Tired Roller Blinds

Hi everyone,

Our 1995 Symphony has roller blinds/fly screens on all windows. Most seem a bit reluctant to retract and I guess the operating springs are getting a bit tired after 16 years of use. This doesn't matter too much as we prefer to use the curtains, but the one at the rear of the kitchen unit does need to be used each night to provide necessary privacy, and the morning ritual of retracting it is getting a bit tiresome!
How easy/possible would it be to remove the blind and replace the springs? In addition, the plastic moulding of the outer frame on most of the blinds is cracking across where the screws are fixed, and I wondered if any repair/replacement might be possible, or are all these parts now obsolete. Any thoughts?

regards

Jeff and Di

This might help
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Hi Jeff and Di.



The blinds are a common fault for loosing tension on the springs. However it is quite an easy job to retension them. The hard bit is usually getting the roller blind cassette out from the window. When you remove the end caps there is a white plastic screw at the ends of the blind and flyscreen. Just tighten them up a bit, Not to much that they fly up uncontrollably. Don't worry if you don't get it right first time. They are pretty tough.



Whisky.

Hi everyone, and thanks for the advice.

Armed with the encouragement I gingerly removed the screws fixing the whole blind assembly to the internal panelling and eased the unit away from its position.
I then removed several small screws fixing the cassette sections and blind runners to the outer frame, and eased out the blind cassette, which was located in the vertical runners by moulded plastic pegs. Two small self tapped screws were then removed from the blind end cap, and the cap drawn carefully back. This revealed not the expected white plastic tensioning screw (as suggested) but the end of a rod running into the centre of the blind. The rod end had a screwdriver type blade, which fitted into a slot in the end cap. By withdrawing the end cap sufficiently to allow it to rotate, but leaving its slot still engaged with the screwdriver end of the tensioning rod I was able to turn it several times, thus increasing the sprung tension.
Careful replacement in reverse order got the whole assembly back into place, and back into the outer frame.
The blind now works a treat.

To repair the stress fractures across each of the corner screw fixings in the outer frame, I made up some small thin plastic splints, and fixed them across the cracks on the inside, sticking them, and filling the cracks with a special hard plastic cement I found at the local hardware shop. This also worked well. All I have to do now is allow my artist wife to mix up a suitable colour of acrilic paint to disguise the hairline marks where the cracks used to be.

All in all a result, and thanks again for the support

Jeff and Di

Hi Jeff & Di

I'm pleased you got your blind retensioned. Yours is not quite like mine but I am happy that you where encouraged to attempt the job yourself. Work out how long it took you and how much a dealership would have charged you for the time at about £40 an hour.

Result. Whisky.