TAGS
In many cases a shade cord guide will show a small amount of wear where the lift cord has cut into the plastic of the guide during normal operation.
Rotating the guide by 180º so that the cord runs over a smooth, undamaged surface is a good idea.
However, sometimes the damage is more severe than that.
The photos below show parts from a shade where the cord has cut so far into the guide that the part had to be replaced.
The important thing to remember about this is that while the cord was cutting into the guide, the guide was also cutting into the cord and probably had a lot to do with the failure.
If you try to reuse a part like this there’s a chance that your new replacement cord won’t last very long.
If you look closely at the previous photo, you will see that the cord had started cutting into the shade fabric too.
On this shade a thin aluminum strip similar to a mini blind slat was used as a stiffener inside the top pleat and the cord cut right through that as well.
Even though it is only 0.9 mm in diameter, that cord is some tough stuff.
You don’t often hear much about this, but damaged cord locks are much more common than damaged cord guides. Be sure to inspect yours carefully when you have it out on the workbench.
Here are some photos of examples of what you might expect to find.
.
