Consider yourself lucky that you were dealing with the young gal and weren't in one of the six facade programs that this old guy is currently administering. We don't allow any replacements unless the existing are so far gone that rehabilitation is impossible, and then we typically replace only the sash, with replica sash (single glazed) from one of our local window shops.

I fully realize that we live in a plastic, throw away society but that doesn't mean that I have to follow suit. Vinyl windows, for the most part, have a design life of 12-15 years and the Lifetime warranties they come with aren't worth the paper they are written on.

I recently had to replace 38 ten year old junk vinyl windows that had been installed in one of my rental buildings just prior to my buying the building. I told the seller at the closing that I would have paid 20K more for the building if he had not done the "window replacement" that he touted as a major selling point. Fortunately he didn't damage the original jambs and sills beyond repair and I was able to make the repairs and have replica sash made. With the installation of decent quality storm/screens the fenestration now looks as it should, and is now more energy efficient than the vinyl crap we took out.

A large part of my business is administering housing rehabilitation programs. We oversee rehab of 150+ single family homes a year and find that we are having to replace more and more vinyl windows that are only 10-15 years old.

One last point; unless older wood windows are literally falling apart, replacing them has the poorest ROI of almost any energy conservation measure.

Jim

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2005 C240 4matic wagon (daily driver)
87 190D - 225K (on loan)
85 190D - 312K (on loan)
2011 Subaru Legacy AWD (Wife's)