bought the windows from told you it was a lifetime warranty, when their warranty clearly excludes Hawaii, and any house within 2 miles of saltwater. In fact, I’m kind of surprised that dealers in Hawaii actually even sell Milgard, because a big selling point and reason for high prices, is that lifetime warranty. I don’t know if you can actually blame Milgard for that, though, I think the dealer completely lied to you. What kind of windows do you have, what material?</p>
<p>Our neighbors have Milgard, and the few issues they’ve had over the decades, they just put an online service request in, and they come fix the window, for free. If we have an issue, we want them to come fix it, not ship us the parts. Many of our windows are too high for us to safely reach, so it’s not like we can replace them ourselves.</p>
<p>Himom, Wow, that is such a different experience than we’ve had. It gets pretty darn wet in Seattle-and though we have awnings, that sideways rain gets everything soaking wet. But we’ve not had any leaking. OP, the former owners of our house were the original owners and kept every single receipt from anything ever put on or in the house, upgrades, remodels, etc. (including the light bulbs, lol), so we know when they went in and they’re still keeping us dry. </p>
<p>That is incredible, sseamom. Especially the light bulbs…seriously? Wow! But better too much information than too little. We have so much exposure to the rain with no awnings, I can’t believe our house hasn’t rotted around us. Yet. But I guess salt water is a completely different animal. I don’t know what kind of windows you get for that, maybe titanium windows!</p>
<p>I just don’t want to go through this every ten years. I don’t know how long we’ll be here, maybe until we can’t walk up the stairs. Who knows, maybe 20-30 years. It is a high maintenance house, but at some point I hope my husband will actually be willing to hire someone to do something whatsoever around here. </p>
<p>Actually, Milguard only excepted Hawaii from their warranty about 20 years ago, but we bought the windows AFTER the exception, unbeknownst to us AND the contractor who installed them. We will never use them again, but our contractor swore he never had any problems with them with all his installations in CA and other places. He was very unhappy that we and others had so many problems with them in HI and would NOT recommend them for HI.</p>
<p>I am fortunate that H is handy AND a good researcher. He was able to track down the company that makes the parts that are re-labelled Milguard and has been able to slowly install these parts. We were shocked at the awful customer service and the fact that their own rep didn’t even recognize that the parts he was trying to order for us would not even FIT in the windows we have! It was about the worst customer service we’ve ever experienced, bar none. </p>
<p>We had been considering replacing all the windows in our home but have decided we can’t do better than the original stainless steel louvers that are original in this house that are likely about 60+ years old and no longer made. Out of ALL the windows in the house, only two of them nave a slightly broken part in 60 years, which to me is MUCH better than anything on the market these days. We told Milguard we would strongly recommend AGAINST them after our horrible experiences with them and they didn’t seem to care at all.</p>
<p>Our windows don’t get rained on and don’t leak so much as rust, corrode and have parts that literally crumble and fall apart. They don’t get rained on but we live less than a mile from the ocean, which hasn’t bothered our stainless steel windows at all.</p>
<p>That is terrible. I would be enraged if I paid extra money for the service and the warranty, and didn’t get it. I do think, though, that the blame lies with your contractor, though the product was obviously poor. He should have known that the warranty did not apply, and shouldn’t have said that it did. He obviously did not know that it was a poor product for your area. A Milgard certified dealer could have never gotten away with claiming there was a lifetime warranty, and they would have known better than to do so. Your experience is completely opposite to anything I have ever heard. If there’s a problem with a window or a part, they just have to come and fix it. All the information about your window should be in their computer system, and they should be able to track down any part. Or replace the entire window.</p>
<p>Preventing this situation is why I’m thinking about going through a certified dealer. It would probably be a better deal if we got a contractor to put them in, and just bought the windows wholesale. But I worry about installation issues, which I’m sure are not covered by the warranty, just by the contractor (if you can get them to fix it). Though if you have a certified dealer install it, they have to fix it.</p>
<p>Were the Milgard windows stainless steel also?</p>
<p>I can ask my S if he can recommend a dealer. You’re in Seattle, right? The testing he does is mostly commercial at this point but he still might have a suggestion. He worked for Anderson about a decade ago and I know they handmade each window, and tested them as well before installation. I don’t know about their rep though, only what he did at this branch.</p>
<p>We have Peachtree windows in our house. They are wood inside, vinyl outside…and are 20 years old. They also came with a lifetime warranty. However, I know that our particular windows are no longer made by the company. And the sizes are just a tad different (I only know this because ten years after building, we wanted to match a set of windows in our finished lower level…nope…they don’t make that window…or that size anymore).</p>
<p>Anyway…my point…the vinyl exterior really is durable, and unless you go up and tap on it, you would have no idea it was not aluminum, or painted wood. They look as nice now as the day they were installed 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Thermal pane with argon between the pains, and low E glass.</p>
<p>I’ve always used Andersens with no issues. My parents had Marvin casements and people managed to break the cranks remarkably quickly in the guestrooms. I don’t like the diagonal seams in most vinyl windows - even Pella. And everything else about Pella windows I love! Have never seen Milgard.</p>
<p>We are just soured on windows in general after our experiences. Our contractor said he only installed Milguard in the many homes he built in CA and other homes he build in HI. He was surprised at how much trouble we and other HI homes had with them, as that had not been his experience in CA. He no longer does residential & has switched to only commercial. We were friends with him & his W and D–before this installation. We have drifted since and no longher socialize at all.</p>
<p>I’ll bet your contractor is embarrassed by the difficulty, HImom. I hope he has stopped installing Milgard in Hawaii now. I’d imagine the commercial projects are an entirely different deal.</p>
<p>We had considered the Pella and Andersen windows, but their warranties seemed pretty limited in comparison. We would reconsider it if Milgard is far more expensive, but I haven’t gotten quotes for those yet. I have never heard of Peachtree.</p>
<p>Vinyl was our first choice, but if we eventually have to replace some of our bigger windows, that could be difficult. I guess vinyl can sag for the larger windows. One dealer came through and said he absolutely wouldn’t use anything but the Milgard Essence, the aluminum exterior, wood interior. I started to believe him because he decided he didn’t even want our business, and wouldn’t write an estimate, as we’re starting with only two windows. Not worth their time.</p>
<p>Sure, we would definitely appreciate a recommendation for a dealer, sseamom. We are a bit NE of Seattle, but definitely in the Seattle area. We’ve been getting information about dealers off of Angie’s list, but their prices are all over the place. Kind of weird, exact same product, with such a large range of prices.</p>
<p>Well, we had some low or no name wood-interior windows installed years ago, and they are wonderful. Much quieter in here! The guys that installed the windows (Polish men with AM Polish radio blaring throughout the install, LOL) trimmed them out themselves, using on site power mitre saws and decent quality pine wood. No sills. The variation in pricing might reflect that trim work, maybe. I know a guy that had to beat the bushes to get an Anderson bay window installed with the Anderson interior trim. The contractors mostly wanted to do the trim themselves.</p>
<p>We got one contractor in who wanted us to buy the windows, then him and his guys could install it. He said it would take a day to drive and pick up the scaffolding, and set it up, which we would pay for. The dealers are charging about 500 or so for each window installation, don’t even think it would save money to use a contractor. Plus we’d have to coerce the contractor to fix things, instead of just going online and making an appt for free.</p>
<p>Yes thumper, we won’t use that guy. We don’t really want to unnecessarily replace windows, way too much. Funny, though, he was the most informative</p>