Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

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wfswanson
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Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#1 Post by wfswanson »

I'm looking to replace every window in my home in Rhode Island. I have 16 doublehungs, 2 large bay windows a garden window and a slider. I've gotten multiple quotes from different vendors but Alside Excalibur seems like the best deal for the value. I have a reccomended installer who I like a lot and friends that can vouch for his work. I need some help however with the quality of the window. Can anyone provide some feedback on the folowing?

1.) How is the Alside Excalibur vs. compeditors? Who else should I be looking at?
2.) How are Alside's bays, garden windows and sliders? (these are big investements that I want to get right)
3.) I've read a lot of mixed feedback on this board about Alside windows - some love and some hate. Can anyone with good experience with Alsidee vs. other windows give me an honest 1-10 grade of the Excalibur?
4.) I went into this thinking I wanted Anderson windows, but all I could find for replacement windows was the Renewals. They were way to expensive. Are there other Anderson's I should be looking for in the replacement market? If so, how do they compare price wise to the Alsides?

TheWindowNerd
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#2 Post by TheWindowNerd »

IMO almost every pro on the board will tell you to look for a better window.
I recently did a house of Excaliburs, someone else had sold this homeowner on the product, so I gave him what he asked for after presenting two better windows, one of which was the same price as the alside.
After we got done putting them in the HO had serious misgivings on the product QC. I reminded him these were not the windows i reccomened. All is well for now. The pocket sill is a bad design.
Keep looking, try soft-lite windows or simonton.
Andersen does have other product and distribution channels for replacement windows, call a couple of local roofing and siding supply yards.
If you want wood insert windows you can look at Pella, Marvin, Andersen, Eagle to name a few, these windows are more exspensive than vinyl.
For less exspense and best thermal specs vinyl will be the ticket.

wfswanson
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#3 Post by wfswanson »

Excellent feedback, thanks for taking the time. I'll check out your other reccomendations. Any favorable opinions on Alside out there?

Skydawggy
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#4 Post by Skydawggy »

anthony wrote: I recently did a house of Excaliburs. The pocket sill is a bad design.

The Excalibur does not have a pocket sill.

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Windows on Washington
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#5 Post by Windows on Washington »

Ultramax is the only Alside window I know of with a pocket sill.

windowsnj

Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#6 Post by windowsnj »

one of the reason that i do not put much stock into some of the posters is because the excalibur does not have a pocket sill as Anthony wrote. and the response from wfswanson was "excellent feedback". i am not picking on anyone but homeowners read a post and that is what they believe whether it has merit or not.

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Windows on Washington
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#7 Post by Windows on Washington »

windowsnj wrote:one of the reason that i do not put much stock into some of the posters is because the excalibur does not have a pocket sill as Anthony wrote. and the response from wfswanson was "excellent feedback". i am not picking on anyone but homeowners read a post and that is what they believe whether it has merit or not.
I wouldn't invalidate Anthony as a resource of good information because he probably misspoke about the Excalibur vs. another window.

I assure you that a person that deals in windows quite a bit, I sometimes get things mixed up even today. I don't think that makes me a bad source of information.

The Excalibur is a sub-par window, so Anthony was dead on about that at minimum.

Skydawggy
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#8 Post by Skydawggy »

Cut Anthony some slack here. He is a valuable contributor to the site. We all make mistakes sometimes.

TheWindowNerd
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#9 Post by TheWindowNerd »

I am sorry! I did confuss the Alside models.
The sentiment, advice and story are all true. It was Ultra Max that I did install, though the HO misgivings were not about the pocket sill, yet, just performance issues and QC.

Many thanks to my regarded peers for your correction and slack.

windowmike
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#10 Post by windowmike »

off with his head

thermal99

Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#11 Post by thermal99 »

I have installed a few Alside windows and would never recommend them. i just think there are so many other brands that are of much higher quality.

JScott
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#12 Post by JScott »

If you gave me a house full of free windows and they were the Excalibers I would just tell you to drive down to the local Habitat for Humanity and let them have them. If my windows were falling out of the house, and drove a 1962 plymouth lancer and had a hard time paying for groceries then they may be a tad bit better than what I have so for free I would accept them graciously. If this is really what you want and things are tight I would probably wait till things were better. You mentioned value. The value of a window is not the upfront cost. Its is the long term performance. In the world of 7-up I would classify these as an un-value.
:mrgreen:

5stannards
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#13 Post by 5stannards »

I have Alside Replacement Windows in my home and live in New England. The windows have worked very well with the exception of one issue. During a cold evening, the glass cracked in one of our horizontal slider panels. It happened in the middle of the night with a loud cracking noise. The local dealer was helpful but needed to refer us to the warranty center. While the warranty is said to cover any manufacturing defects, they did not attribute this issue to a manufacturing issue suggesting to me that that their windows are subject to this issue in cold areas. Despite several communications with their warranty area, they refused to honor the warranty. I believe the product is good; however, this particular window had an issue. The bottom line, if you have an issue that you believe is covered by warranty, expect a difficult process, an inability to get a human on the phone with authority to resolve an issue, and ultimately an unwillingness to stand by their warranty. Ultimately, my time was worth more than the cost of continuing to get satisfaction and it was easier to just pay to have the window fixed. If the value of the warranty is an important consideration in your selection, I would choose a different brand.

toddinmn
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Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#14 Post by toddinmn »

What windows did you offer at the same price?
anthony wrote:IMO almost every pro on the board will tell you to look for a better window.
I recently did a house of Excaliburs, someone else had sold this homeowner on the product, so I gave him what he asked for after presenting two better windows, one of which was the same price as the alside.
After we got done putting them in the HO had serious misgivings on the product QC. I reminded him these were not the windows i reccomened. All is well for now. The pocket sill is a bad design.
Keep looking, try soft-lite windows or simonton.
Andersen does have other product and distribution channels for replacement windows, call a couple of local roofing and siding supply yards.
If you want wood insert windows you can look at Pella, Marvin, Andersen, Eagle to name a few, these windows are more exspensive than vinyl.
For less exspense and best thermal specs vinyl will be the ticket.

ranger
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Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:59 pm

Re: Help with replacement window decision - Alside?

#15 Post by ranger »

alside windows particularly the excalibur is low quality and designed poorly. the excalibur needs to be reinforced with metal due to its flimsy engineering. some higher quality windows reinforce their sash but not for the same reasons the excalibur needs reinforcement.
the ultramaxx is bulky and comes with a pocket sill(an inherently poor design).
the sheffield comes with a "snap in" sloped sill,another poor design. a sloped sill is best by far but it should be a "true sloped sill" that is welded and not a snap in. Alside products also tend to have high air leakage rates. much better products out there .

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