Doors and Windows - Single hung sash ??

I guess it would be called single hung. Bottom half of window slides up & down. I have no idea as to the make but they're all metal, double pane in a 6 year old house.

Anyway - the sash(?) is a round bar (not a helix) with a screw holding the top into the frame under the rubber stop. On a few of these windows I can hear the spring uncoiling at different positions of window travel. Only one of these windows tends to slip down to a detent point; all need a little extra effort to open/close and the noise is annoying as hell. Some very loud - some just noisey.

I've skimmed back 10 pages here and Googled myself to goofyness and can't seem to find any info on approaching these.

Any pointers on repairing these?

It sounds like what you are describing are the "spiral balances" of your single-hung. These are pretty notorious for getting dirty, or rusty, or coming undone. If your windows tip in to clean, you should see where the spiral balance connects to the "pivot shoe", which is the piece that slides up and down the track as you operate the window. The spiral balance is usually under tension- it's wound and connected with a special hooked tool.

If you have the tool, adjusting and cleaning them is fairly easy. I use silicone spray- never use oil or petroleum lubricant of any type- it will only attract more dust. You unhook the balance, let the tension off, spray it, wipe it w/ a rag, wind it with the tool, yank it up and down a few times, spray it some more, let the tension off, wipe it, etc. Once you're happy with how clean it is, wind it up and reinstall it. It helps to wind each side the same number of turns.. 5 or 6, hard to say how many turns.

If the spiral balances are broken, you can probably find them online somewhere. The pivot shoes might be harder to locate, but occasionally they will have 2 spots on the pivot shoe where you can hook the balance- if one spot is broken just use the other spot. Hope that help.

Thanks for the info - I'll look into it .