ALPES Sliding Window Warranty Terms: What the Document Covers, Excludes and Needs From You

Almost every buyer who asks about a sliding window warranty asks the same question: how many years? It is the wrong question, and it has never once decided a claim. What decides a claim is six clauses buried further down the page: who is covered, what counts as a defect, when the clock starts, what is excluded, what the remedy actually is, and who pays to move a replacement part across an ocean. This page is about those six clauses, and about the failure modes that are specific to a sliding window - because a slider does not fail the way a casement window fails, and most warranty disputes on sliding products are arguments about that difference.

Why this page does not print a warranty period

We could print a number here. It would be the least useful sentence on the page, for two reasons.

First, a period without a definition is marketing. "Ten years" tells you nothing until you know what has to go wrong inside those ten years, who decides that it went wrong, and what happens the day after they agree with you. Second, published warranty periods for the same class of product disagree with each other so widely that quoting one helps nobody. A European manufacturer's published guarantee conditions for aluminium joinery and an Australian supplier's published product warranty do not even agree on when the clock starts - one starts it when the product is released to the buyer, the other on delivery or installation, whichever happens first. Both are real documents. Neither is a standard.

So we will not publish a period here. Instead, ask us for the warranty document in writing before you sign the order, and use the sections below to read it. Everything on this page is designed to make that document legible, and to make your order specific enough that a deviation from it becomes measurable.

A sliding window does not have one warranty. It has four.

The single most useful thing you can do before reading a warranty is to separate the product into the parts that were made by different people. Each of those parts has its own failure mode, its own typical coverage, and - in practice - its own company behind it.

Notice the pattern: the shortest coverage in almost every published warranty we have read sits on the layer that moves, because movement is wear by definition. That is not a manufacturer being difficult. It is the honest structure of the product. The mistake buyers make is comparing one supplier's frame number against another supplier's hardware number and calling it a comparison.

The six clauses that decide whether you get paid

Read any warranty in this order. If a clause is missing or vague, that is the clause that will be used against you.

The three that hurt most

The start date. A supplier naturally assumes the clock starts when production finishes or when goods leave the factory. A buyer assumes it starts when the goods arrive, or when they are installed. On an export order, that gap is the shipping time plus however long the crates sit on site. Write the start event into the commercial terms before production, not after the first claim.

The remedy. Published guidance on Chinese supplier warranty terms puts this plainly: a factory may agree to ｒｅｐｌａｃｅ a low-value product and still refuse to pay more than the product is worth to ship it. From the factory's side, providing the replacement has fulfilled the warranty. From your side, a cost remains. Both positions are reasonable and only one of them can win, so settle it in the order.

Freight and duties. Industry guidance on cross-border warranty parts describes a common split: the supplier covers the express courier for the replacement part travelling out, while the buyer covers the cost of returning the failed part for diagnosis, and warranty replacements are typically shipped with duties unpaid so the buyer remains liable for import charges on arrival. Ask for the commercial invoice on any replacement to be endorsed as a no-commercial-value warranty part for customs purposes only, and ask for an RMA number before anything is returned. Also ask whether replacements can ride with your next commercial shipment instead of being air-freighted alone - that single option usually settles the freight argument before it starts.

Wear, adjustment, or defect: the line that decides most sliding window claims

Here is the difference that matters. A casement window complaint is usually "it leaks". A sliding window complaint is usually "it is harder to move than it used to be" - and that sentence is not a defect report. It is a symptom with three possible causes, and only one of them is a manufacturing issue.

• Wear. Rollers, pile seals, fin seals and track surfaces are consumable interfaces. They are designed to be replaced while the frame stays in place. Published warranty documents in several markets cover moving parts for a much shorter period than the frame precisely for this reason.
• Adjustment. A sliding sash sits on adjustable rollers, and buildings move: thermal expansion, settlement, floor deflection. A sash that glides in the morning and drags in the afternoon is reporting geometry, not a failed part. Replacing hardware to fix a geometry problem is the most expensive way to not fix the problem.
• Defect. A component that failed before its expected duty: an IGU that fogged between the panes, a coating that chalked beyond the agreed criterion, a cracked corner joint, a seized roller bearing, a sash that has dropped past the adjustment range.

The table below is the practical version. Take it on site before you write the claim email, because the photograph you do not take is usually the one that decides it.

