Not sure what brands are available in the area as the east coast offerings differ in vinyl products. Are you definitely getting vinyl? Open to other materials? Neither brand you mentioned are typically well thought of brands by any professional window person. Perhaps HomeSealed will pop in he is not quite in Wyoming but may have some info as to what brands are.

Bargain basement windows are bargain basement windows. The material that is used is less important than the quality of the finished product.

There are junk vinyl windows just as there are junk wood windows. There are even less than stellar fiberglass windows, but there are also some absolutely top tier products using all three window building materials as well.

The builder's experience says more about him than about the appropriateness of using vinyl windows.

Matt Risinger has over 800 videos relating to Building Science, Craftsmanship, & Best Practices for Building & Remodeling. Here. His current recommendation for Marvin fiberglass as a preferred alternative to vinyl luckily matches my personal experience. Even he has learned from past mistakes over his years of experience. There may be other window types that can work for different projects at different price points.

I know who Matt Risinger is, in fact I am subscribed to his you tube channel. I have a ton of respect for him, but he was the the one who tried to save a buck on his windows and bought low end variety vinyl junk. He was the one who said in the video that he chose bargain basement vinyl and he got what he paid for.

That speaks to his choice and not to vinyl windows in general.

I am a big fan of Marvin and their fiberglass windows. I would use them in a heartbeat as I would quality vinyl or quality wood windows.

Here's a discussion you might find useful.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5890604/white-vinyl-windows-with-brick

Two problems with vinyl- one in a thousand may consider vinyl windows as the high quality high performance product.. Vinyl is most often the money saving lower cost selection. This leads to less interest in better products because they're likely higher cost with fiberglass closer in price. So info on what makes for a vinyl window that competes in quality with fiberglass is not discussed.

"one in a thousand may consider vinyl windows as the high quality high performance product."

I personally do not like vinyl windows but I am also well informed enough to know and understand that a quality vinyl product will out perform any aluminum, wood or fiberglass window hands down. Only possible exception are the Canadian Fiberglass products and I think they are still behind the vinyl although the margin is smaller.

Fiberglass can make a good window. Marvin makes a fine fiberglass window but it will NEVER perform as well as a high quality vinyl product. And again I dislike vinyl personally but a high quality vinyl window is going to be the best performer all day long.

I'm all excited . All these high quality vinyl windows hiding out in the marketplace. Which are they?

Anyway, Inline is a Canadian fiberglass window manufacturer. This is their statement on fiberglass here.

In part "Fiberglass material resists swelling, rotting, and warping making it the perfect choice for long-lasting durability coupled with exceptional beauty. Our Fiberglass frames are as strong as low carbon steel and 8x stronger than vinyl."

"In the latest **Life cycle assessment of windows for the North American residential market, the findings stated Fiberglass windows specifically Inline have a 38% longer useful life expectancy than vinyl. The comparison used an Inline fiberglass window."

** Life cycle assessment of windows for the North American residential market: Case study” by the University of British Columbia. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 2008.

"All these high quality vinyl windows hiding out in the marketplace. Which are they?"

Okna, Sunrise, Polaris, Soft-lite are all high quality vinyl windows. I never said the were not good windows I said performance values are better for the better vinyl across the board.

Two problems with vinyl- one in a thousand may consider vinyl windows as the high quality high performance product..

I am curious how you know that it's one in a thousand and not 1 in 10 or 1 in 100 or even 1 in 10,000? Do you have data to back this claim?

Vinyl is most often the money saving lower cost selection.

Unfortunately this is very often true, i do agree with your point. This was Matt Risinger's mistake.

This leads to less interest in better products because they're likely higher cost with fiberglass closer in price.

Do you have data supporting this claim?

So info on what makes for a vinyl window that competes in quality with fiberglass is not discussed.

Again do you have data supporting this claim?

No one is debating that there aren't total junk vinyl windows, there are, just as there are total junk wood windows. But you seem to be saying that since people don't know that there are different quality levels between different vinyl windows, that there are top quality vinyl windows available, then by default all vinyl windows are bad.

Fiberglass windows are a bit different because of the nature of the materials used, and the limited number of window manufacturers who use fiberglass. It is a more expensive and more involved process for the manufacturer, so that results in the potential for more care taken in manufacturing. I think it would be fair to say that the spread between the very top and very bottom quality fiberglass units isn't as wide as between top and bottom quality wood windows or vinyl windows.

And it's a verifiable fact that the very top end vinyl windows do exceed the best wood or fiberglass windows in basic window U-factor and air infiltration performance values.

MY choice is aluminum clad wood but the color you choose is really important and I have never had painted vinyl windows so can’ t speak to how they would stand up.

Vinyl expands and contracts a lot more than fiberglass and other window framing materials. This makes it, imo, the worst choice for homeowners. It's more a material primarily aimed at making fabrication easy for manufacturers. It can be used by small manufacturers without the need to put in big capital investment. They overcome some of this materials drawback of large expansion/contraction with high quality sealing. That'll generate very good air infiltration numbers when tested at mile zero. What we don't get is any infiltration numbers at mile 10 after multiple seasons of freezing contraction and sun baked hot weather expansion. That's the failures everyone thinks about.

That's the first strike. The second is the lack of strength when compared to the other materials. This means more frame dimension is needed in larger windows. Less glass and less view, less light and air. Some larger sizes just aren't available in casements, for example, because vinyl framing cannot support the weight. As homeowners go to triple pane this becomes more significant. Some vinyl manufacturers are adding steel inner framing to support their vinyl.

Just waiting for Dan to post the manufacturer's link for Marvin again....

If vinyl is weaker than Fiberglass, what is the PG rating on a Marvin Essentials or Elevate Double Hung?

It should be much higher than a comparable product in vinyl...no?

Since posting Jeld-Wen is out. Milgard is recommended by our local lumber yard for vinyl. I like vinyl for the lifetime warranty and very low maintenance. the service from Milgard in our area is fantastic.

Good morning Sue,

My apologies that your thread was hijacked over a discussion of best material to use.

I would agree with your lumber yards suggestion. I think Milgard is a much better choice than the first two that you mentioned.

+1 to Milgard as well.