Wow! Thank you so much! My mom lowered them too far on two different windows. The spring came off the side it wants to spool to. With your disassembly, it got them to work perfectly again. Saved me a lot of $$.
That was great. You are very patient and have nerves of steel! I’m going to try to fix my unit while trying not to throw it across the room! Thanks for publishing this video. Joe D
Thanks to your video I had the knowledge and confidence to fix a blind that never fully extended. In my case, I had to add more cord. I did this by removing the bottom cover, cut the current cord and adding about 10” of new cord. Now I can take a nap with the room totally dark ! Thanks again!
Super helpful, Jeff, thanks so much! We have top-down, bottom-up Levolors in our two bathrooms, so they are small, 2' wide and about 3' tall. They're about 10 years old, no complaints. Pulling down one of the uppers last week when I heard a SNAP! and the upper bar went limp. Dismounted it from the window and saw the string for the upper bar was cut, about 8" to the right of center, inside the bar. (Didn't see any sharp edges, maybe the inside edge of the brass grommet eeveloped a sharp burr?) Springs seemed intact, but fully retracted, of course. Thought I'd need to order new string, but your video did a great job explaining the string and spring operation. So I retied the string, unwound the two string bobbins, centered them over the four spring wheels, and seemed to have enough string to fully lower the upper bar. Wound up the string bobbins, wound up the spring wheels, reassembled and it's working! Great tip to use paper clips to secure the springs! I speculate that the spring wheels only need a turn or two of tension when the bar is all the way up (maybe no need to wind "half-way"?). As the bar is lowered, string is pulled out, and the springs are wound up tighter, turn for turn. For some other commentators - if the blinds stop short, you may need more string, but make sure you have enough spring travel and won't yank the spring end off the wheel before your blind is fully lowered.. Hope that helps! Thanks again, Jeff!
Just finished repairing a 5' wide by 4' tall before watching your vid...I know - not too smart. But it went fairly well. One spring had come completely off it's wheel and string was all messed up. Needed two extra hands (my wife) to keep the spring from going "boing", but only took maybe 10 minutes and then reinstall. Works fine now, but still don't know why or what caused it to come unwound. Go for it folks...you CAN do it!
Thanks Jeff for the internal view of the Levolor shades. I have looked for hours (days) and have not found a new mechanism or springs. I have contacted some manufacturers in Taiwan for the springs, but they are prototype prices and not assured to match my shade. cheap by the hundred though. The sad part is only the most expensive shade brands provide any parts, and no regular brand (that I can find) have the balancing mechanism - a constant torque spring. If anyone knows where to get the Levolor style in this video please post so we can find some parts. This is the most important functional part of the shade and the most likely to fail. Apparently Hunter-Douglas now owns the patent for the spring assembly shown. Important: I learned they must be moved sloooooowwwwwly least the spring go funky and possibly break.
Hi Jeff, Thank you for this video which was timely. I was restring the top down bottom up cordless version of this blind and have a tensioner for the top down bar and another for the bottom up bar. My repair was for the re-string of the top down unit which was rarely used, and the bottom up operation action string was wearing away a spot on the top down string, that had little activity. I was carelessly lifting at the bottom up tensioner to re align the replacement strings for the other tensioner into the guides and bzzz went a spring. I carefully watched you rewind a spring and was expecting you to say that the spring was attached to each of the two wheels. I noted that I could see one end was securely attached to the empty reel and attempted to wind up the reel that has all the spring on it. Since the spring was not tightening to a fully tightness I am wondering if the spring is actually attached to both reels or if one reel is loose and is a make up space for the spring. I am a little nervous to let the spring fly apart, if there is nothing wrong with it. I could leave that one unit out (in-operable) but the blind is 5ft wide by 64" down with backout fabric which may be more than the remaining two units can handle. I would appreciate any word that can help, as there is not a lot of information around, and nobody wants to do repair, just to replace with new with three other matching units.
Michael - Each end of the spring is attached to opposite wheels. The end of the spring is rounded and fits into the slot at the base of the wheel. I am guessing if one wheel does not wind tight, it is not attached in that wheel. When my spring flew off, I reinserted it by angling the rounded head slightly, inserted it into the slot in the base of the wheel, and began to rewind the spring. Other UA-cam video mention it is possible that the rounded "tabbed" end of the spring is broken off, in which case you have a different problem. All the best!
