Aluminium tilt and turn windows

Insulation: from 0.57 to 1.50

The aluminium above has a wide spread: Uf 0.57 to 1.50 W/m²K. The MB-86N at 0.57 is the best-insulating profile we carry, in any material. The Ferroline at 1.50 expressly isn't — it was chosen for its lines.

Sightline and maximum sizes

The combined sightline of frame and sash on the Aluprof windows runs from 97 mm (Ferroline) to 128 mm; the Reynaers CS 77 goes a little further at 89 mm. For comparison, the Gealan S 9000 sits at 119 mm. For a tilt and turn window in a clean, modern elevation, or where there used to be steel windows, that's the argument.

MB-86N, MB-Ferroline or MB-79N?

Size: up to 6,000 × 3,000 mm, with a sash up to 1,600 mm. That's 2,800 mm wider than uPVC can manage; in height the Gealan S 9000 NL actually goes further, at 3,200 mm. Aluminium is the choice as soon as the opening gets bigger than uPVC can carry — or as soon as you want a sightline uPVC can't reach.

What you need to measure

In practice the choice often lands on the MB-79N, and on this page it's the least visible because it sits at neither extreme. It's right in the middle: Uf 0.83 with a 128 mm sightline, and at 70 mm frame depth it's the shallowest of these three Aluprof profiles. Take it if neither the lowest U-value nor the slimmest look ties your hands and the window stays under 5,000 × 2,700 mm. Above that size it drops out and you're left with the MB-86N and the Ferroline.

Building Regulations and security

You're already two steps further than where the configurator starts. It first asks what the window is made of and then which profile, and that's exactly what you decide on this page. What it then asks of you is the size and the layout, the glass and the colour. For the size, measure the structural opening at three heights and three widths; the smallest figure is your size. Think about one thing that isn't a measurement: which side the hinges go. A tilt and turn sash turns open to one side, into the room, and that decides whether it clears a cupboard, a curtain or a door that opens next to it.

Hardware and insect screen in the configurator

Two things that belong to the window and not to the profile. In England, Approved Document L asks a replacement window in an existing home for a U-value of 1.4 W/m²K or WER band B — for the whole window, not for the aluminium. Replacing windows is also notifiable building work: an installer registered with a competent person scheme, such as FENSA or Certass, notifies it, or you notify building control before the work starts. We supply, we don't install, so that's for your installer. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules.

A tilt and turn window is where most of the nine choices actually do something, and two of them deserve attention on aluminium. The window handle, to start with: standard or lockable with a key. The second isn't a luxury but part of the security story — a locking handle keeps the sash shut once someone has already got through the glass. And the insect screen, because it's trickier here than people think: a tilt and turn sash opens inwards, so the screen goes on the outside and you have to be able to reach it from inside past the sash. On an aluminium sightline of 89 or 97 mm the rebate the screen sits on is narrower than on uPVC; ask about it before you order.