Spiral Balances - Which color tip? Were my springs too weak?

Question

The bottom tilt sash measures 30" H x 29" W and is too heavy to me to remove to weigh. The current bottom balance measures 29" long, 9/16" wide, and has a RED tip.

All of six of my aluminium windows currently have RED tip balances and all six windows have broken balances, three have broken balances on both the top and bottom sashes. This would suggest that RED tip balances are not strong enough to support the weight of the sash.

Without being able to weigh the sash, What color tip should I use?

Do you carry channel covers? When the balances on the top sash fail, the weight of the sash causes it to fall with such force that it crushes the channel cover. The bottom channel covers measure 6" H x 1-1/2" W, and are white.

Tom · Accepted Answer

It's possible that your original balances were too weak for your sash, but without knowing the actual weight of that sash there's no way to tell. There are a lot of different reasons why the original balances ended up failing and a weak spring is only one of many.

How long did the original balances work for? These are made to last around 10 years, depending on frequency of use. If they worked fine for about that time frame then it's more likely that they failed due to age. You could confidently stick with the Red Tip option in that scenario.

Ultimately, there's only one way to be 100% sure and that's to weigh your sash. Why guess? It's always better to be safe than sorry.

As for balance covers, I'm afraid that we are not able to supply these. I apologize for the inconvenience.