Hi Jeff I know this post is a bit dated (2021) but the most recent I've found. I have three large (9') Levolor shades and several others. The older 9' ones have a drop of about 54" and have started to not come down all the way. These have two "engines" as your 6' shade did. I tried the steps to adjust the cord length on both engines but it didn't help. Then I tried rewinding the springs. That didn't help. Then I used the suggestion of adding a small length of string to the bottom . That allowed the shade to come down a bit more but then the springs became disconnected. In trying to rewind the springs, one of the connection tabs broke off. Fortunately I had another shade that I could steal that part from . So after working on this all day, I am back to where I started. Any other suggestions. Could it be that the springs are too short??
Don, I am not sure, but I suspect the amount of spring on one wheel or the other isn't right. I wasn't able to find specs on how much should be on each wheel when the shade is in the retracted position. I had to try several different amounts before I got it to work.
Thanks for making this video. Was interesting to look in it without me taking it apart. I don't trust myself and looks kind of complicated. I have a bunch of this around the house and thought if it was possible to add a motor in it and automate it. Do you think that's possible?
Why don’t you use the rope spools snap on the side then just pool the rope, when you ran out of rope then take spools off rewind spool so you have more rope then reattach on gear wheel then pull again .I found that easier the use hand to rewind , it’s safer and won’t break the hook inside gear wheel trigger mechanism
Wow! Thank you so much! My mom lowered them too far on two different windows. The spring came off the side it wants to spool to. With your disassembly, it got them to work perfectly again. Saved me a lot of $$.
That was great. You are very patient and have nerves of steel!
I’m going to try to fix my unit while trying not to throw it across the room!
Thanks for publishing this video.
Joe D
You are a saint and a scholar, good sir. Thank you for demystifying what was otherwise an alien beast to me.
Thanks to your video I had the knowledge and confidence to fix a blind that never fully extended. In my case, I had to add more cord. I did this by removing the bottom cover, cut the current cord and adding about 10” of new cord.
Now I can take a nap with the room totally dark !
Thanks again!
Great! Thank you for the feedback and cord extension idea!
Thanks a ton for this video. I have two of these that I need to repair for my elderly parents. Much appreciated.
Super helpful, Jeff, thanks so much! We have top-down, bottom-up Levolors in our two bathrooms, so they are small, 2' wide and about 3' tall. They're about 10 years old, no complaints. Pulling down one of the uppers last week when I heard a SNAP! and the upper bar went limp. Dismounted it from the window and saw the string for the upper bar was cut, about 8" to the right of center, inside the bar. (Didn't see any sharp edges, maybe the inside edge of the brass grommet eeveloped a sharp burr?) Springs seemed intact, but fully retracted, of course. Thought I'd need to order new string, but your video did a great job explaining the string and spring operation. So I retied the string, unwound the two string bobbins, centered them over the four spring wheels, and seemed to have enough string to fully lower the upper bar. Wound up the string bobbins, wound up the spring wheels, reassembled and it's working! Great tip to use paper clips to secure the springs! I speculate that the spring wheels only need a turn or two of tension when the bar is all the way up (maybe no need to wind "half-way"?). As the bar is lowered, string is pulled out, and the springs are wound up tighter, turn for turn. For some other commentators - if the blinds stop short, you may need more string, but make sure you have enough spring travel and won't yank the spring end off the wheel before your blind is fully lowered.. Hope that helps! Thanks again, Jeff!
Thank you Larry - yes I think you are right about not needing much spring steel one wheel when the shade is up. It should tension on the way down.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for making this video. Me and my dad will be using it as our guide when we fix two of my now shades (that won't retract).
Thank you Casey! All the best with the shade!
These steps worked. Loved the paper clip hack. Thank you!
Glad it worked for you Dawn!
Good info! I film a lot of real estate and come across this issue often! Will refer homeowners to your video!
Thank you for taking the time to make this video!!
Thanks so much for this video. Reset my shade in 20 min!😊
Glad it was helpful!
Great video! Thank you very much for the detailed explanation on how these work!
Thank you! Glad it helped!
Just finished repairing a 5' wide by 4' tall before watching your vid...I know - not too smart. But it went fairly well. One spring had come completely off it's wheel and string was all messed up. Needed two extra hands (my wife) to keep the spring from going "boing", but only took maybe 10 minutes and then reinstall. Works fine now, but still don't know why or what caused it to come unwound. Go for it folks...you CAN do it!
Thanks Jeff for the internal view of the Levolor shades. I have looked for hours (days) and have not found a new mechanism or springs. I have contacted some manufacturers in Taiwan for the springs, but they are prototype prices and not assured to match my shade. cheap by the hundred though. The sad part is only the most expensive shade brands provide any parts, and no regular brand (that I can find) have the balancing mechanism - a constant torque spring.
