Serious 925 Reviews

Window Comments

Caveat Emptor Seven months ago we installed Serious 925 series windows and an 8’ x 8’ patio door in our new home in Northern Maryland. It has been a disaster and the worst decision/investment we made in the house we are renovating. Trying to work with Serious to make the windows and door weather tight has been Kafkaesque. They are, by turns, dismissive, disbelieving, denying, and, ultimately, disappearing. I would not buy a product from them again under any circumstance. We should have known we had a problem from the moment our windows arrived. To start, several of the windows were larger than the rough openings that had been specified (only by fractions of an inch, but we had to rebuild several of the openings to accommodate the oversized units). As we later learned, part of the issue is that they believe in giving the builder a very small gap between the frame and the framing. Great if you have new construction, not so great if you are working with existing openings. Oh, and don’t expect them to confirm consistent angles on windows that don’t have 90 degree angles. Their ordering program doesn’t use or display angles so if you are off on your measurements height and width measurements, they won’t catch it and neither will you. When they are building the window they won’t attempt to confirm the discrepancy. The frame for the large patio door was all-fiberglass construction, held together by #6 screws secured to the foam insulation. With those little tiny heads, you’d be amazed how easy it is for a #6 screw head to pull through 3/32” fiberglass when you are setting a 4’ x 8’ glass panel in it. The frame itself is only finished on three sides – the exterior wall of the frame is just the foam insulation. It looks like something you might receive on a early-era vinyl door frame. Cheap, really cheap. It has actually broken three times now, once during the initial installation, again when a workman stumbled on the threshold and pushed the base 3/16” out which tore the side frame, and finally we are seeing pieces breaking off the finger joint between the panels. Actually, as long as we are discussing the patio door, IT IS DESIGNED TO LEAK, yup that’s straight from Serious. It relies on weep holes to remove the water that runs down the fixed pane out of the channel holding the pane, but if the channels can’t keep up with the rain, the water collecting in the channel flows into your house. BY DESIGN. Serious does not consider this to be a problem (not a defect and “not covered by warranty”) so we’ve replaced the door with one from another company. A $10,000 mistake on our part it seems. Back to the windows – about a third of them leaked too. We had Serious’ representative out six times in five months. He finally ended up applying a bead of sealant all the way around each window where it meets the frame and smoothed it with his finger. So now all the windows shine along the edge where you are looking through the glass and sealant. If you do need a technician, this is sort of how it goes working with Serious, it is a 12-step process: (1) we observe a problem and contact their customer service person. (2) They say it is poor installation. (3) We send pictures showing proper installation and the results of our own water test isolating the source of the leak. (4) They argue that the water test isn’t valid. (5) They arrange for a formal water test. (6) We wait. (7) The fellow comes and does the test. (8) We wait. (9) They confirm that the window leaks and order a service call. (10) We wait. (11) The technician fixes the leak. (12) It rains again and another window leaks. (13) Cycle begins again and takes about a month for each cycle. What can we say about the experience that has been positive? The glass is terrific and insulates beautifully. The house is very comfortable and easy to heat. It is finally warming up here and we will get our first rain here since December. They are calling for an inch and a half tomorrow. I’m not placing bets, but I’m getting the towels ready.