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(EMAILWIRE.COM, February 23, 2013 ) Detroit, MI -- Vinyl vs. Fiberglass. The great "strength" that the fiberglass guys, such as Majic Windows, talk about (they usually say that it's 9 times stronger than vinyl) is actually its tensile strength. Tensile strength is a measure of how much force it would take to deform a lineal if you grabbed it at each end and tried to pull it apart. While it is true that fiberglass lineals have very high tensile strength, a window lineal is never put under any kind of stress where tensile strength is even a factor.
All of the strength in a fiberglass lineal comes from the amount of glass in the lineal. Therefore, a higher glass content percentage equals greater strength. Most fiberglass window lineals have about 50% glass content. In a standard welded vinyl window, each sash profile is attached to a panel of 100% glass and each frame profile is attached to the building structure!
Whether you're talking about fiberglass, vinyl, or any other framing material, the glass itself is what gives the window its strength, not the lineals. The more glass content you add to a fiberglass lineal (to increase its strength) the more you decrease its thermal performance. We all know that plain glass is a very poor insulator.
Vinyl is actually a much better insulator than pultruded fiberglass. Most people equate fiberglass with insulation value, but you need to remind them that the type of fiberglass they're thinking of has virtually nothing in common with the type of fiberglass that's used in a window frame. The 14" thick blanket of pink glass fibers that they see in their attic is designed to trap small pockets of warm air and it does a good job of it. The compacted fiberglass used in window frames can't trap any air and therefore is not nearly as good of an insulator. As a matter of fact, fiberglass window lineals actually transfer 3 to 4 times as much cold as an equivalent vinyl lineal. Since most people buy windows to reduce their energy costs, it is easy to see why vinyl is a far better value.
Because they have to be painted, fiberglass windows, from say Majic Window, are not nearly as maintenance free as vinyl windows.
Fiberglass windows cost nearly double what a good vinyl window costs, and they are less thermally efficient. On a cost/benefit or "payback" basis, a person is much better off spending money on an upgraded insulated glass package if they want a premium window that is actually better. We all know that roughly 80% of a windows area is insulated glass anyway. The frame material is of little significance. And, for the 20% of the window that is made up of the framing material, vinyl is better!
Owens Corning, the largest fiberglass company in the world and the inventor of fiberglass windows, gave up on them about 5 years ago. Even though the Owens Corning window was a sound design on paper and was backed by the resources of a billion dollar global corporation, it was a complete and total failure. When the Mother of All Things Fiberglass drops fiberglass windows, you know there are serious problems. Owens Corning sell welded VINYL windows today. They very same that Hansons Windows offers.
Hansons Windows
Brian Elias
248-581-3030
webmaster@hansons.com 
Source: EmailWire.com
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