A few years ago there was a defect in the glass produced by the company that supplies most of the glass used in residential windows. It affected the entire industry. Andersen sourced their glass from the same company so there is an era of Andersen windows that is prone to seal failures and losing the argon gas. Apparently argon has extremely small molecules. The elements in air have larger molecules. The coating on the glass was porous enough that the argon could escape as the gas heated and expanded, but the larger environmental molecules were too big to replace the argon. Eventually a vacuum forms and the seals can break. In extreme cases the window itself can break. I knew a house (not with Andersen windows) where the homeowner kept getting broken windows. He thought he was being targeted by some hate group or something. Eventually the window repair guy was in the house as a window broke and he was able to track the problem down.

With the larger reputable companies seal failures are 100% covered by warranty and changing our the sash is a piece of cake.

We bought a house with a brand name double windows and doors, some were colored and nasty looking but I didn't worry, they were lifetime, then I called the company and they said yes we installed them, they are lifetime for the ORIGINAL owner, you outta luck jack.

Millard did similar to me, they said yep, they are lifetime, but we started that after your house was built.

I used a local company to just replace all the window units that were either broken or foggy.

Bill

If they did honor the warranty, they probably would pro-rate the old ones for value, and take that off the full retail of the new ones. SmileWavy

didn't have to worry about that, original owner only. we won't be using them when we replace the windows, I think it is Millguard, or something close

I like Pella because of their warranty and factory support. The Anderson factory guy I had to deal with was “unhelpful” to be charitable.

Was his name Tom? Kind of a biker sort of dude?

I just did 48 windows from Pella with integrated motorized blinds, the windows have a lifetime warranty; well as long as I own the house anyway. Pella was nice to work with but it took a lot of installation appointments to get to the final all done day. They made some pretty silly mistakes.

Ha ha! No, I don’t remember his name. My carpenter was having trouble getting a door plumb he said the stile was twisted or something. Anderson dude came out. I had been doing electrical work and had an old cheap our foot level leaning against the wall. My carpenter was late arriving. I explained the problem and Anderson guy laser focused on my level. “You can’t treat a level like that. It won’t be accurate. Need to keep it in a case. You can’t trust a level that’s sits around. Look, it’s got dried cement on it. You don’t know whether this is plumb or not.” The he looked at the door and pronounced it straight and flat. The instrument with which he determined this was ... my level.