I thought Pella's EnduraClad exterior was aluminum. The wood would all be on the interior.

Hi dtschuster, Sorry this response is so late. Only just saw your post now as I was searching for some one w/comments or complaints about new windows. Lo and behold, came on yours and it just happens to be about the very window by the manufacturer we just had installed. Sunrise. And...you're from New Jersey as am I!

Very happy w/them so far. Haven't gone through a winter season yet so if they save a bit on gas heat bills this year, then I'll know better re their efficiency. Yes, they were more expensive than some others, but supposedly better features and better built.

HOWEVER....big however...I would strongly advise you rethink the blinds in the windows. We wanted that originally, but I also wanted grids in my windows. Can't have both, so we opted for the grids and only agreed to have the blinds put into our small bathroom windows. Boy oh boy, am I ever glad we didn't go with blinds in ALL the windows! Sunrise jobs out the installation of the blinds to another company and the quality control at that company and when it comes back to Sunrise, their quality control too both in a word: stink! Even when our local store installer, Toms River Door and Window, didn't do much better in checking to see that the blinds in both top and bottom sashes of both windows each had one thing or another wrong with them:
Too many slats in two
ÂMissing slats in another
ÂTwo others hung crooked, possibliy because string on one side was too slack causing blinds to hang cockeyed.

Plus these blinds in the windows add an extra 6-8 weeks for delivery and installation. We had all other windows (12) installed in March. Waited till June for blinds-in-windows in bathroom till June. Cockeyed as mentioned above. Rep comes to examine, takes pics and agrees. Ordering new ones. Wait, wait. New replacements finally arrive in September. More cockeyed than originals! Even rep said I'd be better off keeping my original crooked ones and wait - yet agan - for -yet another - replacement duo.

It's November now and yesterday the local rep, the owner of TRWindows and two reps from Sunrise in Michigan show up at my house to "examine" windows themselves. It's dark outside this time of year so it's harder to see the gaps and crooked hanging w/o light shining through. But,figured the previous pictures and the previous at least 6 month runaround and wait already proved my point. Now, too, the little lever on top of one sash that flips the blinds is sticking badly. Sunrise rep from Michigan says: What can we do to make you happy about these? I say, "I want them to hang right! That's all I wanted from the beginning. That's what I paid the extra $363 per window just for the blinds alone!" "How about glazed glass"?, he asks. "No way!", I said, "If I wanted a blurred vision out to my garden, I would have gotten that. I don't want that milky glass, I want what I ordered." "How about we take off the price of the blinds and you accept the windows as is?"

Gotta tell you this always makes me uncomfortable cause I feel like I'm whoring my principles. But, when both reps say: (and I quote) "This is the way they're made. This is the standard of our quality control and most people don't complain about them hanging a little 'off'"." Suddenly, now, I'm getting the feeling it's MY fault cause they don't hang right and suddenly I'm realizing that even they admit (not in so many words) that their product is flawed but that's just the way it is. So, reluctantly, cause I want the blinds even if they are kaflooey a little, I tell them I'm not happy, but I have no recourse but to accept your offer of taking an allowance on the windows. Refund me the money for just the blinds alone.

Now, I'm waiting to hear back from them. Which I shouldn't be because as far as the company rep was concerned when he left my house it was all but a done deal and the check, so to speak, would be in the mail. But the next morning when DH called to tell them our decision, the store manager is suddenly backpeddling on giving us an anwer. Will know by the end of the week what the story is.

Sorry for going on so long. This just happened on top of other contractor/installer snafus. The cherry on the cake so to speak. Bottom line: DON'T GET BLINDS IN THE WINDOWS. If my little bathroom windows were screwed - both times - I shiver to think how their kaflooey blinds would have looked in all the other much larger windows in my house and don't know how I would have reacted to a Sunrise rep telling me "Oh, that's the way they're made." Sad day when we are all supposed to accept mediocrity as standard procedure. Yet that seems to be what this and so many other manufacturers expect of us. And they don't even apologize anymore. They're even almot proud of their inefficiency. Sad.

That's too bad Jef1. You shouldn't have to settle for less than what you paid for. I wouldn't give up on it if I were you. I'm assuming you haven't signed anything yet. I'd demand more than the "blind only" credit. It wouldn't be a bad idea to call your local better business bureau and have them open a file on the incident. Keep pushing for what you want.
As for the Pella units with blinds; while initially the quality was suspect, Pella have made great strides in improving the design and function of the blinds and shades between the glass. They will cost more, but how much time and energy has been wasted on the lower quality product with poor factory support and poor customer service?
Good luck to both of you.