Help Identifying Double Coil

Home Owner from Michigan

Coils have become completely deformed and disconnected from pivot shoe. I need help getting replacement part(s). It is is a two-coil system. Is it enough to replace the coil or should I replace the carrier, detent clip, coil, and pivot shoe? No markings are present that would help identify weight bearing capacity.

Coil is half-inch wide.

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12 Replies
Tom
Tom from SWISCO
SWISCO
Expert

Hello! I'm confident we can help you replace this hardware. Can you just show me a photo of the pivot shoe? That acts as a sort of "key" and will allow me to know exactly what you have.

You don't have to replace anything other than the coil as long as they're undamaged. That's a feature of coil balances that I like: they're modular, so you only need to replace what's broken and reuse the rest.

Home Owner from Michigan
Thank you for the reply. Attached are some photos of the pivot shoe. As you can see I have the "I" pivot bar shape. There appears to be a "6" or a "9" etched on the metal coil part, but it was hard to get it to show up in the photo.
3 user uploaded images
Tom
Tom from SWISCO
SWISCO
Expert

Great, thanks! This is an easy one. This shoe is our 15-111, which is compatible with the Series 160 coil spring. You just need to match up the number on your spring to determine the best Series 160 option.

If you have a two coil system, we recommend the 15-150D cover. This is assuming you don't want to re-use your old hardware, of course.

Home Owner from Michigan
Thank you for the reply. Do you think it's a 6 or 9, or is there a calculation based on weight of the window that I should use?
Tom
Tom from SWISCO
SWISCO
Expert

Choosing between a 6 or a 9 is one of those questions that I'm never confident answering. One of these days a balance manufacturer will underline the number to help us out.

Fortunately, we do have a little formula you can use based on sash weight. What you can do is get the weight of the sash and then divide  it between the number of springs that support it. For example, if you have a 20 pound sash and it uses two springs on each side, you'd want the 5 pound spring. Does that make sense?

Home Owner from Michigan
I weighed the window and it came in at 21 pounds. Should I get the 5.5lb coil or the 6.5lb for a little extra lift.
Bob
Bob from SWISCO
SWISCO
Expert

I'm honestly not sure, as I've seen these coil balances stamped with the numbers in both directions. The best thing to do is to obtain the exact weight of the sash. Then divide that weight in half: that will tell you how much weight support you need on both sides of the sash. For instance, if you have a 34 lb window sash, that would require 17 lbs of support on either side of the sash. You could therefore use a S160-7 (for 7.5 lbs of support) and a S160-9 (for 9.5 lbs of support) on both sides of the sash. This equals 17 lbs of support on both sides of the sash, for a total of 34 lbs of support. 

Bob
Bob from SWISCO
SWISCO
Expert

Are you referring to something like the 15-150D? Take a look and let us know.

Home Owner from Michigan
Hello again Bob and Tom. I received your products and everything went great. The new coils work great! However, I broke an existing detente clip when trying to remove it from the channel. It broke in half between the screws, so I was able to get the coils in anyway, but I'm wondering if you have a replacement part for it? I didn't see any that matched what I have on your website.
Home Owner from Michigan
Yes, it looks very similar. I don't know if you can still see the photos I posted, but mine does not have that top lip/flange and it does have two screw holes, not one. One at the base and one in the middle. Will that matter?
Tom
Tom from SWISCO
SWISCO
Expert

I think it will be fine. The company made changes to how they designed the old nylon coil spring housing. They feel that the lower hole on the 15-150D is more than sufficient, and they added a top flange to cover the coil spring completely. Otherwise there are no other functional differences.

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