from what I read mediocre with a limited product range

Dave,

I've been lurking here mostly on the gardening side of things, but this is something I actually can offer some insight to, and now that I've broken my leg I have a little time on my hands. I have used the Sherwood as well as other replacement windows and I find them to be an excellent product. If you are not looking for wood, then I personaly would find an appropriate vinyl product because vinyl is typically less expensive. As far as wood goes, these are great. I originally bought mine becuase I needed a hardwood window that installed easily without having to redo 100+yr old trim on one of my semi-historic buildings. These have the standard replacement window jamb ulike most wood windows so they saved a lot of install time and unneccessary messy trim work. I didnt have the option of nailing them up from the outside with a nailfin since I didnt want to disturb the exterior of the building either. These went in very smoothly! That was the biggest draw for me originally, but then I was extremely impressed after we installed them. Since they are hardwood instead of pine, it was also important to match my existing wood. I used oak and matched it nearly perfectly in one building! I have also used the Cherry stain to match some kitchen cabinets. I couldnt stand the look of vinyl windows with the fake oak interior, so that was not an option for me. The warranty is lifetime vs most other wood windows with 20yrs. I disagree that they are "mediocre" as stated above and as far as product offering they gave me what I needed including a big custom shape. I did a lot of homework before spending this kind of money. My trim carpenter had used them before mine and he claims that they are better than anything he's ever used, but if you're building a new house then these may be overkill. They werent cheap, but I think they are a great value. I'm happy with them, and they do get complimented often. I'm not sure where you live, but maybe you can call them and get them to give you an address to see them locally. That's what sold me. The company should probalby send me a commission check because I have sold them a lot of these things after people have seen mine. I can probably dig out some pictures if you're really interested. The salesman actually came out to one of my jobs and took some pictures as well.

There performance ratings are average nothing great, maybe the website does not do them justice but it appeared to me to from the website that they have a limited product offering. The only life time warranties their site lists is "Vinyl Frames will not chip, crack, peel, blister, pit, or materially warp for as long as you own or live in your home". As far as the wood warranty it is 60 days and hardware is lifetime but after 5 years you pay 50% of the current cost. They do have lifetime on the insulated units and they DO NOT warrant their finish against fading period. Nothing in that warranty blows me away and like I said eariler the performance values don't impress me as anything other then average. The real kicker to me is if this type of product was so great their would be a hell of a lot more than one company producing this type of window. There has to be a reason why they do not!!!!

Thanks for the info, but I have decided to go with the Soft Lite Pro series.

Good decision. The Softlite Pro is an excellent window for the price.