Historic wood window needs spirals

Quick Learner from USA

Sep 12, 2017 7:57 am

I have a historic wood window in a house that cannot be reinstalled via weight, chain, pulley.
I am looking for a spiral balance system for this window. It is a 39 inch sash for a double hung window.
Can you point me in the right direction of what I need to purchase?
I'm only seeing replacement spirals on your website, I need an entire kit to install from scratch.

4 Replies

Paul from SWISCO

Sep 14, 2017 10:04 am

Being that you have historic wood windows, our Series 500 5/8" balance with a 17-012 bracket will work very well. This balance system has been used by wood window manufacturers going back to the 1940s. To determine the lengths of your spiral balances, you would add 1" to the glass height for the top sash and 3" to the bottom sash glass height. I'd be happy to field any other questions that you might have, as well.

Home Owner from Columbus Ohio

Oct 17, 2020 2:11 pm

Do you need two for the balances for a window or one? We have 22 windows that average about 20-30 lbs each. Double hung. We are removing the single pane glass and installing new double pane low e insulated glass so we can remove the storm windows. That may change the weight of the window slightly.

If each sash is 30lbs (they vary through the house) do you need two spring loaded balances (one per side) for the 30 lbs?

Thanks for your help - we have been looking for this solution for a while.

Tom from SWISCO

Oct 21, 2020 9:13 am

In almost all cases, you only need one balance per side. I have known some rare windows to use two per side, but those are in extreme cases where the weight of the sash is incredible. 30 pounds is not really that big of a deal. It's very unlikely that you need two balances per side. That would be overkill and your windows would probably operate worse for it.

At the end of the day, it depends on the size of the balance and the weight it supports. We have a chart on each Series 500 store page (assuming that's what you have) that tells you exactly how much weight each color tip option supports. That should tell you if the balances you want to buy can support the weight of your sash.