There is a company called LuxWall that is producing vacuum insulated windows that act basically like a thermos. There is a tiny space between the two panes that is pulled down to a high vacuum that results in a window that only transfers heat via radiation. Conductive and convective heat transfer are essentially eliminated. This results in a window with a R value similar to a fully insulated wall. Because the full unit is so thin, they are able to replace single pane windows in old buildings and drastically cut buildings energy consumption.
One bigger hit and its gone and you will not even know it till it fogs. Even argon glass of same pressure as air can eventually leak out and be replaced by air, reducing its efficiency significantly.
Are these big national-brand window companies that provide "lifetime warranty" just cashing in today and hoping for the best (bankruptcy) exit strategy later when all their installs from this generation fail in a couple decades?
Not installers, but companies like Pella, Window World, et al.
They may define "lifetime" as "25 years" or limit the warranty to the original purchaser, knowing that most people don't live in one house that long, or count on the later owners not realizing that there is a warranty, or knowing when or from whom the windows were purchased.
Yeah, there's a disturbing trend of products advertising a "lifetime warranty", only the fine print says that the "lifetime" in question is the "lifetime of the product", which is whatever the manufacturer says it is (usually no better than the competition).
These warranties typically only cover issues due to manufacturing. If your window fails decades later they'll just say it wasn't due for manufacturing.
That sounds like double/triple glazing which is has been around for years in Europe. The most common type uses Argon as an insulator, but there are also vacuum versions.
