Window Warranties Compared: Andersen, Marvin, Milgard, Pella & More

Every window and door manufacturer publishes a limited warranty, and every one of them summarizes it in a sentence on the brochure. The sentences are not comparable. Twenty years on one brand means seal failure on glass under 60 square feet with parts shipped to the dealer; on another it means the same term with labor for ten of those years; on a third it means twenty years only until the house sells. We sell nine manufacturers and service six more, we read all sixteen documents in September 2026, and this page puts them on one table so you can compare the terms that matter rather than the headlines.

Each row links to a full line-by-line reading of that manufacturer's document. The table covers the standard warranty for a homeowner buying replacement windows in the Treasure Valley; new construction, commercial and paid upgrades are noted where they change the answer. The brands in the second group are ones we do not sell but do service and replace.

Brands We Carry

Brands We Service but Do Not Sell

How to Read the Glass Column

Every glass term on the table is a seal-failure term. It covers the fog, haze or residue that forms between the panes when the perimeter seal lets moisture in, and in most documents it is phrased as a material obstruction of vision. It does not cover breakage, which is an accident everywhere except at Anlin, at JELD-WEN on double-strength glass, and under Milgard's paid upgrade. Several manufacturers add a separate, shorter term for stress cracks that originate in the glass: Andersen covers them for the full twenty years on the 400 Series, Marvin for ten on non-tempered glass, Kolbe for five, Sierra Pacific for two, Milgard, Prime and Quaker for one, and Andersen excludes them on the E-Series. Size matters too. Marvin and Kolbe halve the term on glass 60 square feet and larger. Altitude matters in Idaho: Marvin, Kolbe, Windsor and Sierra Pacific exclude glass above 5,000 feet without capillary tubes, Quaker cuts the term to ten years above 3,500 feet, Kolbe and Sierra Pacific pull the triple-pane threshold down to 3,500 and 2,200 feet, and the Pella and JELD-WEN documents are silent on altitude altogether. We order mountain jobs accordingly.

How to Read the Labor Column

This is the column the brochures skip. The written remedy in most warranties is a part shipped to the dealer, a factory repair, or a refund, with the labor to install the part excluded. The exceptions are worth knowing. Anlin's Double Lifetime includes all labor and freight for life, though Anlin's newest documents draw a service territory of eight western states that leaves Idaho out. Milgard provides skilled labor for ten years from the manufacture date to homes in its territory, which includes all of Idaho, and all labor for life under the paid upgrade. Pella, JELD-WEN, Sierra Pacific and Prime give two years; Quaker and All Weather Architectural Aluminum one, and JELD-WEN excludes homes more than 125 miles from one of its dealers. Skilled labor in the Milgard and Prime documents means work an owner could not do; swapping a lock or a sash does not count. VELUX covers labor when it chooses to repair, and reinstallation up to $1,000 under its No Leak warranty. Andersen is the case that rewards buying from a dealer: its written warranty includes labor only when it elects to refinish an A-Series or 100 Series exterior, but Andersen covers labor on covered repairs for the first two years when the product is bought through an authorized dealer, which every Andersen sale from Wood Windows is. Marvin, Kolbe, Windsor and Therma-Tru exclude labor outright, and Windsor ships parts free only as far as its nearest distributor.

What happens after the part arrives is between you and your dealer. Wood Windows installs everything we sell with our own employee crews and services it the same way, and the price of a service call depends on the age of the job and what was agreed at the sale. For the brands we do not sell, we cannot file the claim, but we can do the work the warranty leaves to you. We would rather say all of that here than at the door.

How to Read the Transfer Column

Andersen, Marvin, Kolbe, Sierra Pacific and Windsor are the simplest: the next owner of the house gets whatever is left of each term, with no registration or fee. Milgard's standard warranty transfers, but everyone who is not the original owner-occupant, including the buyer of your home, gets a flat ten years from the manufacture date; the Full Lifetime upgrade lapses on sale. JELD-WEN caps a later owner the same way, at ten years from manufacture. Pella's lifetime terms are replaced on sale by a ten-year warranty measured from the original purchase, so the coverage a buyer inherits shrinks with every year the seller owned the windows. Anlin transfers once, for the second owner-occupant's lifetime, but only if Anlin is told within ninety days of the sale. Therma-Tru's Classic-Craft transfers its lifetime term once; Fiber-Classic and Smooth-Star transfer ten years only when built on a Tru-Guard frame. Prime, Quaker and All Weather Architectural Aluminum do not transfer past the original purchaser at all, and VELUX's document does not use the word.

The Deadlines

Most manufacturers put a clock on reporting. Kolbe requires written notice within thirty days of discovering a defect and says no warranty applies without it; Milgard and Windsor also require thirty days, and Anlin's newest documents adopt the same rule. Marvin and Prime allow sixty. Sierra Pacific allows ninety, in writing. Pella and Quaker allow a year. None of the Andersen documents set a reporting deadline beyond the warranty period itself. In every case the practical advice is the same: call the day you notice a problem. For brands we carry, we document it, send the notice where one is required, and open the claim against the original order. For brands we do not, we tell you who to call and what to have ready.

What This Table Cannot Tell You

A warranty is a promise about parts. It says nothing about whether the company that sold you the window will still be answering the phone in year twelve, whether the installer flashed the opening so the warranty is not voided on day one, or how long you will wait for a glass unit to arrive. Those are dealer questions, and they are the questions we would ask in your position. We have installed windows in the Treasure Valley since 1980 with employee crews, every manufacturer in the first table is one we are authorized to sell and service, and every one in the second is one we have repaired in a Treasure Valley home. Bring us the quote you are comparing and we will tell you which document governs it and what it actually says.

Last reviewed 2026-09-16 by Wood Windows Inc — (208) 376-2200