Rating of plastic windows: how to choose the best plastic windows for an apartment

Plastic windows are not cheap, especially considering how much prices have risen in 2021. Glazing an apartment is a major investment in comfort and health worth several salaries. It is important that it be long-term. And for this you have to look for answers to a whole list of questions. Which windows are best? What brands and manufacturers are in the top? Which profile do you prefer? How to choose and where to buy pvc windows?

It would seem, what is easier - the Internet to help us! Googled the question - got ready-made answers. But just with the answers, not everything is so simple.

Ratings of plastic window profiles on the Internet - truth and fiction

The main claim to the ratings available on the Internet is that almost all of them are far from reality. The authors of the majority are clearly neither specialists nor experts of the window market. They mainly compare brands of window profiles: Montblanc, Salamander, Exprof, Wintech, and sometimes even window fittings, for example, Roto, for some reason writing them down as plastic window manufacturers. In addition, almost all ratings were compiled many, many years ago. In some articles, only the dating is “updated”, while the text continues to mention SOK (Samara window structures), which have ceased to produce a profile after 2012, the “young Russian company” Proplex (in fact, it has been producing window profiles since 1999), and many other obsolete information.

But most of the questions are about the ranking criteria, that is, why one brand is declared better than another. Most authors do not bother themselves with this at all, arranging profiles according to the principle of who paid more, we praise him. At best, the choice is justified by “consumer reviews”, in which it is quite seriously stated that “Profile A sweats”, “profile B is blown”, “profile C has poor sound insulation”, but profile G is the coolest of all, because “it has many different ways opening". For a specialist, such “reviews” cause a smile, as they reflect an assessment of anything - double-glazed windows, seals, fittings, etc. - but not profiles.

Does it matter which window profile to choose?

Where to look for the truth? How to understand the sea of ​​brands and manufacturers? To begin with, it is useful to be clear that Rehau windows, Veka windows, Deceuninck windows, etc. they are not made by Rehau, Veka or Deceuninck at all. These guys only produce profiles, that is, the material for making window frames. And not abroad, as many people think, but here, in Russia. Each of them sells its products to hundreds and even thousands of window factories and factories throughout the country. And only in these thousands of large and small window workshops made of profiles, steel, fittings, seals and glass with the help of many mechanical operations of cutting, welding, milling and assembly, a translucent product is created, ready for installation in a window opening

In other words, window profile manufacturers do not make windows, and window manufacturers do not extrude the profile. The reason for this is too different technologies and incomparable scales. In Russia today there are only about 30 manufacturers of PVC window profiles, of which the top five leaders provide more than 60%, if not all 70% of the window market. At the same time, at least 3,000 enterprises are engaged in the processing of PVC profiles into plastic windows.

Hence, it is important to understand that the quality of a plastic window and the quality of a window profile are far from being the same thing. What the window will be, first of all, determine the thickness of the steel inserts to reinforce the frames and sashes, the type of double-glazed windows, the material of the seals, the brand and system of fittings. Their choice has nothing to do with the brand of the window profile. This is a matter of agreement between the window maker and the customer (within the requirements of GOSTs).

It affects the quality of the window and which one of the 3000 window factories made it. The probability of human error depends on the level of automation, the culture of production and the experience of the staff, but definitely not on the profile.

The brand of the window profile depends on:

• appearance of window binding: whiteness, gloss, smoothness, relief design of visible plastic surfaces;
• climatic resistance of window sash: the amplitude of seasonal temperatures and the intensity of solar radiation, at which the profile is suitable for long-term operation;
• the strength of window frames and sashes: the resistance of plastic to the appearance of cracks from impacts and deformations during operation, including in frost;
• durability of the material of window frames: the duration of the preservation of the original whiteness and other properties of plastic under the influence of time, ultraviolet radiation and precipitation;
• assortment of profile systems: the possibility of ordering only windows or also doors, entrance groups, stained-glass windows, etc.; only in the Economy and Standard segments or also Comfort and Premium; in a narrow or wide range of heat and sound insulation;

Thus, far from everything depends on the profile, and not at all what amateurs write about. But not so little. Therefore, as a primary guideline, it is at least useful to take into account the rating of profiles and their manufacturers. Moreover, only the leaders can offer the best in terms of the totality of the listed parameters.

Rating of the largest manufacturers of profiles for pvc windows

As of December 2021, only one credible rating of pvc window profiles was found on the Internet: http://www.ssk-inform.ru/Thema_19631_frsi_1_reitingi-kto-bolshe- .htm. This is a resource of a serious analytical agency SSK-Inform, which specializes in the construction and window industry in Russia. The rating is based on the size of the financial revenue of manufacturing companies. However, many profile manufacturers simultaneously produce or resell other products, including PVC - window sills, sloping and finishing pvc panels and even water pipes - which are also included in the amount of revenue. In the December issue No. 6 of the Windows and Doors magazine, SSK-Inform additionally published a rating of the same companies in terms of the tonnage of production of pure PVC window and door profiles. Although it does not contain nominal figures (they are included in the analytical report, which is provided on a commercial basis), the rating is arranged in descending order of tonnage.

We give this rating below, supplementing with data on annual revenue, the main brand of the manufacturer, the year of opening and the location of the first production in Russia.

