I am no expert, just another homeowner sharing some first hand experience.

The crank handle on many well designed Casement will fold flat and out of the way. If your concern is it sticking out, that is no longer a problem. As for reliability of operation, we have lived with old 30+ year crank windows in our first home and while the handle would squeaked, it continued to work.

Some old style casement has a latch and a handle. The latch locks the window after it is closed. The handle lets one pushes the window open and pulls it close. The ones we have used relied on friction of some type to keep the window in the position we wanted. There was no cranking. You may still be able to find these somewhere. Problem with these is obvious. Over time, they became loose and would not stay in place. A gust of wind would blast them open or slam them shut.

Real old style Casement or tropical style Casement uses latch and handle but it opens all the way to the side, there is no intermediate stop. If you open the window, it opens all the way and lays flat against side of house. These are common in tropical climate and we have seen them in our travel all over the tropics. There is a latch to hold the window full-open.

We have used double hung that did not tilt out. They were a pain to clean and service. In those days, they were all wood and we had to paint them regularly. One wrong move and they were painted shut. A pain to deal with.

In our travel, we have seen and used ones where the top pane folded flat. Do not recall exactly where. Instead of sliding down the top pane, just slide it full up, lock a pin and then tilt open to hang flat with the bottom pane. We have seen that only once, most likely in a rental vacation home. It did not leave a good impression because it was difficult to fold it open.

We have not seen double hung with a fixed bottom in over 30 years. They may be out there somewhere, someone else can provide the info. All the double hung we have used have active top and bottom units. They both slide. The differences are that most older ones did not tilt. Later ones would tilt the top but not the bottom. Recent ones allow tilt and removal of top and bottom units.

Of the ones we have used, tilting is for removal of the unit. There is no hardware to keep the unit open in some tilted position. There are "transom" type windows that will do this but they are not double hung. So if you tilt the top or bottom unit, you must remove it completely.

For our house, Casement is perfect for directing breezes. We custom designed the opening position of each window so that they can direct seasonal breezes into the house.

We use dbl-hung in areas where we do not need to or cannot direct breezes. They are still useful for circulation in our case. We often move both units to the middle leaving a top and bottom opening. Hot air would exit through the top while cool air would stream in the bottom. We also either have them full up or both full down, all depending on circulation needs and pattern.

Hope this is useful for you.

I'm not concerned about the casement crank sticking out; I'm just concerned about its convenience, having seen people here complain about having to go around and around and around to get the window moving.

Casements that can just be pushed or pulled open would be good, but what about the window screens? If the screen's on the inside, you'd have to have a crank or lever or be ale to open the screen while you move the window. That's what made me think of windows that swing open inward: that's what it would take for the screen to be outside and out of the way of opening or closing the windows. I'd also expect them to be better at allowing air to flow in even when the direction of movement is at an angle where an open casement might block it.

What's a transom window?

Oh yes, forgot to tell you about what we saw in Indonesia about 5 years back.

We stayed in a farm house with Casement that opens inward. Two big problems, the house needed wall space to keep the window out of the way and dust and junk would fall in before the staff could clean it. They covered the floor under the window with a thick plastic sheet cut to fit just under the window in case guests want to open the windows before they can clean the outside. When the windows were open, there were thick curtains on both side of the windows behind which one would "stash" the open pane. They told us that was to protect the guests from breaking the glass and getting hurt. I do not recall seeing too many houses there using Casement that opened inward. It was not a common design.

Opening out has its problems too. We had birds landing on ours once in a while and it can get "messy". I still prefer it going out though.

As for Casement that pushes out, we saw again in Asia (do not remember where) where they constructed a very nice stained wood casing on the inside of the Casement. This casing holds the screen and surrounds the window. Instead of lifting and removing the screen, the screen was hinged and swung open to the inside so we could access the Casement to push them out. Then we just swung the screen close. It was all wood and stained, very nice and very easy to operate. Have not seen this in the States or Canada.

