Looks like a S385 Channel Balance. Is It?
Thanks for contacting SWISCO. I agree, that shoe depth looks a little too big for the Series 385. I don't immediately recognize this, but one of my colleagues will. We will get back to you as soon as we know more!
I've actually never seen this, either. I've never come across a bottom balance shoe that's quite as deep as yours. The closest we have is our 15-003, which is 1-3/16" deep, but it has no wings and it's still a little short.
Do you think that will be okay? We can custom make a balance for you with a 19-005 top and 15-003 bottom. If you're interested, let me know how many you need and I can email you an order link and price quote. I'm afraid I can't guarantee if it will work, but we have nothing closer.
Does the bottom balance shoe serves any purpose other than just guiding the window? I guess my question is, how does the balance attach to the window? Does the window need the top shoe and the bottom shoe to hook into something?
If I only need to get the top shoe to lock onto the window, then the bottom shoe depth may not be an issue. I will take the window down and look at the tracks and try to figure this out.
The nylon attachments don't hook into anything. The top attachment needs to catch the take-out-clip during removal, and the bottom attachment keeps the balance stable against the sash, but that's about it.
That said, if the shoe is too small then your balance might be loose in the window. I can't really predict what side effects will happen with the kind of difference in size we're working with here.
I am going to try ordering it and see how it works.
One last question. The current balance has 26-5 printed on it. I understand the length is 1+26 so it is 27 inches. The "5" is the weight? Which one should I get? Should I just weight the window?
A stamp of 26-5 usually corresponds to our 2650 option. You can always weigh your sash and refer to the chart on our S385-27 store page to confirm,
I was worried about the depth of the bottom shoe, but actually the depth the top shoe is more important.
At first I was not able to get the window to latch on the top shoes. To get it working, I had to move the window to one side and let the window top sash guide to lock onto the channel balance top shoe, push in the clip on that side then try to move the window to the other side to catch the balance top shoe on that side. Once both channel balance top shoes are latched they seems to be stable.
The window opens and closes much easier now compared to the old balance. There is more play side to side with the window open but once it is closed it is solid.
Thank you so much for working with me on this!!
Awesome, I'm glad you got it working! Thank you so much for your business, and for following up with clear details on how you got it to install. I'm certain this will help other customers in the future.