Rating of the 16 largest manufacturers of pvc window profiles in terms of production in Russia for 2020 (according to SSK-Inform)

The above rating can also be considered as a criterion for the leadership of PVC window profile brands in our country in terms of mass and prevalence. The location and year of start of production in Russia indicated in the table provide additional food for thought regarding historical leadership. in the domestic segment of the industry, the maturity of the manufacturer's technologies, production experience and the initial climatic and geographical orientation products. Companies in the first third of the list are, on average, noticeably older than the rest.

How else can you evaluate the brands of plastic window profiles

Although the volume of production and sales is a weighty argument in itself (good things are usually bought more willingly than bad ones), there is an opportunity to analyze another objective criterion. The Yandex search service provides a relatively flexible and, most importantly, impartial tool for determining the popularity of certain search queries. This is Yandex-Wordstat - https://wordstat.yandex.ru/

If you authorize in it, you can display a reliable number of user requests strictly for the search purposes of interest for the current period of a month. The more often users purposefully look for pvc windows, doors or profiles of a particular brand, the more people obviously trust this brand or show a positive interest in it.

However, if you simply enter a phrase in the search bar, for example, century windows, then Wordstat will count all queries that include the words window and age in any context, order and case. That is, the windows of the 16th century, and the century of aluminum windows. The word windows in combination with any other profile brand will also give a strong distortion of statistics due to inclusion of requests for the Brusbox window sill type for pvc windows or, conversely, exclusion of requests for the type pvc profile Novotex. In order to accurately obtain the frequency of requests, the purpose of which is interest specifically in the purchase of windows, doors or pvc profiles of such and such a brand, and not to replace the seal, adjustment instructions or vacancies in the company, you must use special Yandex-Wordstat operators (https://pixelplus.ru/samostoyatelno/stati/prodvizhenie-saytov/osnovy-raboty-s-wordstat.html). They allow you to create a filter mask from required words, brand spellings, and words that are not allowed in the query - the so-called negative keywords.

The task is not trivial. After a long “catching” of irrelevant queries and selecting the appropriate negative keywords, we got such a mask that takes into account everything you need and filters out everything that is superfluous:

You should not pay attention to the numbers in the right column of the screenshot. They reflect the number of occurrences of the corresponding combination of words from the left column in all search queries. That is, they overlap each other. Statistics on the absolute number of requests by country and region is displayed when you click on the checkbox marked with a red arrow (By region).

Rating of the popularity of window profiles by the frequency of requests on the Internet

This mask was used to analyze the frequency of requests for 25 profile brands found in many publications on the window theme. The results are summarized in the table below. Kaleva crossed out due to the cessation of the production of profiles of this brand in 2018 and is provided for information only.

The five highest values ​​in each federal district are highlighted in yellow. Accordingly, profile brands are ranked in descending order of the number of federal districts, where they are in the top 5, and in descending order of the total number of requests, if the number of districts is the same. Positions (places in the rating) are numbered without taking into account brands that are not mentioned in the rating of the largest manufacturers. This is done so that both ratings can be compared.

Rating of brands of pvc window profiles according to the average monthly frequency of search queries in Yandex (within Russia) as of February 02, 2022

*only requests that include a material specification (plastic|plastic|pvc)

The reasons for the absence of some brands in the ranking of manufacturers are as follows. Kömmerling, Trocal and Gealan are not essential for their owners. The first two belong to the Profine concern and are produced together with KBE in the Moscow region. Veka owns the latter and extrudes it at its second plant in Novosibirsk.

Salamander, Schüco and WDS are not produced in Russia. Schüco is a rare and very expensive profile. The manufacturer specializes in systems made of aluminum and steel, and PVC is supplied from Germany in a limited but elite range. Salamander for the Belarusian and Russian markets is made in Belarus. WDS is a purely Ukrainian profile, produced in Kharkov.

The Artec plant in Tver is too small to be in the top 16. Ortex is absent for the same reason - the profile is produced in Omsk in even smaller volumes. Other brands can be directly compared in both ratings.

Conclusions, or who is who in the PVC window profile market

Comparison of the two ratings shows that the leaders in production and sales occupy the same top positions in terms of public interest in them. Rehau, Veka and KBE have the highest number of requests in all 8 federal districts. Brusbox and Exprof are in the top five in three FDs each. The rest of the brands, if they get into the top 5 for queries, then only in one of the districts.

Thus, the leadership of Rehau, Veka, KBE, Brusbox and Exprof is confirmed by two independent criteria at once - prevalence and popularity. Of course, this does not mean that Deceuninck or, for example, Proplex is somehow fundamentally worse. According to the totality of ratings, they are as follows, i.е. are in the top 7. However, where there are significant discrepancies between prevalence and popularity, it is worth thinking about the reasons and looking for additional information to make the right decision.

For example, Artec, with small production volumes and a predominantly budget orientation, may owe its unexpectedly high popularity to only the German origin of the brand and a well-established sales network throughout Russia, which simultaneously sells many other components for production windows. And the low frequency of requests for Trocal and Kömmerling may be due to the lack of price choice. Both brands are narrowly focused on the premium segment, accessible to few.

Of course, there are no comrades for the taste and color. It is more important for someone to save money now, someone is ready to invest in long-term comfort, and for someone the main thing is prestige and status. However, choosing a brand from among the leaders is in any case easier, more convenient and safer. Top 5, top 6 or top 7 profiles will be guaranteed to meet the expectations of any customer, since leadership, by definition, implies both leadership quality and a leader assortment. Any other profiles may not have some important advantages for you personally.