Andersen Casement Windows: Line Guide

Ask three dealers for a quote on andersen casement windows and you may get three different products, because Andersen sells casements across four distinct lines with different materials, price brackets, and dealer channels. The company has built crank-out windows since the 1930s and its parts catalog reaches back decades — a genuine reason contractors keep speccing the brand — but choosing among andersen casement windows means understanding what the 100 Series, 400 Series, A-Series, and E-Series actually are underneath the shared logo. This guide maps the lines, the sizes, the glass, and the money.

Part of our Windows & Doors guide — explore the full guide →

The Four-Line Map in One Minute

• 100 Series: Fibrex composite throughout; the value line sold heavily through Home Depot and lumberyards; roughly $300 to $650 per casement unit
• 400 Series: the classic — wood core with vinyl-clad exterior; the biggest-selling wood window line in America; roughly $550 to $1,100 per unit
• A-Series: the architectural flagship — wood interior, fiberglass-composite exterior, deepest color and grille program; roughly $800 to $1,600
• E-Series: fully custom aluminum-clad wood, built to order in nearly any size, shape, and one of 50 standard exterior colors plus customs; roughly $1,000 to $2,500-plus

A useful mental model: 100 is the composite commodity play, 400 is the standardized wood workhorse, A-Series is the designer catalog, and E-Series is the custom shop.

100 Series: Fibrex for the Budget-Minded

Fibrex is Andersen’s proprietary composite — about 40 percent reclaimed wood fiber in a polymer matrix — and the 100 Series casement is built from it entirely. The material is roughly twice as rigid as hollow vinyl, which matters on casements because sash stiffness fights the bowing that plagues cheap crank-outs. Sizes run to about 36 inches wide by 72 inches tall in stock increments; colors include white, sandtone, terratone, and a solid dark bronze/black that vinyl competitors struggle to match at the price. Glass is dual-pane low-E with argon standard, hitting U-factors near 0.28. What you give up against the wood lines: slimmer hardware feel, fewer grille programs, and no interior wood. Against premium vinyl competitors, the 100 Series usually wins on frame stiffness and dark-color stability and loses occasionally on price by $50 to $100 a unit — a trade I take.

400 Series: The Default Answer

The 400 Series casement is the unit most people picture when they say “Andersen window”: a treated wood frame and sash wrapped in rigid vinyl cladding outside, paintable or stainable pine inside, and the dual-arm operator hardware the brand has refined for generations. Stock sizes run wide — widths from about 17 to 40 inches, heights to 72, with factory-mulled pairs, triples, and picture-flanker combinations — and the line’s standardization is its superpower: dealers stock it, lead times run short, and replacement sashes, operators, hinges, and weatherstrip for decades-old 400s (and their Perma-Shield ancestors) remain orderable. Glass options include High-Performance Low-E4, SmartSun for cooling climates, and triple-pane HeatLock configurations reaching toward U-0.20. Cladding colors are the line’s one modern weakness — white, sandtone, terratone, forest green, black, and a few others, but nothing like the A-Series palette.

A-Series and E-Series: The Premium Tiers

The A-Series was designed around architectural styles: a fiberglass-composite exterior over a wood interior, eleven-plus exterior colors, interior species options including maple, oak, and cherry, and the brand’s deepest simulated-divided-lite program. Performance packages push U-factors to 0.20 or better and PG ratings suitable for coastal zones. Choose it when the drawings call for consistent sightlines and color across casements, doubles, and specialty shapes.

E-Series (the former Eagle operation) is the custom line: extruded-aluminum-clad wood built to order in nearly any dimension, radius, or trapezoid, 50 standard exterior colors plus custom matching, and interior wood species into the exotic range. Casement sizes extend past the other lines’ caps, and push-out hardware is available for the traditionalists. It prices accordingly and quotes through Andersen’s architectural dealers with multi-week lead times. For restoration and high-design work it competes directly with Marvin Signature and Kolbe.

