Jeld wen spiral balance shoe

Hey, Josh.

Your balance looks like a match for either our Series 900 (3/8" diameter tube) or Series 600 (5/8" diameter tube) with the black tip option. As for the pivot shoe, this could be either our 15-167 or 15-179 so I recommend looking over our dimensions and comparing them with yours to see which one of these matches best. 

My apologies! We always recommend sticking with the hardware that's original to your window. I'll also post a video below that will walk you through the replacement process for these types of balances.

You say your spiral balances are hard to open, can you elaborate what you mean by this?

Hey there. Emily isn't here today but I'll do my best to help.

Sounds to me like these springs are too strong for the sash. You'd be surprised how many installers put in the strongest possible balance they can find, not realizing that that does more harm than good. They call these "balances" for a good reason; the calibration of the spring has to be balanced against the weight of the sash. If it's too strong then you run into the same issues you're having now.

Looking at your photos, I would wager that you have the 9/16" diameter Series 600. You have the Black Tip, too, which is the strongest possible calibration.

Can you tell me what the length of the tube is? That would allow me to determine exactly how much weight your balance was intended to support. Can you also tell me the weight of the sash itself? With those two pieces of information, I can confirm whether the Black Tip is indeed appropriate for your application and, if it's not, what would be better suited. 

Thank you! That is a 31" balance, so with a black tip we're looking at 31 through 40 pounds of support precisely. If That's just fine if your sash is 35 pounds, but if it's more on the 25 pound end of things then that's a problem. It would definitely be too strong in that case. I would definitely try to get that sash weight to confirm.

It is also possible that it was over-calibrated. These only require 2-3 turns to be properly charged. Any more than that can cause issues, though maybe not as dramatic as what you're seeing now. Still, it's definitely possible. Knowing the sash weight will either confirm or eliminate that as an explanation.