Best way to lubricate window slides?
We dont hear the name too much any more, but crc may be an all around better lubricant than wd 40, for a fast go to. Years ago people who used crc often knocked wd 40 and i susoect they were correct. Crc still does not have viscosity, but it may not dry and stick like wd40. Crc does not have the mass market reach of wd40. People may not like it its odor, and that may be why.
stevecym
in Doors & Windows 4 years and 5 months ago
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stickerhappy | 4 years and 5 months ago
What’s the best type of lubricant to use on these window slides? The windows are hard to push up and down and nothing else seems to be the issue so I figured that might help but wasn’t sure of what was the right stuff to use. Any suggestions?
[3F12CE90-17EB-49B9-9D27-D65CAF55AE40](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:sYAp:3f12ce9017eb49b99d27d65caf55ae40.jpeg.jpg) [9750BD0A-01A3-4290-89AC-52DE7FDD0721](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:6yrD:9750bd0a01a3429089ac52de7fdd0721.jpeg.jpg)
stickerhappy | 4 years and 5 months ago
Oh and FYI I figure that spiral-type metal piece in photo is what needs the lubricant.
JohnHancock | 4 years and 5 months ago
Silicon spray?
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 5 months ago
So get this. 2 weeks back, someone calls and asks if i could spend an afternoon helping him with his 30 yr old windows. He knew i did doors but i told him in my youth i used to install and service these. He had had another contractor in who told him all the balances had to be replaced and gave him a pretty high price for a days work. I got there and told him none had to be replaced and two needed adjusting. But the windows were still hard to operate. This is what happens, the spring steel moves through a slotted disc as tension on it grows, making the dry metal hard to move ( i think. It has been over 30 years since i broke one open). I also recalled that when i used to have to adjust these they had a light greese on them, not oil but sticky greese. That day i had wd40 in my bag. We sprayed them and in minutes all of the windows worked like new. But i told him to get lithium grease as i was afraid wd would dry and stick. As for silicon, i would be afraid it is too thin. If not the lithium grease, i would use heavy weight single viscosity motor oil or gear oil. I think they used the grease originally so it would stay there for years
hkapstein | 4 years and 5 months ago
The balances may be shot and need replacement. Unlike weight and chain, you can probably expect these spring based balances to start failing in a few years, maybe 2-5? Silicone is for the tracks, the balances could be lubricated with lithium or other similar lubricants, or maybe graphite, but I’d ask the manufacturer before putting graphite in. WD-40 should not be used as it will strip off the existing lubricant, and later gum up. But my guess is balance replacement is the solution here.
stevecym | 4 years and 5 months ago
Urbandad, the spring balances i describe above seem to be quite old. Perhaps as old as the windows, 30 years old. The balances in my windows are 15 years old and work fine. Ops windows do not appear old.
Sometimes its better to wait and see what experience teaches us as opposed to rushing in with what google tells us. And fwiw, the bit i wrote about lithium grease and wd; that was only an experienced guess on my part. I was thinking I could be wrong, until i saw you read it someplace. Then i knew i was right.
I never saw graphite in the old windows. Not saying its not done, but i have not seen it. It gets dry and is used in places where dirt might gather in oil. Maybe there is a benefit. I dont like the stuff: it gets messy.
hkapstein | 4 years and 5 months ago
I wouldn’t use silicone on an encolosed infrequently maintained mechanism like that, for the same reason I wouldn’t use WD-40. It will work, but later gum up pretty quickly. Lithium will too, but not as soon. You’re a door guy, would you silicone the old mortise locks? No, that would not be a good quality job. A little graphite and you’ll be good to go probably longer than anyone can remember who did the job. But on the spiral balances I’ve never tried graphite, so I’d probably want to check that out.
As a pro, I wouldn’t brag that you had to google that.
I have spiral balances in many of my windows right now, soon to be replaced with weight an chain windows I am making. I own the tensioning tool and I’ve had plenty of issues with the spirals, but the fact is, they’re cheap usually easilier to replace than to rebuild. If steve got 30 years out of one, I’d believe it. But if he said he had 20 windows and none of them failed in 5 years, I would not believe him. Particularly with the heavy parlor windows. The spirals just can’t take the weight.
