When I moved into this house I found out the blind on the living room window had all three of it’s pull strings that raise and lower it were broken. I wasn’t surprised because the six foot wide blind is a beast to pull up.
After finding out a new blind would cost a minimum of $100 I went to Joann and bought blind cord for $7 and re-threaded the pull cords. Easy fix. That was 8 months ago.
Last week I had to blinds open and went to tilt them up when it got dark out. The piece that goes up into whatever turns the blinds snapped off and the wand clattered to the floor. Peachy.
I went online and first had to figure out what the little buggers were called — that’s where I found the term tilt mechanism. Several places carry the parts for various blind sizes. I took the blind down and removed the broken piece so I would know what to purchase. It was a matter of popping out the plastic end cap and pulling the broken tilt mechanism out. It was easy.
Broken tilt mechanism still on metal bar with end cap removed
Broken tilt mechanism removed. The part that connects to the wand is missing (I broke that off) and you can see six-sided hole that fits over six-sided metal bar.
The most important thing with this type of repair is determining if the blind is even worth it. Spending $10 for this part and shipping was worthwhile since a new blind would cost 10 times that. Not sure I would do it for a $35 blind, but since I hate throwing stuff out if it can be repaired there’s a good chance I would.
If you’re doing this repair make sure you get the correct size tilt mechanism with the correct hole. That metal bar that spans the width of your blind has to fit into the hole so it will tilt your blinds up and down. My bar is 6 sided and the height of my header is 1 1/2″. They sell the tilt mechanisms with the plastic parts like what broke in mine and more expensive ones that have metal parts.
I ordered from Fixmyblinds.com. They shipped it on Monday and it was in my mailbox on Wednesday.
The repair consisted of angling in the piece that sticks out to attach to the wand through the hole in the head rail, sliding the tilt mechanism over the metal bar and then snapping it into the head rail. It was much harder getting that 6′ blind down and back up again than actually doing the fix.
new part
New part installed on bar, snapped into place, and end cap replaced
Now I hope nothing else breaks on the blind before I sell the house.
