Thanks for all the replies.

One other question for casement users. My RO can support two casements or two casements and a center picture window. If I purchased the casements I'm sort of favoring the two casements so it brings up the question - do you put the hinge on the left/right or center (I have seen both)?

Also, I saw it mentioned that casements allow you to wash both sides of the window. How is this done? With my current sliders I can easily lift the windows up and out to clean them.