Day night shade broke, now what ?

supernan1414 · Jun 8, 2013

The shade in the small window in our living room slide broke, The string sparated and half of the shade dropped. With the valance all around it we have no clue what to do. We don't see any screws or anything to remove the valance to get to the shade. Any ideas ?
Thanks, Barb

Mizmary · Jun 8, 2013

The screws are there-- attached to the top of the valance or the wall/ceiling just at the top. Feel around for them and you will fond them. It might take a flex screwdriver and it will take TONS of patience to get them down. You can restring them but it is be a pain.

I'm sure a few more people will have input too. You can search for day/night shades - I know there are at least a few threads on them.

Our first 5er had them and we replaced the day/night shades with inexpensive mini-blinds when they started breaking. We will replace with blinds here when they start to go too.

wesley1963 · Jun 8, 2013

supernan1414 said:
The shade in the small window in our living room slide broke, The string sparated and half of the shade dropped. With the valance all around it we have no clue what to do. We don't see any screws or anything to remove the valance to get to the shade. Any ideas ?
Thanks, Barb

Here is the link we used to fix the blinds.//heartlandowners.org/showthread.php/26996-Restringing-a-Pleated-Blind-A-Step-by-Step-Guide The screws are really a pain to find since they don't use brackets to secure the valance. It should have a screw at the top and bottom of each side, and 1 perhaps 2 at the very top of the valance. All the screws are installed on the inside of the valance and are probably under the material. We were fortunate enough to have one showing so that we understood how they were put in.

You can find a restring kit at most rv parts stores. After doing the first one I bought about 300' of string for the rest of the blinds, sounds like a lot of string until you see how much it actually takes to restring them. So far we've done three of them and the blinds work much better than new.

Good luck.
Here is a video showing step-by-step instructions http://www.fixmyblinds.com/v/vspfiles/video-rv-restring.html

JohnDar · Jun 8, 2013

The hardest part of restringing them is just getting the valance and lammykins off so you can get at the screws on the top of the blind set that holds it to the wall. If you're real lucky, you might get to them with a small ratchet with a #2 square drive bit in it, but that's a stretch.

You'll have to disassemble the two plastic sections for the day and the night portions to restring them, as well as the top header. Follow the instructions link that was given. You will need heavy string or just some 80lb. test fishing line. I suggest opening up the plastic sections before you start pulling string out, so you can see how it's laid in there, but it's not really complicated.

When one of mine broke, it was at the tension spring in the top header. There was enough excess wrapped around the tension knobs at the bottom to reattach it.

simsfmly · Jun 9, 2013

Barb,
I would really recommend getting the spool. It won't be your last blind to break. You'll actually get quite good at it if our BH is any indicator (snapped our 6th string two days ago).

wdk450 · Jun 9, 2013

I've got a broken string on my rear shade, and am wondering what an entire new day/night shade costs versus the repair kit?

JohnDar · Jun 9, 2013

wdk450 said:
I've got a broken string on my rear shade, and am wondering what an entire new day/night shade costs versus the repair kit?

Bill, if you're going to the Goshen rally, I've got a rear shade set that's available for a Jackson. Let me know if you want it and I'll bring it along. Replaced my three rear shades with verticals a while ago.

convert · Jun 9, 2013

I've had many string break on my 2011BH. My solution was to contact the mfg. They will restring an blind for $15. No aggravation trying to do it yourself. The mfg info is on a tag affixed to the top rail on the blind once you get it removed.

dbbls59 · Jun 9, 2013

Re-stringing the blinds is simple once you get them down. Just carefully note how the string runs when you disassemble it. I have done several blinds for myself and others. Heartland just ran the screws that hold the valance through the material at the bottom. Very poor in my opinion.

wdk450 · Jun 10, 2013

I looked at my rear shade and noticed that there are cabinets immediately above them. I hope no screws come in the top of the shades, as the cabinets would have to be removed to access those screws.

dbbls59 · Jun 10, 2013

wdk450 said:
I looked at my rear shade and noticed that there are cabinets immediately above them. I hope no screws come in the top of the shades, as the cabinets would have to be removed to access those screws.

The cabinets were there before the valance and shades were installed. The screws are hard to find as they may be under the cloth cover.

shovelguy · Jun 10, 2013

After restringing several shades my dh got tired of the hassle involved with the two shades and just removed the day shade. We never used them as such and it just makes the restringing process much simpler.

JohnDar · Jun 10, 2013

wdk450 said:
I looked at my rear shade and noticed that there are cabinets immediately above them. I hope no screws come in the top of the shades, as the cabinets would have to be removed to access those screws.

No, Bill, the valence is screwed to the underside of the cabinets, but not the shades. When I installed the verticals back there, I reused the top valence by building it out an extra inch to clear the blinds in the open position. It also allowed me to hang the header from it.

supernan1414 · Jun 10, 2013

Thank You everyone for your replies. We looked briefly at the blind before we left the lake Sunday. Bill said he could see screws. I will get the string and on a quiet peaceful (maybe rainy)day we will attack it. In the mean time the window looks like tobacco road.

supernan1414 · Jun 10, 2013

After restringing several shades my dh got tired of the hassle involved with the two shades and just removed the day shade. We never used them as such and it just makes the restringing process much simpler.

This may be a option for us also, I will look next weekend. We never use the day shade. We had mini blinds in our previous 5er, they were a real pain to clean but never had to repair them. I saw a new Big Country after we bought our Big Horn that had wide wooden blinds, I liked them. The thought of changing out the blinds with the valances there makes me weak in the knees.

Gaffer · Jun 11, 2013

Hey Bill if you are still going to the National next week. Try to get it on the repair list.

wdk450 said:
I've got a broken string on my rear shade, and am wondering what an entire new day/night shade costs versus the repair kit?

Theresau · Jun 11, 2013

Problem with the BC wide wooden blinds is that they are difficult to pull up. If you leave them down and just open and close the blinds it would be ok. If you pull them up, it's difficult to get them straight and there are the long cords that have to be dealt with as well. Reason we went with day/night shades instead for our new BC. Also, we found that the BC's day/night shades operate much better than our 2010 BH's did - the BH's were incredibly difficult to open - the BC's are much easier - hoping this will mean we won't break strings.

supernan1414 said:
This may be a option for us also, I will look next weekend. We never use the day shade. We had mini blinds in our previous 5er, they were a real pain to clean but never had to repair them. I saw a new Big Country after we bought our Big Horn that had wide wooden blinds, I liked them. The thought of changing out the blinds with the valances there makes me weak in the knees.

JohnDar · Jun 11, 2013

There is a remedy for recalcitrant rear blinds. And it's easier than you think.

View attachment 24771

Theresau · Jun 11, 2013

Looks great!

Gas20 · Jun 12, 2013

Got some info a few days ago about the da and night shades. I was told by a service tech where I bought my fifth wheel that when your blinds start losing their sharp crisp folds to let them down and spray them with spray on starch, then put them up all the way and let them set for 24 hours. The blinds will be just like factory new. It does work as I did it with my shades and they look great. I don't know if any one already new this or not but just thought I would share.

Day night shade broke, now what ?

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