Sizing, Egress, and Combinations

Across lines, Andersen casements ship as singles, factory-mulled pairs and triples, and combinations with fixed picture units and transoms. Two spec notes matter. Egress: many Andersen casements meet bedroom egress in surprisingly small frames because the sash opens fully clear — check the published clear-opening tables, and note the optional egress hinge hardware that widens the clear opening on narrower units. Handing: order left or right hinging deliberately for breeze direction and exterior clearances, and on mulled pairs specify sashes opening away from each other (French-door look) or the same direction (ribbon look) — dealers default inconsistently, so put it in writing.

Pricing and the Replacement-Path Question

Installed pricing per opening in most markets: 100 Series $500 to $900; 400 Series $800 to $1,400; A-Series $1,100 to $2,000; E-Series $1,400 to $3,000-plus. Andersen supports two replacement paths that change the math. Full-unit replacement (insert or full-frame) prices as above. Sash-and-hardware conversion kits — available for many 400-Series-era casements — replace the sash, weatherstrip, and hardware within the existing sound frame for roughly half the cost of a full unit, a path competitors mostly cannot match because their older frames lack parts support. Before condemning 1980s-2000s Andersen casements, have a dealer run the unit’s identification (etched on the glass corner or stamped on the sash) and price the kit option first.

Parts Availability: The Brand’s Quiet Superpower

Operators, hinges, locks, weatherstrip, and even sash replacements for windows built 30 and 40 years ago remain in Andersen’s parts system, searchable by the unit ID etched in a glass corner or stamped on the hinge rail. Typical prices: dual-arm operators $40 to $90, hinge sets $20 to $50, lock assemblies $25 to $60, full replacement sashes $200 to $500. For homeowners this changes the repair-versus-replace calculus meaningfully — a house of 1995 Andersen casements with stripped operators is a $500 parts project, not a $12,000 window project. Third-party suppliers stock the common patterns too. My advice on any older Andersen: identify before you demo.

Where Andersen Casements Fall Short

Balance requires the criticisms. The 400 Series’ vinyl cladding color range trails the fiberglass competition, and dark 400 cladding was not offered historically, frustrating owners matching modern black-window trends (the 100 Series black is the budget answer; A-Series the premium one). Entry pricing runs above vinyl-window competitors, and in pure U-factor-per-dollar terms a good fiberglass triple-pane from regional makers can beat the 400. Finally, quality depends on the installing dealer as much as the factory — Andersen sells through a certified-contractor network of varying skill, so vet the installer with the same energy as the product line.

Reading the Quote: Options That Move the Price

Andersen quotes arrive as a base unit plus a long options column, and a few lines swing totals by hundreds per window. Glass upgrades stack fastest — SmartSun over standard Low-E4 adds roughly $30 to $60 per unit, triple-pane $80 to $150. Grilles are the sleeper cost: full-divided-light and SDL programs can add $75 to $250 per sash, versus $30-ish for removable interior grilles that photograph nearly as well from the street. Hardware finish upgrades (oil-rubbed bronze, black) run $15 to $40 per unit, insect screens are sometimes itemized rather than included, and factory mulling of pairs carries its own charge. Ask the dealer to price the identical opening in two adjacent lines — a 400 with options frequently lands within $100 of a base A-Series, at which point the better exterior material wins the tie.

Picking Your Line: A Decision Shortcut

1. Rental, flip, or budget-capped project needing stiff frames and black-window looks: 100 Series
2. Owner-occupied replacement wanting wood interiors, deep parts support, and resale-recognized branding: 400 Series
3. Architect-driven project with color and grille specifications: A-Series
4. Custom shapes, historic matching, oversized casements: E-Series

Whichever tier fits, insist on the NFRC numbers for your exact glass package, confirm egress tables on bedroom units, and register the warranty — 20 years on glass, 10 on non-glass components in the mainstream lines. Andersen’s casements are not the cheapest crank-outs on the market; they are the ones you will still be able to buy a hinge for in 2050, and for a window that lives on its moving parts, that is worth real money.