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 5 months ago
i don’t know what happen with that other reply but it came in as stevecym, my old screen name. i was using a handheld.
urbandad, you basically repeated everything i said right down to the part where i said i had wd on hand but felt it would dry out so i advised the op to get… (lithium grease). most of the lithium grease consumers will find is light and in spray cans, so possibly not good. i think it also comes in tubs as a thick product. but graphite? what kind are you speaking about? the kind we get in little tubes, or in spray cans or in 1 qt cans; that stuff is messy and i am not so sure it will last on the metal spring stock – where the spring runs though that little metal disc. i have never seen graphite on balances but admittedly, until two weeks ago, i have not changed or really handled any since the 1980’s.
now, may i ask? what were you doing in the 1980’s? i will tell you what i was doing: i was working for a contractor during and after high school installing these things. in college i serviced them, so many of them that i recall a stick y grease coming off the spring steel as i removed and reset the spring in the mechanism. it looked a little like amber axle grease but i am not sure it was as heavy.
anyone on here can look this stuff up. For people who do that, it might be better for them to say they have no first hand experience and read it someplace. i do it when i talk about electricity or plumbing (i have scant knowledge, mostly from my home). the people on here really need to hear from people with first hand experience. i think you know this is as important as i think it is for the same reasons; we all took shop classes in high school, right? wood, plastics, electricity, power mechanics (i took a construction class at City Tech in the ’90’s and still hold back when commenting about structural issues with houses on here – because i don’t do it for a living). in those classes they taught us this stuff in a basic way. and then we go out in the world and learn it is not always done that way. the knowledge is broader, experience teaches us more, and the tools are better and different. it takes a long time to learn it all and then you forget half of it if you do not do it everyday. You know that, right? (i assume we are the same age? i am 57)
and then we have the internet. i read something on the internet last night that said we can use paint remover to remove “stain” from wood (that’s news to me and i have stripped hundreds of doors). if i did not know any better i might come on here and repeat something like this – that we can remove stain with chemical stripper (after i read the article twice i realized the author did not know the difference between stain and a clear top coat, poly; they were talking about poly; they do not even know the meaning of the words they are spouting and it took me two reads to figure out that is how ignorant these twenty something year old “genius” are). we have all this information going around on the internet and if it is not downright wrong, there are elements missing from it that might be very important for a homeowner to know. the sad thing that happens when there is bad or lacking information out there, people read it and some take it for fact and run down a road with it and waste money and time.
what really brought me on here to say what i said above was not the lubricants for the balances – keep in mind i worked on these and still do not know what to use but it was a long time ago and i admit it – but that you stated they start failing in 3-5 years or something. Maybe the spring steel begins to loosen in 3-5 years and we have to get the tool to pull the bottom of the spring (for those reading this, that round twisting thing that extends out of these things is a spring) out of the mechanism and give it a clockwise twist or two. but i have never run into balances that are literally failing. even with the customer i mention above, we thought some of his 30 yr old balances were failing but all they needed was tightening – two turns to be exact (i still recall how many turns the ones in the 80’s came out of the factory with – 9 turns). Lacking information, saying that something is failing when it might need adjustment is what allows someone like the man my customer first encountered to tell him “the problems with his windows were the balances and all had to be changed” and give him a whopper of a quote to do so. the sad thing is, without good information, the public does not know when this is happening and often by the time i get there, they don’t know what to believe (it creates work for the honest contractors as we have to explain ourselves).
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 5 months ago
by the way, there is a tool out there for adjusting balances. the man i worked for a couple of weeks back said he got his at a window supply down further in brooklyn someplace. these are not hardware store items.
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 5 months ago
Op, i read a little about this. Silicone is for the vinyl framing. Wd, as i first said, can dry and stick. And sort of surprisingly, lithium grease was mentioned for the spiral springs.
They said to clean the vinyl running surfaces with water and vinager. They said put the silicone on a rag and rub it on so as not to make a mess. More of the same with the spiral, but spray lithium at like hd comes with a tube to direct the spray so it should be easy to keep that in the channel, on the spiral.
Also, if someone sprays their balances with whatever they have on hand, wd or silicone or vegetable oil if they choose, my guess is it will be fine until lithium is applied and supplants the temporary fix. I know the risks with wd and often use it as a go to until i can get what the situation calls for.
I am still trying to find out what i remember was on them years ago.
In so far as graphite. No one mentioned it for balances on the greater www. It is a very dry lubricant. Even the liquid spray graphite, the liquid is only the vehicle and it soon dries. It s messy. I have both the spray and a canister of powder here and only ever use them when the manufacturers, lock makers, say to.