Broken Coil balance and Tilt latch

Thanks for contact us, Sam. Based on your photos, I recommend our 15-180 pivot shoe, Series 190 coil spring, 15-181 detent clip, 15-182 bushing, and then our 26-243 and 26-244 tilt latches. Look these parts over and let me know what you think.

All pieces that go into this coil balance assembly are sold separately. The spring simply screws to the shoe.

Yep, the bushing goes over the little posts on the 15-181 detent clip, and then the spring goes over that. It works as a kind of cushion between the detent clip posts and the spring itself, so it doesn't wiggle around. We don't have a video on this, but it's a very simple function.

To be perfectly honest, your existing bushings are probably reusable. They don't often break. 

Yes, that's what that means. We don't have a video that explains how this works, no. It's pretty straight forward. If you have two posts on your clip, you need two springs. You can even see on the 15-181 Double Support Clip product description that it's a cover designed for two coils.

Are both of your old balances missing their springs entirely? You should be able to use the old hardware as a reference for what you need.

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. The number of springs used and the weight of the sash has no direct relation to the Series of the balance used. The Series is defined by the size of the spring and the shoe it attaches to. In your case, since you have the 15-180 shoe, you want the Series 190 spring. No other spring will work with the 15-180.

The weight of the sash and number of springs used is, however, closely related to the Series 190 stamp. If your sash is 12 pound and if it's supported by four springs, then you usually want four 3 pound springs. That's not an option for the Series 190 though, so you can go with two 6 pound springs instead. That'd be our S190-640. That also means you want to forget about the 15-181 double clip and go with our 15-186 single clip instead.

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble. I would absolutely recommend replacing both balances in the window at the same time. Springs lose tension over the years from constant use, so an old spring is going to be weaker than a new spring of the same weight rating. When you mix old and new, the new parts have to work double to pick up the slack for their weaker partner, which unfortunately causes them to fail earlier than they would ordinarily.

I also wouldn't recommend increasing the load of these springs unless the sash weight calls for it. If your sash is 12 pounds, then you want one 6 pound spring on each side. If you have any reason to doubt that your sash weighs 12 pounds, then you need to figure out its exact weight before you buy anything else. You cannot guess for these.