Spiral Balance? Not sure

[elbowcoffeecup]

Recently purchased a home and need to put an a/c in the window. The windows do not open. They are single hung tilt in windows and the spiral balances? on both sides are rusted. Should these look like this? I am assuming not and hence the reason they will not go up. Any help is greatly appreciate. These are 33x72 windows

[HomeSealed]

Good chance that is your issue, yes. Also a good chance that it's about time to replace those windows.

That said, for a more immediate solution, you could speak to someone local that repairs these types of things, or look at swisco or Blaine hardware websites to source your own parts. They should be able to walk you through it.

[Windows on Washington]

I am going to guess this is NOT going to be the only problem that you will have.

Going to 2nd HomeSealed's advice here.

[elbowcoffeecup]

Thank you so much for your responses. I was able to get the spiral balances off. Almost lost the tip of my finger not realizing it still had a ton of tension on it. I was then able to open the window. In the fall we will look into having those 2 windows replaced.

[Windows on Washington]

+1. Be careful. Little specialized tool that makes handling those MUCH easier.