Marvin windows won't stay up

15 years ago

I have a whole house of Marvin ultimate double hung windows. Great and beautiful windows, but I am having trouble with 2 of them.

Mrs. Texas Al unlatched and tilted the lower panes for cleaning and since then 2 of the windows have nothing to hold them up when you raise them. They just fall back down. I can tell that there are slides that fit in the tracks and somehow the window won't snap into them.

When I raise another window, the slides go up with them, on these two they stay at the bottom. I have tried to get the metal rods that stick out from the pain at the bottom to snap into the slide, but so far no luck.

The windows are only 17 months old. Any ideas?

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Comments (3)

calbay03
15 years ago
Hi Texas_Al,

It sounds like the bottom pane may not have been seated into the carriage in each channel?

When we pop the bottom pane out for cleaning, there are four points of contacts; one at each corner. The top two is released by flipping a sliding switch by the latch. This retracts the inserts from the channels and lets us tilt the top of the window out of the opening and into the house. Then we lower the window until it is horizontal and the bottom two contact becomes visible in the channel, one on each side.

The two contacts or inserts in the bottom corners of the window pane are actually sitting in carriages; one on each side in the lower channel. We have to lift one side of the window off the carriage in that corner so it clears the opening on that side, then we lift the other side to clear before taking it out.

To return the window pane, the key is in the carriage in the channel on each side. The carriage is just a little gizmo with a thick string attached. The bottom inserts of the window must rest in the carriages, one on each side for support. This means reversing how we removed the window pane earlier. These carriages supporting the bottom corner inserts support the bottom pane while the top inserts just keep the windows in the channels.

It sounds like your difficulty is with the windows not properly seated in the bottom carriages?

I am unsure but may be during cleaning or removal process, the carriage were accidentally retracted to the bottom of the top channels so it is no longer in position to receive the bottom inserts of the window? If you look in the channel about midway between the top and bottom panes, is there anything smallish in the channel with a slot? Something that can act as a carriage? If there is, may be a screw driver inserted into the carriage can slowly pull it down into position so you can then insert the window again?

I will suggest that before working on the non-functioning window, take a look at one that works, so you can better identify the bottom carriage applicable to your model.

Our windows are 5 years old so this will not work if yours have a new design.

Good luck!
macattac
15 years ago
Your saying that the "shoes" are all the way down in the bottom corners where the jamb and sill come together. You will need a small screwdriver as (calbay03 said) that fits inside the shoe. You need to "unlock" it by turning it 90 degrees. You will have to hold on pretty good because as it comes unlocked it's going to want to go flying up real fast. Bring one side up approx 4" and turn again 90 degrees to lock. Do the same with the other side. When you reinstall the sash make sure it is in the tilted out position (about 90 degrees from the wall, or parallel to the floor)as you drop the "pins" into the "shoes". When you tilt it back to the normal position the shoes unlock and operate normally due to the weight of the sash.

I'm not a Marvin guy so if for some reason the sash pins don't "drop" into the shoes - you may have to have one shoe a bit higher than the other as you insert the pin into each shoe. I hope that makes sense.

NOTE: Why did this happen? Most likely Mrs Texas Al did not raise the bottom sash a few inches BEFORE tilting it in. Every window i have ever dealt with requires you to do this.

Ed
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texas_al
Original Author
15 years ago
GREAT!! Turning the thing to unlock and move it up did the trick. The first one got away from me.

Thanks very much!

Marvin windows won't stay up

Comments (3)

calbay03

macattac

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texas_al
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Marvin windows won't stay up

Comments (3)

calbay03

macattac

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texas_alOriginal Author

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texas_al
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