Jeldwen and MI are some of the most flimsy vinyl windows ive ever seen..tread lightly on those..

+1. I would run from both of those options. Is the Integrity the all ultrex variant or the wood ultrex hybrid? Can't say I know the Sun Aluminum clad product to comment on it.

The Integrity is the Ultrex wood hybrid. I've checked with Sunrise, Okna, Soft-Lite - none are sold around here.

bperet, thank you! In what area of the country are you in? Here in the SE freezing isn't much of an issue, but the sun certainly is.

Which windows did you end up choosing? Opinion on performance so far?

Wow I can't believe it's been a year! We chose the Sun aluminum clad wood windows and are happy with the decision. Our primary concerns were clear glass (yet still efficient), a high-end look (yet maintenance free), and operation (not fussy to open/close/clean). These windows excel at the first two items - they could do better at operation though.

The Cardinal glass Sun uses is excellent and they don't look like so many of the new energy efficient windows you see these days. Nothing has a green or weird hue. Sunlight looks like sunlight - except you can sit in it and not get a tan.

The windows look great. They have the depth we wanted outside, and their finish and bullnose sashes look great inside.

Their operation is really my only gripe. Casements work great - no issues there. But our double hungs are a pain-point because the top sashes sag. I almost miss our old single hungs because you could open/close them with little fuss. When you have to hold up the top sash (and get a handprint on it) while pushing down the bottom sash and trying to lock it, it's just a pain.

We've had our dealer adjust the resistance on the top sashes, and it's worked for a few of them, but most still sag as soon as they're unlocked.

Dbrad thanks for the feedback. We are building in upstate SC and comparing Windsor Aluminum clad vs Sun Aluminum clad. Interesting about the sag you are experiencing. Any photos you can share?

We're in upstate SC as well. We looked at Windsor too - in our opinion Sun was a much better window overall.

I don't have any photos - the top sash just slides down on some of the windows when unlocked. Here's a video from their website showing "sash droop" as he calls it, and how to adjust it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1t0zmrdlsk

And speaking of videos, one of the reasons we chose Sun (not a major reason, but I still appreciate stuff like this) were the videos they posted on their website showing stuff like that above. Here's more.

We just moved in the house in July, and it's so hot here - as you know - that the last thing we want to do is open a window. So we really haven't made a big deal out of it with our dealer yet. We had them come out once to adjust a few windows that had the top sash sag, but we've noticed more doing it since then, and not all of the ones I've adjusted myself will stay up like they should even after adjustment. I'll be getting in contact with our dealer in the next week or so to get those top sashes fixed as we'll be heading into open-window season soon. I have confidence they'll fix it - Sun was very good about fixing the minor issues we had right after installation. It was primarily minor finish/paint issues (we had them paint the interior at the factory) and out of 35 windows they replaced about 6 sashes. Two of them were because the dealer didn't spec tempered glass in the stairwell - they replaced those sashes with the right kind of glass for free. Good service.

Hey thanks for the details. I had already watched a few of their videos when doing research I agree they help. I’m still waiting on the quote and we will have to see how it compares to Windsor. Based on Windsor quote I decided to let the painter paint the insides as that was half of the factory finish price. So many things are over our budget so far...I’m sure you had that happen!

Btw what color did you paint insides? We are doing black.

Yep we blew our budget on windows and several other categories - looking back though, I'm not sorry we spent the money on these windows. If you have competing bids, use those in your negotiations - Sun was waaaay high on their interior paint cost but they matched Marvin's number for interior painting. That saved us a couple of thousand. If you have a good painter you will likely save money there - we found out too late that our painter would have done the interior of our windows for much less than we paid Sun.

We did some form of white/cream - don't remember the exact color.

@Dbrad would you share your dealer’s name with us? We’ve been waiting on a quote for weeks now so may need another option. Thx.

Certainly, Neely's Windows - their main location is in Spartanburg but we worked with Edward out of their Greenville showroom. They're good people.