how to remove grilles from anderson double-hung

hello

we have a new house with anderson double hungs. they have plastic grills (mulllions) that i would like to remove for cleaning.

newer anderson grills have tabs that you can depress to remove grills. the windows in our new house have the same tabs but they cannot be depressed. they are fixed and go into holes in the frame of the sash.

i don't want to break these grills but i want to get them out. i tried to slip a screwdriver and a putty knife in between the tabs and the holes but with not luck.

any ideas?

thanks

bob

 

You must carefully bow the grille in toward the room one hole at a time. After a few are removed the grille will easily come out.

 

Cleaning can usually be done with no cleaning headaches with plastic grille system without removing it. Potential damage to grilles if not the easily-removed snap outs can pose potential breakage problems. Finding replacements may be a headache based on forum posts on the internet. If you attempt to move non-removable grills without easily removeable snap outs, do so on a hot day so plastic is more flexible. Not all grille systems were designed to be removeable.

As a professional cleaner in a previous life, I can attest that cleaning windows with grille systems may require a little extra time because of cleaning along muttons & mullions and getting into corners, but the extra time offsets possible breakage of plastic grille systems. If you can successfully remove grille systems & do so repeatedly over time, then integrity of structure of grille may be weakened and breakage will tend to be inevitable. Based on forum discussions finding replacement grille systems for older windows tends to be a problem. Manufacturers of any type of products are continually updating and eliminating products and replacement parts for them.

It is my personal opinion, not to chance removal of grille system on windows in your home if they were not intended to be snapped out for easy cleaning because of potential damage and breakage and potential loss of structural integrity due to removal.