Dwelling

Window Wedge

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A way to keep windows open but prevent break-ins

Recently my neighborhood experienced a rash of break-ins by people entering through ground floor windows. Most houses in my area don’t have air conditioning, so it’s common to leave windows open for ventilation. Unfortunately, if you have sliding windows, that means they are vulnerable to intruders.

I have vinyl up/down sliding windows, which are great because you can leave them closed at the bottom but open at the top for ventilation. Unfortunately, many window security solutions don’t work with up/down vinyl windows, as they are designed to lock the lower sliding window only, leaving the upper half vulnerable.

Luckily, I found the Cresci Window Wedge, which solves that problem by using a simple wedge that jams the upper and lower halves of the window together when they exceed the travel distance that you set. You can either open the top half a few inches, or the bottom half, but if you try to slide either half open too far, the wedge will keep either side from opening beyond the limit.

The wedge is attached with a strip of Velcro, so if you want to open the window all the way, you can simply pull it off. It’s easy to reposition also, so you can quickly change the secured opening size.

I doubt that someone could force the window open with these installed without completely destroying the window. Of course, they could just break the window pane to get in, couldn’t they? But that level of deterrence is hopefully enough to get the bad guys to move on to an easier target.

An easy to install, easy to remove, reasonably priced security upgrade for your vinyl windows.

-- Curtis Galloway 11/2/15

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