Pleated window shade problems

[dougburi]

After having to restring my third SWC pleated window shade today, I thought I should provide something that is an option. These SWC shades seem to be in one of two groups: those that have frayed / broken strings or those that will very soon have frayed / broken strings. I bought a spool of 50 lb monofiliment fishing line from Wal Mart and use that to restring shades. It's cheap, tough, and lets the shade adjust up and down very smoothly - actually better than the original nylon string.

TIP: Restringing is pretty straight forward, but be VERY sure to draw a diagram of how the strings run back and forth through the various parts of the shade BEFORE you pull out the frayed original strings.

[Iron Man]

Do not cut the string to close after you adjust the tension. Leave a little you have to remove the shade.

[dougburi]

In addition; a couple of options to SWC shades are:
1. MCD out of Texas mcdinnovations.com a bit more costly but very high quality, custom made, with great customer support.
2. Levolore makes pleated shades at about 2/3 rds the cost of SWC. You can get them a Lowe's. They cut them to width right at the store while you wait, work well in a motorhome, easy to put up and come in several colors and light transmission - either black out or some light, but it's a single shade so it's either black or some light.

[GaryKD]

Hi dougburi,
Thanks for the tip. I've restrung my shades more than once. This includes replacing the little plastic bushings. Next time this needs to be done, your tip will be used.

["007"]

Thanks for the link Doug, has been saved in my long list.

Restring shades