Spiral Balance Tip & Shoe Questions

Question

This is my first time replacing spiral balances, so any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

My broken balances are 3/8 X 25 inches with a green tip. It looks like you only offer this size with a red (7 - 21 lbs) or blue (11 - 22 lbs) tip. My sash weighs 19.6 lbs, so theoretically either should work.

1. If I go with the blue ones (seems to make sense), will they be substantially harder to work with, since they are stronger than the reds (and I'm a DIYer)?

2. What should I look for regarding my pivot lock shoes to determine if they need to be replaced or would you recommend automatically replacing them?

3. This will be my first window of several that need balances; however, some of the other old balances no longer have tips on them. Can I simply use the sash weight when picking those replacements?

Thanks again for your help.

John

Bob · Accepted Answer

Thanks for posting. If the balance is 3/8" in diameter, then chances are you might have what originally was a blue-tip S900-25; either way, so long as your balance falls within either colored tip's weight range, you should be OK, and neither should necessarily be harder to work with than the other. As far as your pivot shoes go, if they are undamaged there's no need to replace them, but if you do want new ones, we need a picture of the shoe out of the window, along with the width and thickness dimensions. Finally, yes, for balances that no longer have colored tips, weighing the window sash is the best bet to determine what you need. Let us know if you have any questions.