Speaker 0 00:00:05 Welcome to the clear impact podcast brought to you by PGT university. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Conner and I am your host.
Speaker 1 00:00:19 Yep. The sales rep came up to your house up in Iowa and said, I've got this all aluminum frame window. I'd like to sell you. You're probably going to throw them off the front door.
Speaker 0 00:00:27 It's always a fun conversation with Patrick Jamison. As we begin our windows and doors 1 0 1 series, aluminum frame windows, vinyl frame windows is one safer is one going to last longer? How do I know which one to buy? We address this topic on today's episode of the clear impact podcast. Well, good morning. We are here on the Clara impact podcast today and we are in the series, windows and doors 1 0 1. And this is where we're really addressing some of the basics. So this series is designed specifically for the average homeowner, maybe somebody that has never really thought about windows and doors until they needed to buy new ones. And so we want to cover just some things that, that we know that maybe you don't because we're the education team. So today we're here with Patrick Jamison, who is one of our trainers. Um, how are you doing this morning, Patrick?
Speaker 1 00:01:15 Oh, you know me? I'm always good. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 0 00:01:17 Thank you for being here. So we want to talk today about the frame part of windows. We want to talk about aluminum and vinyl, and those are the types of window frames and door frames that we manufacturer through various brands, but there are some differences and some similarities to those. And I know that you know all about this stuff. So talk to us a little bit about aluminum versus vinyl.
Speaker 1 00:01:43 All right. Yeah. One of my favorite topics, it's actually a course that I train for our customers and the aluminum course is about four hours long in the vinyl course, about four hours long.
Speaker 0 00:01:52 We don't have, we don't have eight hours today.
Speaker 1 00:01:54 Oh man. Okay. So yeah, I'll put it in a nutshell for you, but yeah, aluminum versus vinyl is actually a great topic and there's many different reasons why people would want one over the other. It could be a personal preference. They are from up north. They've had vinyl windows before, and that's what they're used to. And that's what they want. I had a coworker that was from Montana and that was his desire is to have an energy efficient window, but I've had other people say that they wanted aluminum. It's like, well, why would you want aluminum? Aluminum is traditional. I know it's always worked many years ago, back in the seventies and eighties, vinyl would turn yellow. They would get brittle and hard and it went, hold up to the Florida heat very well. But the technology has really evolved where vinyl is much better now than it was back in the seventies and eighties kind of like comparing your cell phone from 20 years ago to today, it's really evolved and it's a lot better, but again, it's traditional. A lot of times in class I'll ask people, what kind of truck do you drive? Well, I drive a Chevy and I drive a Ford and a Toyota. And it's like, well, what truck does your dad drive while he drives the same thing? He drives a Chevy or a Ford or Toyota. And it's traditional. It's just something that it's always worked for him. It's worked for me. And that's what I like does
Speaker 0 00:02:59 Where I live, come into play. I mean, like we live in Florida, but our audience lives everywhere. So why would someone choose aluminum in the south versus vinyl in the south? And then also, why would somebody choose one over the other if they lived in a different climate?
Speaker 1 00:03:15 Right? Uh, here in Florida, you could probably average our summers high is around 94, 95. It feels like 200 sometimes, but it averages about 94 95. And Sherry. What AC temperature do you like in your house?
Speaker 0 00:03:29 I like it Chile around 72, 73. All right. I
Speaker 1 00:03:32 Don't know if I could afford that electricity bill, but that's about a 20 degree margin right there. And now up north, when you start getting up into like say Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, where the lows in the wintertime are down to 10, 15 degrees. What did you keep your heat set at up there when you lived in Iowa?
Speaker 0 00:03:50 Well, I wasn't in charge of the thermostat. When I lived in Iowa, I was still with my parents, but my dad was a stickler about that. And we didn't put that thermostat above 67, 65 ever. Like we froze. I was always bundled multiple layers of socks and I could not wait to move south. So yeah, that's a bigger spread
Speaker 1 00:04:11 50 degree margin rate there. So yeah, that's why you would want something more energy efficient up north compared to down here. Now in Florida, you have that 20 degree margin, but you still have appliances, phone chargers, different things. That's going to generate heat inside your home. So that's where people are like, well, if I go with aluminum, it's not that big of a margin from outside the inside throughout the year. When you figure an average, but up north, you definitely want to keep that colder weather out and keep the heat inside. So that's why aluminum is not going to go anywhere. Aluminum, still a strong frame component here in Florida. My house, I like vinyl. Everything's different personal preferences. There are so many different reasons why somebody would choose aluminum or vinyl or vinyl overload, winnable.
Speaker 0 00:04:54 Be sure to tune in for upcoming episodes to help you understand the fenestration industry, what you need to know when buying windows and doors and other related topics, you can find out more about
[email protected]. You can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn. So if I lived up north, I would probably want vinyl for the insulation factor.