Another note about these Asian Casement, they were all metal, most likely iron or low grade steel. They were all one pane only and the entire window was rather thin even counting the metal framing. The metal was heavily painted with bright colors. They were all normal glass that woud break into deadly sharp shards.

We have Casement with crank handles and they are easy to open and close, no excessive cranking. As for air flow, openinig out is as good as opening in even for breezes. There are ways to mull several Casements together and each one opens in a different direction to direct morning versus evening and seasonal breezes. It works real well at least for us.

It has been fun thinking back to the places we visited and recalling how people in different countries do windows.

Cal

I agree about cranking casements, makes them just about useless. I bought some Hurd fixed pane windows, ordered the hinge hardware and use them as push out casements. They work great, stay in position and just push open. I don't use screens. Not sure why americans do, but you won't find them elsewhere in the world. maybe bugs just don't bother me.

I also ordered a marvin french window without the crank hardware. special order. It is just as wonderful.

Delvo,
I'm a little confused by your mention of a double-hung window having a fixed pane (or sash). Here, we call windows with two sashes that both move "double hung". Windows with one fixed sash and one moveable sash (usually the bottom moves and the top is fixed) are called "single hung". Maybe that is a Southern thing.

Double hung windows are usually used in Southern houses to help control airflow and temperature. If you open the lower sash on the side where the wind is coming from and open the upper sash on the down wind side, more hot air is evacuated from the home. With single hung windows, you end up with a layer of hot air in the upper parts of your rooms and it is almost impossible to move that out even with fans.

I've had single hung windows on which neither sash tilted - the outside of those windows NEVER got cleaned. ;-) Now I have double hung windows on which both sashes tilt. They are wonderful and do get cleaned (occasionally).

The biggest diffculty with the double hung windows is that when I am suffering from an injury (bad shoulder, bad knee, loss of use of one hand, etc.) they can be difficult to operate, especially to close properly. The second biggest problem is that if you really use both sashes to control air flow, you have to have a full screen to cover the entire window - more $$ and obscured views.

Right now I'm trying to decide if I should rethink all double hung windows for my new house - but I really dislike window cranks and interior screens.

Here in Florida, if a window is open, bugs and other debris will collect on the screen. With a double hung or interior opening window, the debris and bugs are on the outside and will fall off the screen. With windows that open to the outside, such as casement, awning, or jalousy windows, bugs, debris, spiders and other stuff collect between the screen and the window and must be cleaned regularly.

Long ago when I was in college, I lived in an apartment that had manually operated casement windows that used a long rod to push open and pull shut. That rod simply slid through a slot in the window frame and that little 1/4" wide slot let a LOT of air, dust and water through. Plus when it was windy, the window could blow shut and impale things inside the room with the rod - very dangerous!

dhs, I don't know where you live to be able to live without screens - must be nice! As I said, I'm in Florida where we have bugs all year round. Mosquitos carry many diseases - West Nile fever, encephalitis, and now in some parts of the state dengue fever and other serious diseases.

Not far from where I live is the place wheremodern methods of refrigeration and air conditioning were invented to hold medicines and cooling to aid victims of yellow fever. Americans use screens because we live in areas that could not be occupied without risk of diseases without screens or mosquito controls.

Anne

Here is a link that might be useful: Apalachicola, Florida

Here is more on the man who "is considered the father of refrigeration and air conditioning." John Gorrie.

Here is a link that might be useful: John Gorrie

The bugs on the screen and dropings from birds perching on the open casements (hadn't thought of that till it was mentioned here!) are reasons I'm seriously considering sliders. I know there are disadvantages to those, too, but the full circulation and open view, the screens on the outside, ease of use, no gears or cranks, and no windows sticking in or out are big advantages to me. Biggest plus: they cost less!

Pella doesn't make sliders, but I'm checking into Eagles. They sell a lot of sliders in California, but not enough in north AL to even have one on display at the local dealer. Sounds like there have been improvements in slider engineering that may eliminate or reduce some of the negatives. Our DD and SIL in north GA have Schuco sliders and are very pleased with them.