I have been making and selling glass top patio tables for about six or seven years. There are many different styles of glass top patio tables. Some of them are made out of wood, some out of plastic, and some are, like mine, made out of iron. Perhaps I am biased because of what I do, but it seems like not all glass top patio tables are really the same. I can not understand why anyone would buy a glass patio table made out of plastic. Yes, plastic is a very cheap, and fairly durable material, but it also has some very strong drawbacks. It does not have the beauty of cast-iron, or even of wood. So, if you are going to sacrifice looks, then why have glass top patio tables at all. A plastic patio table should have a plastic top, which is both cheaper, and somewhat more durable than glass. That way, the kids can sit at the table and, if they get rowdy as kids often do, there is no need at all to worry about them damaging the top and getting cut on it. Glass patio tables, in my opinion, should be elegant through and through, not just simply on the top.
If you are interested in glass top patio tables, you should get an iron one. There are many reasons for this. In the first place, they will simply look better than wooden ones, especially after a few seasons. It is common knowledge that outdoor wood starts to look lousy very, very quickly. It will get dingy, it will shrink and swell in the cold and warm, and it will lose its finish. Metal, on the other hand, will look the same, practically forever. Aside from this is the fact that there is just a greater harmony between the transparent glass top and thin, elegant, metal sides than there would be with comparatively thick and clunky wood. There simply are no more elegant pieces of outdoor furniture than glass top patio tables with green, whether treated metal bordering the cloudy glass top. All of your friends will no doubt appreciate your taste. In addition, because there will be little or no shrinking and expanding with the changing seasons, it will be easy to fit patio table replacement glass, should the top ever need replacing. For all of these reasons, I have very strong opinions about the proper glass top patio tables. Those are, by design, the kind of glass top patio tables that I make. I would not make a product that I could not endorse!