If anyone knows where to get the Levolor style in this video please post so we can find some parts. This is the most important functional part of the shade and the most likely to fail. Apparently Hunter-Douglas now owns the patent for the spring assembly shown.
Important: I learned they must be moved sloooooowwwwwly least the spring go funky and possibly break.
Great video! Thanks Jeff.
You are welcome!
Hi Jeff, Thank you for this video which was timely.
I was restring the top down bottom up cordless version of this blind and have a tensioner for the top down bar and another for the bottom up bar. My repair was for the re-string of the top down unit which was rarely used, and the bottom up operation action string was wearing away a spot on the top down string, that had little activity. I was carelessly lifting at the bottom up tensioner to re align the replacement strings for the other tensioner into the guides and bzzz went a spring. I carefully watched you rewind a spring and was expecting you to say that the spring was attached to each of the two wheels. I noted that I could see one end was securely attached to the empty reel and attempted to wind up the reel that has all the spring on it. Since the spring was not tightening to a fully tightness I am wondering if the spring is actually attached to both reels or if one reel is loose and is a make up space for the spring. I am a little nervous to let the spring fly apart, if there is nothing wrong with it. I could leave that one unit out (in-operable) but the blind is 5ft wide by 64" down with backout fabric which may be more than the remaining two units can handle.
I would appreciate any word that can help, as there is not a lot of information around, and nobody wants to do repair, just to replace with new with three other matching units.
Michael - Each end of the spring is attached to opposite wheels. The end of the spring is rounded and fits into the slot at the base of the wheel. I am guessing if one wheel does not wind tight, it is not attached in that wheel. When my spring flew off, I reinserted it by angling the rounded head slightly, inserted it into the slot in the base of the wheel, and began to rewind the spring. Other UA-cam video mention it is possible that the rounded "tabbed" end of the spring is broken off, in which case you have a different problem. All the best!
Thank you for the information. Background TV noise was a little distracting.
Thank you. Sorry about the background video game noise. My granddaughter started playing as I did this!
Good video
Glad you enjoyed
Beautiful! Thank you so much!
Thank you for your help sir!
Thanks for your help!!
@Jeff Roskam - Can the individual spring cartridges be purchased separately, and if so, where can I order them?
I haven’t look since doing the video, but I couldn’t find the cartridges at the time.
be careful with that spring steel thingy, mine popped out and would have hit me in the eye except for my glasses, safety goggles recommended.
Hi Jeff
I know this post is a bit dated (2021) but the most recent I've found. I have three large (9') Levolor shades and several others. The older 9' ones have a drop of about 54" and have started to not come down all the way. These have two "engines" as your 6' shade did. I tried the steps to adjust the cord length on both engines but it didn't help. Then I tried rewinding the springs. That didn't help. Then I used the suggestion of adding a small length of string to the bottom . That allowed the shade to come down a bit more but then the springs became disconnected. In trying to rewind the springs, one of the connection tabs broke off. Fortunately I had another shade that I could steal that part from . So after working on this all day, I am back to where I started. Any other suggestions. Could it be that the springs are too short??
Don, I am not sure, but I suspect the amount of spring on one wheel or the other isn't right. I wasn't able to find specs on how much should be on each wheel when the shade is in the retracted position. I had to try several different amounts before I got it to work.
Thanks for the reply Jeff. That is definitely a possibility. I am also contacting Levolor to see if I can get some parts.
This springs could be too short, but I think there must be a ratio of how much spring should be one each specific wheel
Thanks for making this video. Was interesting to look in it without me taking it apart. I don't trust myself and looks kind of complicated.
I have a bunch of this around the house and thought if it was possible to add a motor in it and automate it. Do you think that's possible?
I don’t know, but suspect a motor drive would be different. They make them, but I am not familiar with them. Thanks and all the best!
Why don’t you use the rope spools snap on the side then just pool the rope, when you ran out of rope then take spools off rewind spool so you have more rope then reattach on gear wheel then pull again .I found that easier the use hand to rewind , it’s safer and won’t break the hook inside gear wheel trigger mechanism
It sounds like a good idea. I hadn’t thought of that. I was thinking the gears would strip against the spring tension.
A rocket scientist would have trouble following these instructions.
Maybe how to fix Levelor blinds isn't in the Rocket Scientist handbook...?
could not get the gear even out of its seat
It does snap in and out. Maybe putting a small flat screw driver or other slim metal object underneath will help you pop it out.
Good video but these shades are not worth it.