Serious Materials replacement vinyl windows

[wushock1]

Last February we had the widows original wood windows in our bedrooms replaced with vinyl replacement windows made by serious materials and so far I have to say I am very impressed. The noise reduction was immediately noticable and the temperature in the rooms leveled out. Prior to installing these we had cold spots because the old windows were very drafty. We had a pretty cold winter by Kansas standards andcold spots were very noticable. We also have some neighborhood dogs that could easily be heard in our rooms when the old windows were in use and when good old Kansas thunderstorms rolled through, you would have thought it was taking place inside the bedrooms. Now we do not hear the dogs and the thunder stays outside like it should.
Our installer was extremely thorough in his installation and believe me it really makes a difference. We had him reinstall two other Great Lakes windows that had been poorly installed and were leaking badly. The windows were still in okay shape but they needed to reinstalled to seal up and support the windows and seals. He did a good job on thosse too. We will probably eventually replace those windows with the Serious Materials line also, but we ahd a budget we needed to stick to and couldn't get to those this time.
In short, these windows have exceeded my expectations so far.

[jasonmc]

Glad to hear this report on Serious vinyl replacement line. i've been doing research and at least Serious actually posts their performance for every single window and window style - i can't even get others to answer some basic questions. i'm looking at SeriousWindows 501 or 600 series, both have one layer of film not triple pane which is a big deal cause triple pane is heavy and ultimately compromises the entire framing structure and hardware. i'm finding differences in serious windows i don't find elsewhere other than the high r-value - 99.5% uv blockage, good range in shgc for both sides of my house, and dual sealant and dual air chamber must contribute to the sound damping quality.

Really love this site - so glad i found especially as i'm in middle researching windows!

[Win-admin]

Normally the board moderators would delete this thread

Yes normally we would. After many years of operating this board we can spot bogus posters from the very first sentence.

We will leave this up for a bit in the hope a "serious" representative from Serious Windows would perhaps find a little time to grace our humble board and engage in a spirited, but fair discussion about the products they are offering.

Ed's

[windowchank]

so I am new to this site and new to replacement windows. One thing I know is that my 30 year old windows need to go. I live in northern Vermont and my winters at 2600 feet are insane to say the least, 300+ inches of snow, temps that don't go above zero farenheit for weeks and high winds are the norm.

I have had 2 estimates, one for Marvin Integrity which was crazy high and one for Serious 501, which seemed more reasonable. Are these Serious windows a joke or is this something I can trust for the next 25 years? The salesman talked a good game, but like I said, I no window expert. I do plan on getting others out here. Are there windows anyone would suggest given my environment, are there windows you wouldn't buy if your life depended on it? And finally, are there any companies/installers that anyone can suggest that are trustworthy and good?

Incidentally, low solar gain is not as important as sealing the envelope and keeping mother nature where she belongs, noise is also not that big of a factor either, I'm pretty rural.

thanks.

[Windows on Washington]

You may not be a window expert but you are way ahead of the game already.

While I think some of the passive solar stuff that Serious does has some application value and certainly in your case, it comes at a cost prohibitive price tag in my opinion. I think you are better suited to go with either a clear glass window in a triple pane krypton format on the South facing side and put triple pane krypton (with Low-e) on the North and East sides. Depending on your West facing windows and their exposure, they might be passive solar candidates as well.

You need to look for a window with as low an air infiltration number as you can get in my opinion.

Are you current windows wood? Are you doing full tear outs or inserts?

You can get a very good triple pane window with phenomenal numbers for reasonable numbers if you shop it. I would also look into some air sealing work and insulation to compliment the windows.

[Window4U (IL)]

How long has Serious been in the window business?

[Windows on Washington]

How long has Serious been in the window business?

Since the 2008 Election.

[Window4U (IL)]

You're not far off.

[windowchank]

You may not be a window expert but you are way ahead of the game already.

While I think some of the passive solar stuff that Serious does has some application value and certainly in your case, it comes at a cost prohibitive price tag in my opinion. I think you are better suited to go with either a clear glass window in a triple pane krypton format on the South facing side and put triple pane krypton (with Low-e) on the North and East sides. Depending on your West facing windows and their exposure, they might be passive solar candidates as well.

You need to look for a window with as low an air infiltration number as you can get in my opinion.

Are you current windows wood? Are you doing full tear outs or inserts?

You can get a very good triple pane window with phenomenal numbers for reasonable numbers if you shop it. I would also look into some air sealing work and insulation to compliment the windows.