Two of those rows deserve a special note. Water in the outer track is normal on a sliding product, because the sliding principle requires a channel that catches water and then discharges it - a sash has to be able to travel through the same zone that gets wet. And draught at the interlock is not automatically a product fault: a sliding sash seals against a compressible interface, not the compression seal a casement sash gets when it is pulled against the frame by its locking points. Neither is a defect. Both are design behaviour that the buyer should have been told about before ordering.

Four makers, one window: ask who answers you first

Because the product has four layers made by different parties, a claim can easily become a relay race: the frame supplier points at the glass, the glass supplier points at the glazing method, the hardware brand points at the installation. None of them is necessarily lying.

So do not ask "who is to blame". Ask a different question in your order: who is the first respondent? You want one counterparty who accepts the claim, investigates, and settles internally with its own sub-suppliers - rather than a contact list to work through yourself. Get that commitment in writing and it is worth more than any period printed on the front page.

When you do get to the component level, the documents you need are the ones that tie each layer to a named brand and a named rating: the alloy and temper certificate, the strip material and width, the glass build-up, the coating standard, and the hardware brand and model with its load rating. Those five lines convert a warranty from a promise into a testable specification.

Transport damage is not a warranty claim

This distinction saves the most money and is missed most often. Damage that happens between the factory and the site falls under the carriage contract and cargo insurance, not under the product warranty. Mixing the two is how claims stall for months.

Put four rules on the site instruction sheet before the container arrives, because the claim dies if the crate is opened first: photograph the container seal before it is broken; photograph every crate before it is opened; photograph each unit before it is unstacked; and write exceptions on the delivery note at the time, not later. Published freight-claim guidance asks for exactly this set - bill of lading, seal photographs, images of the packaging before unboxing, and detailed close-ups of the damaged components.

The exclusions that quietly void claims

Every one of the following appears in published warranty documents we have read from other suppliers in other markets. They are not exotic. They are the ordinary reasons a valid-looking claim is refused.

• Installation not to the drawing. An opening out of square by a few millimetres can bind a sash and, in published terms, void cover entirely. Several suppliers require professional installation as a condition.
• Undeclared environment. Coastal salt exposure, pool chlorination and industrial atmospheres are the most commonly excluded, and usually only if the finish and hardware grade were not specified for them. Some published coating warranties exclude salt-spray damage inside a stated distance from the coast unless the finish was specified to the appropriate grade. ｄｅｃｌａｒｅ the exposure at order time and make the supplier name the grade in reply.
• Wrong cleaning. High-pressure washing, abrasive pads and aggressive or acidic cleaners destroy a coating film and a gasket at the same time. Finishing warranties are measured against a cleaning regime, and pressure washing is the fastest way to lose one.
• Contamination by other trades. Plaster, mortar, welding sparks and paint overspray - including contamination of the hardware, which is one of the most frequently cited exclusions in published European guarantee conditions.
• Condensation on the room-side face. Moisture on the indoor surface is a building and ventilation condition, not a product failure. Fogging between the panes is a product failure. They look similar and they are opposite claims.
• Glass added to later. Applied films, dark internal blinds and added shading change the thermal condition of the pane and can cause thermal stress breakage that no glass warranty covers.
• Unauthorised modification. Drilling weep holes, cutting a track, fitting non-original rollers or locks, or moving a unit to a different opening. Re-installing a product somewhere other than its original position is a named exclusion in more than one published document.
• Unpaid invoices. Published terms in several markets make cover conditional on settlement of all payment obligations. A complaint is not a reason to withhold payment.
• Territorial scope. Some published guarantees only cover a named list of countries. If you are importing, read that line before you read the duration line.

The claim pack: what to have ready before you send the first email

Suppliers rarely accept a significant claim on the strength of a written complaint alone. They want evidence that connects the failure to a production batch. Assemble this before you write, and the first exchange will be short.

Two clauses worth more than the duration

Advance replacement. Without it, the path is: return the part, wait for inspection, wait for approval, wait for production, wait for shipment. Published guidance on industrial equipment warranties describes exactly this sequence and notes that the return-to-factory route can consume weeks even when the warranty is honoured in full. With an advance-replacement clause, the replacement ships first and the failed part follows. On a live site that clause is the difference between a defect and a delay claim.

