1.The rotating plastic hooks no longer line up so the blinds do not hang parallel. The local blind shop said to pull hard on the cord which rotates them and they should all snap into alignment - they don't. I think I will have to dismantle the rail - is it fiddly to do? Will I end up with loads of small plastic parts all over the place and is this the solution anyway.
The blinds themselves are quite dirty, stained with mildew at the bottom, they should be white. Are they washable? They seem to be treated with something, will they loose their strength?
If you use the cord to rotate so that most of them are parallel, you might then be able to adjust individual louvres - sometimes the hook rotates in the carrier that slides along the rail. I wouldn't recommend dismantling the rail unless you really have to because you may end up with LOSPPAOTP
There's quite a variety of materials blinds can be made of. I would think that most would be washable with care. YMMV. I suggest unhooking the louvres from the hooks (you might also find the connecting chain along the bottom pull out of clips as well) and lay them flat in the bath a few at a time. Scrub gently with a soft brush and use *cool* water. Then lay flat on a bath-towel on the floor and pat all over to absorb as much moisture as possible before hanging up vertically to dry. Avoid getting them tangled, twisted, or crumpled.
If they are fabric then you can get "blind spray" which is used for roller blinds to stop them fraying or buckling. It'll probably work on verticals too. YMMV. Usual disclaimers apply. Ask the wife first.
To correct ours you pull all the way in one direction (and give an extra tug when the end is reached) if that does not work pull all the other way and tug again, one direction or the other always corrects the problem. (it depends on which way they are out of line)
After fixing some blinds in the school I work at, I think that there may be two sorts of rotation set-up. As others have said, rotating the blinds both ways, usually resets them so that they all hang at the same angle. However, I have a blind at school that will not reset this way.
As I have some redundant blind tracks, I will take a look in the morning and post back if I find anything that may help you.
As to breaking down the blinds, you will need a 6 mm star washer to replace the one that is pushed onto the end of the shaft that rotates the blinds. When you remove this washer, you can remove all the contents inside the U channel that forms the case of the blind. You will see that there is not much you can do at this point, to rotate an individual blind slat. One thing that you can do, is remove and replace an individual blind hook that may have snapped off. To do this, you will need two tiny watchmakers screwdrivers and a little know how. Once again, I'll get back to you if I find anything useful.
The manufacturers recommend that you do not wash them. I have washed my own at home, using washing powder and a soft brush and the worst that can happen is the water got too hot and the glue melted. This is not a problem as it is hot melt glue of some description. Run a cool iron over the joint with a cloth as a spacer between the iron and the blind and everything should stick back together.
Lastly, if you do put any kinks in the blind when you wash them, they will drop out after a few days of being hung back up. On severe kinks, it might take a few weeks, but they do hang true eventually.
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