Simple spring blinds - can one get them? (2023 Update)

We want some quite small and very simple spring roller blinds. The size is about 100cm wide and 50cm drop. By 'simple' I mean that we don't want any sort of clever latching mechanisim in the blind, we just want to be able to pull it down and hook it at the bottom of the window with the tension remaining. This is so that they will work on some non-vertical (boat) windows.

So can anyone suggest a supplier for something like this? All the 'spring roller blinds' I can find have complicated 'latching' spring mechanisms and we definitely don't want this. I've tried sending a couple of enquiries to suppliers but they really don't seem to have much idea what they're selling so I've not had sensible answers.

Reply to
Chris Green
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Yes Wilkinsons used to have some but all the ones recently seem to be the pull down with a cord pull up with a cord type. Maybe the sping ones are considered a he4ealth risk or something. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

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have spr> Yes Wilkinsons used to have some but all the ones recently seem to be

Reply to
Bob Eager

Chris Green presented the following explanation :

Have you looked at the blinds fitted to modern caravans?

The one in the front window of mine is larger than that, runs in a guide at either side, but the guides include a facility to latch them down at various heights, including full down. Its looks possible to break the latches off, which you say you do not want. They fully exclude almost all light.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

I guess it might not be all that difficult to disable the latch mechanism. IIRC the "spring" and the "latch" are physically separate.

You can buy mechanisms without the blind material from John Lewis and online suppliers.

Reply to
newshound

Yes, but they appear to be 'clever' ones and I doubt they'll work in the way we want them to - maintainig the tension on the blind with it hooked at the bottom.

Reply to
Chris Green

They might be what we want. If the latching is simply some hooks in the guides then that would be OK. Where can I buy them?

Reply to
Chris Green

I seem to remember reading about some flat headed brat managing to hang himself on these sort of blinds.

Reply to
Mr Pounder Esquire

Well the John Lewis ones are stupidly expensive though, they *start* at almost £100, that's ridiculous!

Reply to
Chris Green

They weren't the last time I bought a couple (admittedly that was some years ago).

Reply to
newshound

I suspect that was a wind-up, wind-down type. I have seen these in the past with relatively strong cords, current ones seem to use the "click together" plastic beads which have much lower tensile strength.

Reply to
newshound

Chris Green laid this down on his screen :

A caravan dealer and or repairer will be the place to track down a source. Mine have two guide slots, one for the blind a second for a fly screen.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

The add-on spring mechanisms are £9 (but nearly all the cusotmer reviews are very negative) but the blinds they go with all seem to be in the £100 plus price range.

Reply to
Chris Green

It's the 'other way around' I think, all the blind manufacturers are paranoid about children hanging themselves on the standard roller blind chain. The 'automatic' and 'spring' versions don't have the chain so there's nothing for the child to hang themselves on. Most seem to suggest having a stick with a hook on the end for raising and lowering the blind. The automatic/spring blinds are advertised as child-safe.

Our problem is really that we want something really simple as these are small blinds in easy reach (boat roof/ceiling is only just over

6ft from floor) so they can simply be pulled down my hand pulling on the bottom of the blind (no string or long stick needed) and can be held down by a hook (also in easy reach of the user) at the bottom. Being only 50/60cm drop the spring doesn't need to be very strong and 'whizzing' up isn't really a major issue.
Reply to
Chris Green

These aren't what I woul;d call a normal domestic blind. Have you tried a caravan supplier?

Reply to
charles

I've been looking at 'caravan blinds' but all I can find is suppliers of spare parts for them. They also seem to come as complete assemblies with guides at the sides which we really don't want.

Why is it that something very, very basic and simple isn't available. All we need is a spring loaded roller and two supports plus some material wrapped around the roller. I'm beginning to think that DIY of this may be more practical than trying to buy one!

Reply to
Chris Green
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I recently had a huge row with John Lewis about this. Despite pointing out that we have no children (and hence no grandchildren), that children are not allowed in the house unsupervised, most of our friends are old enough that their children are grown up, that the blinds in question were inaccessible to children young enough to accidentally hang themselves, they were adamant that the cords had to be "child proof", meaning we have to stretch to reach the cords.

Apparently, 31 children have strangled in blind cords since 1999, although there are no statistics about how many elderly people have fallen reaching for too-short cords.

If I'm fitting blinds, I do it how I want. There are no children in this house.

Reply to
Huge

local companies make blinds here.

The pull and lock, pull again to release type are common. The current house is loaded with them

Amazon sells this:

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Or for spring loaded

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supply your own blind fabric and off you go.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Chris Green presented the following explanation :

If you are struggling to source new caravan blinds, it might be worth trying a caravan dismantlers for some which are too big and cutting them down to size. They would be trivially easy to cut down to size.

I needed several parts to repair my own caravan a few years ago, including DG window and panels. I ended up talking to a company in Wales, which seemed able to source all I needed and more, all very efficiently operated.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

That's exactly what we don't want because we want tension on the blind when it's hooked in the down position. It's also extra complication that we just don't need (and looking at the number of problems with them we want to avoid!).

Yes, I've already found these.

Reply to
Chris Green

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