How to Fix a Cordless Blind 

My wife and I own eight of these blinds, and we raise and lower them daily. Within a year after purchase half had failed due to frayed and broken cords. Wendy's video provided an excellent starting point for my own repairs. I have some additional suggestions based on my own experience... When looking at the cartridge oriented such that the wood rail is on top, I number the spools 1 - 4 starting on the left. If you plan on replacing the cords, don't cut the old ones as the first step. Instead, follow the instructions below to disassemble and carefully/slowly release the spring tension. When disassembling, if there is still tension in either or both lift cords, then raise the blind as far as possible first. This should move most of the tension spring to spool #2 thereby reducing the risk of "tension spring explosion" when the cartridge cover is removed, and also reduce the risk of harm from flying parts, etc. Remove the cartridge cover screws, then gently pry the cover off with a small flathead screw driver. As soon as you are able to get the screw driver over the spool in position 3, use it to hold that spool down while prying and lifting the cover off with your other hand. Use the needle nose pliers to grab a spoke of spool #3, and while holding it so that it doesn't spin, use your other hand to lift the outer two spools from the cartridge. Slowly rotate spool #3 counter clockwise until all tension has been released... usually just one full rotation of the spool if the blind was fully raised prior to disassembly. The relaxed spring tension coil sits in spool #2 with the loose end coming out and over the top to the right. It then goes down and to the right to attach to spool #3. Spool #3 winds in the counter-clockwise direction for initial loading and during operation when the blind is lowered. I ended up replacing the cords with 30# test nylon fishing line. I can't speak to how it performs in the long term since its only been days now since I figured this all out. The only drawback so far is that fishing line doesn't "relax", making it harder to work with than woven line during re-assembly. I cut off all of the sheathing from the rings from the back side of the blind, and restrung it with the fishing line by threading the new line through all of the rings, through the transition hole, through the pulley, and knotted it off after passing it through the small hole in the outer two spools. I found it easier and faster to re-assemble without using C-clamps and paper clips. Once you get to the step where tension has been wound onto spool #3, it requires holding that spool down with one hand and working the other spools with your free hand. The trick is to re-assemble the lift mechanism with the blind in the fully raised position and use the cord tension to hold the spring in position. By doing so, you may lift out an outer spool temporarily but must always return it with tension on the cord and the gears engaged. And, you can't have both outer spools out at the same time, since one is required to be in at all times in order to hold the spring tension. Here's how I do it... Re-attach the spring tension to spool #3 and set spool #2 and #3 in the cartridge, but don't wind any tension onto #3 yet. Wind as much cord as possible onto the outer spools and set them down next to the cartridge. Wind the cord into #1 by spinning the spool clockwise. Wind #4 by spinning the spool counter-clockwise. Without taking spool #3 out of the cartridge, grab a spoke of spool #3 with your needle nose pliers and turn it one and a quarter rotations. If you wind much more, you risk the spring coming off of spool #2 when lowering the blind all the way. Do not let go yet. While holding spool #3 with the pliers, pick up #1 or #4 and place it in the cartridge while also winding it to take up any remaining slack in the cord. Getting tension in the cords at this point is a good thing. Be sure that the gears are interlocked with the adjacent spool. Don't worry about threading the cord over the guide posts yet. Repeat the process for the remaining spool. At this point you should be able to put a finger on #3 and slowly remove the pliers. If #3 moves at all, it shouldn't move much because of the taught lift cords on the outer spools. Remember to keep a hand/finger on #3 at all times until re-assembly is complete. Check each lift cord for tension. Increase the tension on the looser side by grabbing a spoke of the corresponding outer spool, lifting the spool to disengage the gears, turning the spool to wind more cord onto it, and lowering the spool to re-engage the gears. Repeat on the other side if necessary. Now for threading the cords around the guide posts. I used my palm to hold down #3, in order to free up fingers for the following procedure. Lift #1 or #4 out of the cartridge. Be sure to wind the cords around all three guide posts. It seems this must be done to provide the friction required to hold the blind in the fully raised position. If your blind doesn't stay all the way up, then you might have missed this step. The left lift cord comes from the pulley and over the center post clockwise, down and under the bottom post counter-clockwise, then up and around the top post clockwise before beginning its wind around spool #1. Lower the spool into the cartridge and rotate it to take up slack and apply tension to the cord before engaging the gears. Repeat on the right for spool #4 except the winding directions are reversed. If the cord tension is not as high as it was before beginning the guide post procedure, repeat the cord tensioning procedure on #1 and #4. Switch to holding #3 down with your small flathead screwdriver, and reposition the cartridge cover. Snap it down while sliding the screwdriver out, and then screw it down (screws in the two center holes, and two outer holes). Hang and test your blind.

holy shit you are the smartest person alive. you wouldn't believe how i struggled fixing mine until i found your video. thank you and jah bless.

Thank you so much! I couldn't find anything about cordless blinds!! Your video showed me what to expect and how all those mechanisms worked. My blinds were a little different but your video gave me the confidence to tackle it. My blinds had been broken for 15 years and today I finally fixed it!!

Thank you very much for this, mine is slightly different, but from your video I now understand what all the wheels are doing! This is the only thing I could find anywhere that helped

AWESOME JOB!THANKYOU SO MUCH!

Thank you very much for the video. After a few tries I was able to adjust the tension correctly. But without your video I was having a hard time winding it and didn’t realize the opposing gear with the metal tension ribbon was wound the opposite way. Now one thing I did was use a few screws instead of the paper clip. Small enough to get through the back holes but held the tensioned gear fine. Also I used the screws from the cover plate right in the center of the gear (and a few washers) to hold them in place while I tensioned it up. I also used a needle nosed vice grip to grab the gear while I tensioned it in place. Thank you once again. All works just fine now!

Very nice job. Helps more than any other online

I've been searching the internet for two weeks to figure out how to repair the stupid springs after I had to repair broken lift cords. Hopefully, tomorrow's attempt to repair 2-$40 wood faux blinds does the trick!

We just moved into a new home with many broken, cordless blinds. I promptly decided to replace them with corded blinds, only to find corded blinds are now an exception vs the rule. Ugh! Thanks to your video, I can tackle those broken blinds with confidence. 🙂

Brilliant! Thank you!!!

I think your blinds are what I am looking for. Can you tell me where you bought them?

I have been searching and searching for help with my cordless blinds. This is such a great video! I can't thank you enough. One question, when you were winding the tension the opposite way, you said to wind about half of the metal strapping. Did you have your blind fully extended? I'm trying to figure out if you wind less of the metal strapping does that = more or less tension.

Your video is great! My only problem now is that it seems slack when I bring it to the top. It comes down about a foot. Should I tension it again with the whole spool rather than “a good amount”?

watch the foul language, young lady