9lb Quick Tilt Balance

Hi there. Thanks for the very kind words. It does appear you need a new coil balance system. However I do not believe this is the Series 140 system. The only way to know for sure is to remove the old assembly and show us. We especially need to see the pivot shoe. The identity of the pivot shoe will tell us the identity of the coil springs you need. The video below has some general principles that can help with this process. Let me know if you have further questions. 

Thanks for getting back to me. This looks an older version of our 15-087 Pivot Shoe, which uses Series 180 Coil Balances. The cam that accepts the pivot bar is a little different; see if your pivot bar matches something like our 26-422. Removing it from the window would be best to confirm this. 

I'm afraid I can't tell in your photos how many coil springs are per side, but if you give me the exact weight of the window sash, I can calculate exactly the spring weights you need. This can be done by placing the sash on a bathroom scale. 

Finally, it does appear the bottom of the sash frame is cracked. Unfortunately we cannot replace this. A local hardware store or professional may be able to assist. Apologies for any inconvenience. 

Happy new year to you as well! Sorry, I should have clarified. You see, the stamps on the housing for this particularly balance system is usually not a reliable indicator of the coil springs needed. While this is the case for a few of our springs, like the Series 140, with the vast majority of coil balance Series, the weight can only be deduced in two ways: from a stamp on the coil spring itself, typically near the tongue, or the sash weight. Since many coils don't have clear stamps, the exact sash weigh is often the only way to go. If you can indeed give the exact sash weight, I can tell you precisely the spring weights and how many of each coil you need. 

A final point I should make is that the number of springs on each side isn't as important as the spring weights used, or the amount of weight the coils are meant to support. In some cases in fact, you may wind up using fewer coil springs per side than you did before, if your replacements support more weight. For instance, you could replace two of the S180-3 3 pound springs with a single S180-6 6 pound spring. Hope this makes sense. 

Thanks for getting back to me. A window that weighs 17.2 pounds should be able to use the S180-9 9 pound springs. Use just one on each side of the sash. That will total 18 pounds of support overall--being within 1 pound of the actual sash weight should work fine. This also means you're going to be using fewer coil springs than you used to--your sash was probably using a pair of 4 lb and 5 lb springs per side, or some other similar combination to yield the same overall support weight. Therefore you also wouldn't need the 15-086 Tandem Assembly; just the 15-087 shoe on each side, with the spring inside the shoe. See the diagram below. 

Thank you for the very kind words! I'm not sure if I'd dazzle Einstein with my explanations but it's nice to know they're helpful all the same. Let me know if you have further questions! 

Detail of 15-086

I'm afraid we don't sell the 15-087 with the spring pre-loaded, but it's very simple to do yourself. The 15-087 just snaps apart and then snaps back together. 

You do need to replace both sides, yes. Springs lose a bit of their tension over years of constant use, so mixing old and new springs will lead to uneven support, since one side will be a little weaker than the other. It may not seem like it's weak enough to notice at first, but you will in time. This will also lead the new springs to wear out faster since they have to pick up the slack for their weaker partner.