Thanks for the input, full replacements. I currently have wood casements and there is some rot going on outside. Inside, I have no evidence of water intrusion and the house supposedly had blown in cellulose done prior to us buying it 1.5 years ago. My goal for a contractor is someone who can recognize a problem once everything is torn out, inform me of that problem and repair it properly. It would be foolish to cover up a problem with new windows and not do anything to solve it.
My west side is double sliding glass doors that are pretty new (Andersen), so I don't have too much to worry about there. I was given a number of $750 per, installed on the 501. I know my man has wiggle room because he's quoting me the same price for the monster size 5ft long windows as he is for the tiny bathroom windows. What triple pane windows with low infiltration would you reccomend I shop that you think I can work the salesman on. Also, wondering if it is not a good idea to have a contractor not associated with the sale put in windows or if I should strive to do it all in one place.

Thanks again for all the help.

[buddy11]

I think the others have gently tried to suggest that Serious isn't your best bet. I happen to be the monority here in that I love heat mirror. However the serious vinyl windows are a rebranded Kensington window. Kensington went bankrupt a few years back. Serious bought them and reopened the lines. Even with HM they're average at best fraught with QC issues and design flaws and not worth $750 per opening. If you want to spend that kind of money you can do way better with Softlite, Gorell or Okna.

[windowchank]

Thanks for the heads up. I have someone pointing me towards the Harvey Tribute,High Performance Package..has low e/krypton, triple pane, warm edge spacer, foam filled chambers, etc. Any thoughts? I'm going to look for a review here on these.

[komondor]

Boy lots of information and opinions too. I am in the process of looking at windows and the Serious( 300 series) rep seemed to have one of the better pitches. used a BTU meter and heat lamp to show how well glass they installed worked. Also have quotes coming from Vista ( seal smart triad a) and Sunrise Windows, already had Amerimax (super spacers) windows provide quote.

I am looking for windows (24) to keep out the heat I am in Colorado and house faces East/West in the morning the sun gets the house warm and the afternoon sun finishes it off! Heat wise house does fine so looking more to reduce heat gain.

Any opinion the Serious did look good as far as btu went from 300 to 5 on the meter with the 360 glass 270 that the amerimax rep was quoting was not as good. At what point is the btu reflection good enough and anything pas that is overkill? Like have 500 HP in car and another has 550?

[buddy11]

Boy lots of information and opinions too. I am in the process of looking at windows and the Serious( 300 series) rep seemed to have one of the better pitches. used a BTU meter and heat lamp to show how well glass they installed worked. Also have quotes coming from Vista ( seal smart triad a) and Sunrise Windows, already had Amerimax (super spacers) windows provide quote.

I am looking for windows (24) to keep out the heat I am in Colorado and house faces East/West in the morning the sun gets the house warm and the afternoon sun finishes it off! Heat wise house does fine so looking more to reduce heat gain.

Any opinion the Serious did look good as far as btu went from 300 to 5 on the meter with the 360 glass 270 that the amerimax rep was quoting was not as good. At what point is the btu reflection good enough and anything pas that is overkill? Like have 500 HP in car and another has 550?

Ahhh smoke and mirrors at it's best. The BTU meter can be set up to show anything really. It's not a true reading of how good the window is, just the glass. However that glass can be inserted into a poor frame with a high air infiltration, poor grade vinyl, with lousy weather stripping etc and poof.. There goes the great glass package, out the window, (pun intended)

What I'm trying to say is do your homework, research, research, research the windows. Visit the NFRC site and study the SHGC, overall U values etc. Get the CPD#'s of the windows your looking at and check them out.

Serious windows are average at the very best.

[Randy]

Ahhh smoke and mirrors at it's best. The BTU meter can be set up to show anything really. It's not a true reading of how good the window is, just the glass. However that glass can be inserted into a poor frame with a high air infiltration, poor grade vinyl, with lousy weather stripping etc and poof.. There goes the great glass package, out the window, (pun intended)

What I'm trying to say is do your homework, research, research, research the windows. Visit the NFRC site and study the SHGC, overall U values etc. Get the CPD#'s of the windows your looking at and check them out.

Serious windows are average at the very best.

Couldn't agree more.

[Windows on Washington]

Boy lots of information and opinions too. I am in the process of looking at windows and the Serious( 300 series) rep seemed to have one of the better pitches. used a BTU meter and heat lamp to show how well glass they installed worked. Also have quotes coming from Vista ( seal smart triad a) and Sunrise Windows, already had Amerimax (super spacers) windows provide quote.

I am looking for windows (24) to keep out the heat I am in Colorado and house faces East/West in the morning the sun gets the house warm and the afternoon sun finishes it off! Heat wise house does fine so looking more to reduce heat gain.

Any opinion the Serious did look good as far as btu went from 300 to 5 on the meter with the 360 glass 270 that the amerimax rep was quoting was not as good. At what point is the btu reflection good enough and anything pas that is overkill? Like have 500 HP in car and another has 550?

I have to agree with the consensus here.

The idea of setting up a laboratory environment on your kitchen table is far fetched.

What does a BTU meter tell you that the SHGC does not? Do you even know what is a good window for your application? At what point is a low SHGC too low?