this is not a German thing. they exist outside of Europe, let alone Germany, as pretty much standard. I’m actually surprised if Americans don’t have to this. although I think shouldn’t be, considering in how many ways it’s such an ass backwards country.
edit: just want to clarify that I don’t know whether Germans invented it or not; by “not a German thing” i meant it’s not exclusive to Germany.
these are far from standard for Americans. they’re luxury for sure and they’re called German windows.
this is funny, because I’m pretty sure most sold in Germany are made in Poland. Not that Poland invented them or anything
Somewhat reminds me of https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/vasistas#Etymology
We have those windows in Ireland, they are generally made and designed by Velux who are Danish.
Why is a normal window there? Or does it do something special?
They are all one window. You turn the handle in different directions to get it to do different things. The “normal” one is just shut and locked
Lemme clarify - do you mean just this (this is a normal window to me, common like sand).
These are extremely uncommon in North America, unfortunately.
Haha yeah, my b. Most windows in NA just open up and down. If you are lucky, it will have a little release for it to open inward for cleaning, but I dont think its supposed to be used in that orientation. Doesnt seem sturdy
My back door does this. No one knows how to use it besides me.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Wait, doors can do that too? I have to try this on our door (I think it’s the same model as our window), so it might work.
Yep. Had it 30 years and it confuses all that come to it for some reason. Yet it’s so simple. Handle in the middle like a regular handle opens it normally. Handle up opens it in tilt.
The handles of the current generation German windows even have a 45 degree position; the window is then opened on a tiny slid.
I am thinking of airtight windows! No other country can build such airtight and beautiful windows. - Angela Merkel in a 2004 interview, answering the question of what emotions Germany arouses in her
My American windows can also do this if I push hard enough.
My drunkenly installed American windows (previous owner, not me 😉) ALSO do this, but randomly throughout the house!
Some are so tight you break a sweat moving them (“locked”), some are so loose the top part falls out (angled), and some work normally (the normal one I guess)
I mean. Yes?
These types of window are great until you want to get AC in a rental & realize that you now need to attach 1-2 hoses to them whilst also getting a good seal. Then you’d actually prefer the American style slide-up windows (ask me how I know) :/
Am American.
…What?
German windows are (like a lot of things in Germany) extremely well engineered. This is a point of pride and whenever I have hosted Germans at my house (I’m Australian) they have actually brought this up with me.
It’s become a bit of a meme.
So their windows… Open?
If handle is rotated 180 degrees up from the closed state, window would tip slightly but not fall down. This allows room to ventilate while not opening window fully. Possible pros: doesn’t make room too cool, doesn’t let rain inside, presumably wouldn’t let burglars inside as tip point is too narrow to squeeze through. Maybe something more, dunno.
If handle is rotated 90 degrees, window opens as normal.
I havent met so many Americans or non-EU people in my life who have different windows in their homelands. But those who I’ve met, like our type of windows more than theirs. Also, these are sturdy AF and foolproof. Never saw one with a broken frame.
Two different directions depend on the handle orientation. The handle correlates to the pic below it.
Took me a minute.
I love these types of windows. Just need to add some mosquito/bug nets are you’re all set.
For why these are superior:
Fully open mode = big hole for air go thru.
Slanty mode = very windy ez, rainy ez, rainy and very windy… just close window.
But, the innovation I miss more than the windows were the roller shutters.
First of all, light blocking. Forget blackout curtains or something, just roll down the shutters and no light is getting in. If you work nights or something, you can block the sun completely and sleep in the dark. Along with that, the light is being blocked while it’s still outside. Why does that matter? Light means heat. In summer you don’t want the heat inside. Block it at the shutter and it doesn’t come inside to heat the inside of the house. Compare that with blinds, curtains, etc. In that case, the light has already entered the house before it hits something and heats it up. With white curtains you’ll reflect a lot of the light back out, but you’re still heating the interior of the house. They also reduce noise, add security, protect in bad storms, etc. But, to me, blocking the light and keeping the heat out was so much more important.
Ich will zu Dort gehen
Fr though I hate my shitty apartment blinds so much. It’s midnight with the lights off and blinds closed amd I can read next to the windows
My father was a sales & marketing executive for a window company in Germany. You can prepare for a long rant whenever he sees “those dreadful sliding windows” in a TV show from the US or Great Britain. Like every time. 😅
Me, being smug about how I can have a bookshelf on both sides of the window and still open it fully without a large piece of glass protruding into the room:
Don’t forget the mode where it’s anchored only in one corner and you freak out because you feel it will fall out any moment despite you know it won’t
Wait, it doesn’t fall like that?
No, nothing will ever happen. Don’t worry
CHAT, IS THIS REAL???
The “ever” is maybe stretching it.
I think it can survive the occasional mis-opening. But I wouldn’t do it regularly, not leave it like that for a day.
Like “yeh, you’ve fucked up but I’m fine for now. Please fix me and never do it again” kinda scenarioPutting it back in place is kinda difficult, iirc. It’s a scary “oh, shit. Put it back, put it back” moment. It’s a lesson in not playing around wuth the door (ah, yeah, mine was a big balcony door window (small balcony, big door))
Wait what? IS THIS A MODE AND NOT ME MESSING UP??