Speaker 1 00:05:17 You would definitely want vinyl for the installation factor. If a sales rep came up to your house up in Iowa and said, I've got this all aluminum frame window, I'd like to sell you. You're probably going to throw them off the front doorstep. And it's like, no, I need something energy efficient. I don't want all that cold air coming in my house.
Speaker 0 00:05:33 Okay. So that helps explain that a little bit does one last longer than the other. Our
Speaker 1 00:05:38 Warranties will really describe that because if you take a white vinyl frame window versus a white aluminum frame window, we have a lifetime warranty. We call it on vinyl. And when I say lifetime, Sherry, what do you think lifetime is of a window? Or what do you think homeowners think lifetime is
Speaker 0 00:05:57 Homeowners probably think it's until they
Speaker 2 00:06:00 Die. Right? And
Speaker 1 00:06:02 In the industry lifetime for a window is 20 years. We offer a 20 year warranty on the frame members of a white vinyl frame from blisters chips, peels, cracks, et cetera. Now with aluminum, it's only offered for 10 years. Oh, if you think about it, if we bury a piece of metal in the ground, a piece of aluminum, and then we bury a piece of vial next to it in the ground and dig it up in a thousand years, that piece of vinyl is probably going to be still like brand new. It's still going to be intact. There's going to be really no issues with that piece of vinyl. But if you look at the piece of metal, the aluminum, it is going to be corroded. It's going to be really deteriorated.
Speaker 0 00:06:38 Would the vinyl hold up better than aluminum with saltwater and the coastal regions?
Speaker 1 00:06:43 It depends on the care and maintenance, to be honest with you, as long as you're taking care of both of them, they're going to hold up for you, but it's just like having a car. If you don't take care of it, it's going to start falling apart a little bit at a time.
Speaker 0 00:06:56 Hmm. I think we could do a separate episode on maintenance and care of windows and doors, because I don't think that I have to take care of them at all. I think I look at them and then every now and then I clean them when they're dirty and that's kind of it. So, um, I think we'll have to continue that conversation in another episode,
Speaker 1 00:07:14 Loosely, and I'm in the same boat with you. I would never clean windows and doors unless my dog's nose print was on the glass. But other than that, after I started working here, I realized you have to take it.
Speaker 0 00:07:24 Gotcha. So I have a question. I know that when you're doing the in-person classes or the zoom classes or the mobile training classes that we offer, you like to tell stories. And so do you have any interesting stories around this topic?
Speaker 1 00:07:39 Probably the first word that comes to my mind is my house. As a PGT representative, I can't recommend you or homeowners to go after vinyl frame versus aluminum frame. It's going to be entirely up to you or maybe it's the jurisdiction that enforces you to choose one over the other. But my house, I wanted vinyl frame. I love the energy efficiency that it brings to the table. Again, I know we're in Florida and there's not that big margin, but I feel that every little penny I can save in energy is just going to put it back in my wallet. Prime example, I had these single pane, aluminum frame windows that I took out of my house. And I put in the series 5,500, the Winguard vinyl, my electricity bill went from $162 down to about a hundred, 100, $2 a month. Now it's incredible the way that these windows seal up and the energy efficiency it holds in my house, we keep our AC about 74, 75 year round. If it does get cooler, we open the windows, but the vinyl frame is what I really enjoy. Maybe because I worked on the line for a little bit. I know about that window in case something goes wrong, but I just love the benefits that Winguard vinyl offers.
Speaker 0 00:08:43 That's an awesome story. So here's a question because you are the YouTube guy and you show everyone how to install properly. Does it matter on an installation if it's vinyl or aluminum, the installation
Speaker 1 00:08:55 Of aluminum versus vinyl is going to be very similar, but vinyl will take longer. There's more covers, plugs pieces to vinyl and vinyl. You have to kind of know when to let off that trigger. You have to be careful because you could actually run one of those screws or fasteners right through the vinyl material and just cause more damage than you expected. The aluminum is still, it's a metal, but it's a soft metal to aluminum and it will still bend to the, the way the substrate is. So you can't over torque, the aluminum still, but again, you're going to install it with the same fasteners. You're going to seal it the same way. You'll have plugs and covers, but some installers will tell you that they like aluminum because it's a little quicker to install than.
Speaker 0 00:09:40 Hmm. Okay. Good to know, Patrick, thank you so much for your time today. This was a great conversation. Aluminum versus vinyl. If we had video, I would probably do some kind of a football schematic and we could, you know, have some fun sports analogies going on with it. But I think that helps our listeners to understand a little bit more about the two when they're making a decision for their own home. Absolutely. Thanks again for having me. Awesome. Thanks. PGT university is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original, easy breeze, ports and closure line then became PGT. America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added CGI CGIC WinDoor, Western windows, new south windows and echo windows and doors. We create products built to withstand major storms, keeping people safe, secure, and prepared. Our exceptional brands give you the protection you need without compromising design or functionality. PGT university is here to educate you our listener so that you can be a more informed consumer of window and door products.