A critical spares list shipped with the order. Rollers, pile seals, gaskets, a lock set, a handle and touch-up material, packed in the original container, cost a fraction of one air-freighted parcel later. More importantly, they remove the freight argument from your first warranty conversation, because the part is already in the building. Ask for the list to be agreed before production, not after handover.

What the same word means in aluminium, uPVC and timber

A warranty is also a statement about which material's failure modes you are buying into, so do not compare an aluminium warranty with a timber warranty on the number of years. They are arguing about different things.

What ALPES can put in writing, and what you should still ask for

The most useful thing a factory can give you is not a promise. It is a specification firm enough that a deviation from it is measurable. Here is what we publish, and - honestly - what is still missing from it.

Turn that table into an annex of your purchase order. This is the real point of it: once a figure is written into the order, a deviation from it is a defect. If it is only in a brochure, it is an opinion, and no warranty will measure your claim against it.

Where a local supplier still wins, honestly

A local supplier can attend site within the week, speak the language of your building authority, carry spares in a van, and - most importantly - hold a single point of liability that includes the installation. Most published warranty documents explicitly exclude installation and the waterproofing of the perimeter, which means the two things most likely to leak are the two things your factory warranty does not cover. If you want one phone number that owns the whole opening, buy locally.

What factory-direct gives back is traceability. A single sash, a single panel or a single gasket profile can be remade to your original order, years later, because the drawings, the profile tooling and the batch record still exist. A distributor replacing a discontinued series gives you the nearest thing instead. On a project where every opening is scheduled and identical - villas, apartment blocks, hotel floors - that ability to remake one unit to the original order is worth more than a same-day visit. On a single dwelling replacement, it is not, and we would rather you bought locally than had a bad experience with us.

Ten clauses to paste into your next RFQ or purchase order

Frequently asked questions

Does a longer warranty mean a better window?

On its own, no. A long period with a broad exclusion list and a vague defect definition is worth less than a short one that names the specification it is measured against and states who pays the freight. Compare the exclusion list first and the period second.

Is water standing in the bottom track a fault?

Usually not. A sliding window's lower track is a drainage channel by design, and it discharges through weep holes. Water in the outer channel is the system working. Water that crosses the inner upstand means the drainage path is blocked or the design pressure has been exceeded - clear the weeps first, and photograph the water level before you report it.

Is fogging between the panes covered?

In published warranty documents this is the one symptom that is almost always treated as a product defect, because it means the insulated glass unit has lost its seal. Condensation on the room-side face of the glass is the opposite case: it is a ventilation and building condition, and published exclusion lists name it specifically.

Who pays to ship a replacement part?

Whoever your order says. In the absence of a clause, the common industry pattern is that the supplier sends the replacement and the buyer covers the return of the failed part, with duties on the replacement left to the buyer. Ask for all three to be assigned in the order, and ask whether replacements can travel with your next container.

Will a replacement sash match the colour of the original?

Not necessarily, and published documents in several markets list shade difference between production batches as excluded rather than defective. This is why the batch reference matters: keep it, quote it when you order a replacement, and if the unit is in a highly visible position, raise the match question before the replacement is made rather than after it arrives.

Does the warranty cover installation?

Almost never, and that is not evasive. Perimeter sealing, flashing and the waterproofing of the opening belong to the building envelope, not to the window. Published documents commonly exclude them explicitly and require installation to the manufacturer's instructions as a condition of cover. If you want the whole opening under one liability, buy through a local supplier who installs.

The short version

• Do not buy on the number of years. Buy on the defect definition, the start date, the remedy, and the freight clause.
• A sliding window has four warranties inside it, made by four parties. Get one of them named as the first respondent.
• Most sliding-window complaints are wear or adjustment, not defects. Learn the difference before you write the email, and photograph before you touch anything.
• Transport damage is a cargo claim, not a warranty claim. Photograph the container seal and the crates before opening.
• ｄｅｃｌａｒｅ your environment at order time. Coastal exposure that is not declared is exposure that will not be covered.
• Ask for advance replacement and a spares list shipped with the order. Those two clauses will matter more than the period.
• Turn the specification into an annex of the purchase order. Once it is in the order, a deviation is a defect.

Ask us for the warranty document in writing before you sign, and send us the specification you want it measured against. We would rather negotiate the clauses now than argue about them later.