I feel like it’s a “can survive, but please fix quickly” kinda scenario.
I have no doubt the mechanism can support it. But used regularly will likely break something (where the entire fucking window falls into your room)Yeah! It’s the “you messed up mode”.
It’s one of the things everyone experiences but no one talks about
I experienced so many heart attacks for that damn thing and now i discover it was just one of the modes 😭
I’m still not convinced it’s an actual mode and not user error, that everyone hides under the rug by frantically pushing the window close somehow
Let’s just say it is an unintended mode
In Poland these are common too. I fail to understand why someone would not install these windows in the first place
That was my thought when I was living in Denmark. Why would You have windows that open horizontally to the outside in a country where it rains almost every day, when You can have these.
Windows that open to the outside? That’s bizarre. The ones I’m used to open horizontally but towards the inside.
My current flat only has windows that open horizontally outwards. Even the windows on the gallery side open outwards, so I can’t open them all the way without preventing my neighbours from passing. It also rains inside constantly.
Bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.
Nothing prevents one from installing a screen on those windows.
Did some quick research. It seems pretty difficult to install screens on these for some reason. So that’s probably why these are not common where I live.
I guess. Over here its more common to have the screen on the interrior to make the screens easier to replace and/or clean. Here, it’s common for houses to have a 2nd or even 3rd floor so it’s not always easy to be able to access the screen from the outside.
I have screens on my 3rd floor windows. Mine are attached to the window frame with long thin velcro strips but I think there’s other systems as well.
Do you need to remove the screen if you want to open the window?
For american ones where you have a screen on the inside I have seen crank handles to push window out, or some have a tiny screen door in the screen you can open to reach the window latches, then close the tiny access door. It looks stupid, but it does work
I think those are casement windows which are similar I think but not the same as tilt and turn windows.
The screen is on the outside. The window opens to the inside. So no.
You can still have the screen on the inside with these tiltable windows…
I cant see how without needing to remove the screen each time. I probably need to see a picture.
Oh there’s many options. My windows are tiltable, they have (electric) roller shutters and bug screens.
Most of my screens roll up to the top (I have a little chain connected to the mechanism to roll it up and down), but I also have two doors whose screens’ mechanism works horizontally, with a spring, it locks closed with magnets, when you release it from the magnets it rolls open by itself. It’s even got a little cable-chain-like thing on the top and bottom to hold the screen, guide the movement and remove the gap.
And it can be removed from its frame with a snap catch, if you need to have the maximum opening to move something large through the door.I have a removable screen with one of these windows. The window opens inwards, the screen basically clicks into the window frame from the inside and sits between the window itself and the frame. So the screen sits outside the window, but you can easily remove it from inside. You just open the window and pull the screen out of the window frame.
Just get a detachable screen? We had them at my family home?
I’m guessing that that is more annoying to operate. What is common here are casement windows which are operated with a hand crank so you dont have to remove the screen each time you need to open or close the window.
I thought these were doors. Them being windows makes a lot more sense.
Balcony doors work the exact same way
Including down?
yeah
You’ve been on very different balconies from the ones I know.
Because my house already has windows
We have these windows, they are 35 years old and were most certainly not the first of this kind.
Yeah these windows already existed when wooden frames without seals and single panes were the standard. My grandmas house has them so basically at least for 50-60 years. There is no excuse not to have these windows other than cost savings. (Or non availablity or preference i guess…)
Bro. You should try linux.
Coming from someone that builds them. At least where I live the mechanism is proprietary so it may not exist for every extrusion profile. Plus for big enough doors/windows the hinges to bear the load either don’t exist or get expensive quick.
I’ve got an 80cm door with double pane glass (of course) and metal-pvc construction that does this. It’s pretty heavy, it’d have to be a huge window to be heavier than that.
PVC tends to be lighter than the thermal isolated aluminum we usually use. At least the stuff we have over here. (I work with steel and aluminum though. Never dealt extensively with PVC since it requires specific equipment).
Usually the problematic ones are the long “strip windows” (80cmx3 to 4 m) that some places use especially with argon filled glass panes (thick, layered double panes. With argon filling for emissivity. It may be what you have as well). But for them the style in the picture is usually set aside for a vasistas style closure. Which has an extra support for the panel. Paired with a pull string opening mechanism. I don’t know what’s the generic name.
80x400cm horizontal? Those only open via vasistas, you can’t swing around a 4m window lol. I’ve seen those mostly paired with electrical actuators.
Mine are aluminum frame, steel reinforcements, PVC is only the external layer:
Those only open via vasistas, you can’t swing around a 4m window lol.
Yeah. Didn’t think too hard about it, the idea for that project was to segment it and use tilt and turn. But in the end it was kept a singular window And wasistas was used with the string mechanism for commodity’s sake. the change of plans we did made me brain fart… sorry It late over here 😅. still. I’ve made some doors that were too heavy For the tilt and turn hinges we normally use. Mostly due to weird glass pane requirements and sizes. The hinges could most likely handle it. But the specifications said otherwise.
Mine are aluminum frame, steel reinforcements, PVC is only the external layer:
That’s similar to what’s used over here. But iirc the aluminium is not in the ones I’ve seen only PVC and steel Reinforcements. Could be wrong though. I’m quite sure is the same company though. That profile looks very similar.