Consumers Digest Releases its Best Window Buys

I just read an article in one of our industry trade journals - Door and Window Maker (DWM) magazine that I found hard to believe. It says three manufacturers were selected by Consumer Digest as the best choice for replacement windows in the premium, mid-range and economy categories. I would not classify any of the three chosen as our competitors, or list them if asked who the best replacement window manufacturers are; all three are heavily new construction oriented. The difference between most new construction windows and most replacement windows is the quality and design characteristics of the windows themselves.

When buying a home, few people even look at the windows, they look at the view, if applicable, but they are looking through the windows not at them. Builders for the most part select the cheapest product they can find for their homes, as they understand that windows are not a key factor in the buying decision for new homes, so they spend the money elsewhere. Consumers really start looking at their windows when they begin to have problems with them. This is why most replacement window have better quality, better features and better design than most new construction windows, the end user is really looking at them before purchasing them.

So in an industry where our company has been listed as one of the top 100 manufacturers in the country for over ten years now, how could Consumer Digest choose three manufacturers that I don’t believe any replacement window manufacture would consider a competitor to be the “best choices for replacement windows”? We were unaware of the study; no one contacted us for our information. It is irritating to smaller manufacturers like us to not even be included in the evaluation process. I’m told the way most of the magazines select who they will evaluate is to go to the “big box” stores and see what products they offer. Well that leaves us out, as we don’t offer our products that way, we feel high performance products need to be explained, they are not like buying a hammer off the shelf. So if you were wondering why Gorell, and the people we would consider our competitors are not part of the story, we join with you, we don’t think we were even considered.