A tilt and turn window does two separate things from one handle, and once you have lived with one it is hard to go back. Handle horizontal and the sash swings inwards like a door. Handle straight up and the same sash tilts in at the top, leaving a gap at the head for air while the bottom and sides stay locked shut.
We fit them and we repair them, and there are a few things worth knowing before you decide they are what you want.
How the two modes work
Everything happens through one gearbox in the sash and a chain of rods running round all four edges.
With the handle down, cams on those rods sit behind keeps on the frame and the sash is locked all the way round. Turn the handle horizontal and every cam clears its keep at once, so the sash is free on its side hinges and swings into the room.
Turn the handle all the way up and something cleverer happens. The bottom hinge stays engaged and the top side pivot releases, so the sash hangs from the bottom and leans in at the head. The side rods stay locked. That is why a tilted window is still reasonably secure and why you can leave one open when you go out in a way you would never leave a casement.
The mechanism that decides which of the two it does is a switch inside the gear. When that switch gets confused, usually because somebody has turned the handle while the sash was already open, the window tries to do both at once and hangs off one corner. It looks alarming and it is almost always recoverable. There is a full explanation on our tilt and turn window problems page.
What they are genuinely good at
Cleaning from inside. The whole outer face of the glass comes into the room. In a first floor flat, or anywhere a ladder is not sensible, that is the argument that ends the discussion.
Ventilation you can leave. Tilted, the opening is at the top, out of reach from outside, too narrow to climb through and pointing rain away from the gap. Good for a bathroom, good for a bedroom in summer, good for a house where somebody smokes.
Large sashes. Tilt and turn hardware carries far more weight than a friction stay will. If you want a single opening pane a metre and a half wide, this is the way to get it.
Escape. In full turn mode the opening is the size of the sash, which makes meeting escape requirements in bedrooms straightforward.
Nothing swings outside. Over a path, a driveway, a balcony or a busy pavement, an inward opening window is the neighbourly choice.
What they are not good at
They open into the room. That is the whole trade off, and it is the reason most people rule them out. Curtains have to be tied back or hung well clear. Roman blinds and vertical blinds are awkward. A windowsill full of ornaments becomes a windowsill full of nothing.
They cost more than an equivalent casement, in the hardware more than the frame.
And the mechanism has more in it. More parts is more to go wrong eventually, though in practice a well made tilt and turn gear that gets oiled once a year lasts a very long time.
Where they make sense in a Lanarkshire house
Flats above ground level, particularly anything where the outside of the glass cannot be reached safely. Bathrooms and en suites. Kitchens where the window sits over a worktop and you want the ventilation without the opener flapping about outside. Bedrooms where escape width is tight. And any elevation facing directly onto a footpath.
For a standard semi with a garden in front of every window and blinds already fitted, a casement is usually still the better answer. We will say that rather than sell you the dearer thing.
Looking after one
Two jobs, once a year, and they last decades.
Put a drop of light oil on every moving point you can see on the edge of the sash when it is open, work the handle a few times, and wipe the excess. Then check the gasket for the flattened, shiny patches that mean it has taken a set and stopped sealing.
Never turn the handle while the sash is open. That is the single most common cause of a tilt and turn ending up hanging by one corner.
If yours is already stuck, do not force it. Forcing a jammed gear turns a repairable part into a scrap sash.
Repairs
We repair tilt and turn windows across Lanarkshire, including on systems other companies have refused to touch. Gearboxes, corner drives, tilt arms, restrictors, handles, gaskets and sealed units are all replaceable in the frame.
Start with the window repair page if something has gone wrong, or ring us and describe it.
Other styles
Flush sash for a period frontage, reversible for full rotation and high level cleaning, vertical sliding sash for the traditional Scottish look, or the full replacement window page for how the quoting works.
Talk to us
Photographs on WhatsApp are the quickest way to get an opinion, especially if the window is already misbehaving. Otherwise ring 01698 604 278, Monday to Friday, eight until five, or message us here.
Written by the team at Wishaw Window Repairs. Over thirty years repairing and replacing uPVC windows and doors across Lanarkshire.