Boot or shoe

Many thanks for writing to us. The coil balance shoe looks like our 15-180. We pulled up the related parts that goes with it; see them on this page. The coil springs themselves are our Series 190. You will need the numbers on the old springs when ordering--if you cannot find these numbers, weigh your window sash and we can figure out the coil spring numbers for you. Let us know.

If you're only replacing one coil balance system, then $95 is definitely not a deal. If you're replacing both coil balances on either side of the window, you can do it yourself for half that.

Coil balances seem a little complex at first, but once you learn a little about how they work then they're actually one of the easiest balance systems to deal with. I will do my best to help! We're going to cover the three components of a coil balance system: the pivot shoe, the spring, and the retainer.

Let's start with the pivot shoe. This is what connects your sash (the moving glass panel in your window) to the coil spring. The bottom corners of the sash fit into the pivot shoe, and then the pivot shoe connects to the springs. Bob identified your shoe as our 15-180. If the shoe is the only thing that's broken, you can probably re-use the old springs. I do it all the time.

Of course, if your springs are broken, then you'll definitely want new ones. Like Bob said, the 15-180 shoe is compatible with the Series 190 coil spring. What you want to do now is look at the stamp printed on each old coil. It should be on the outer diameter, near the end of the "tongue."  This indicates how much weight each individual spring can support. If your springs can't carry enough weight, your sash won't stay open when you raise it. If the springs carry too much weight, your sash will be harder to close, or could even drift up on its own! 

If you look at our Series 190 store page, you'll see we have six stamp options: 440, 540, 640, 740, 832, and 840. All you need to do is match up your stamp with one of these. If you can't read your stamp, or if you can't find it, let me know! I have a little trick that will help you figure out what you need.

Finally, we have the retainer. As long as yours aren't damaged then you can probably reuse them, but assuming they're broken then you want either our 15-186 for one spring or 15-181 for two springs. You'd also probably need a 15-182 bushing, which fits on the posts you see on each retainer and acts as a sort of cushion between the spring and post so that everything is nice and stable. 

Hopefully this all makes sense. If you want me to clarify any point made above, let me know and I'd be happy to do so.