How to buy Quality vertical blinds
January 15, 2011 by Robert
Filed under Featured, Money Saving Tips, Vertical Blinds
Four years ago my wife and I (I did most of the work) decided to re-decorate our living room area. Part of the project included finding window treatments for our front window and our sliding glass doors. We considered different treatments and decided on vertical blinds for sliding glass doors and front window. I know many feel vertical blinds are dated and don’t like them but we felt they were the perfect treatment for our needs.
Click here for Vertical Blinds with Top of the Line Headrails
See, we have a 2 year old grandson that’s loves to push out of his way anything that’s going to obstruct his view when he wants to see what’s out front. Same goes for our dog and 3 cats. Other treatments available would not only cost more but would not be able to stand up to the abuse these guys will give it.
Privacy was another big concern. People walking by have a nice view into the front of our house. We wanted to be able to control that more and with a vertical blind we could just tilt the slats a little to increase privacy but still let in some light.
Once we made the decision to go with vertical blinds for sliding glass doors and front window, next step was to pick out a color. We were dead set on burgundy (locking ourselves into a color was an expensive move, I explain later) so we search every online store that I was familiar with at the time and finally found burgundy. Great we were happy and excited, place our order and installed with no problems.
Now I consider myself a realist, and don’t expect things to last forever but I do expect them to last for a reasonable amount of time. So when I started having troubles after only two years I was a little upset. That’s when some of the vanes wouldn’t rotate anymore. I had to turn some of them by hand. I was annoyed but not annoyed enough to pick up the phone and complain. It wasn’t until the little carriers in the headrail starting popping out and the vanes dropping to the floor that I was upset enough to finally place a call and get this resolved.
I was pretty confident I could resolved this and get the headrail fixed, after all it came with a lifetime warranty. So I spoke to the customer service rep and he had all my order information on record still but the manufacture of the blind went out of business and so did my lifetime warranty. I couldn’t get my blind repaired, I would have to purchase another headrail which cost almost as much as a new blind.
I am a window treatment installer I should have known better. My mistake goes back to focusing all my efforts on finding the right color when I should have also looked for a good quality headrail. You can purchase a vertical blind in many places, local hardware stores, shop at home places, online but all vertical blinds are not created equal. The main component about a vertical blind that’s going to determine how well it hold up and how long it will last has to do with the quality of the headrail. The headrail to a vertical is the same as a curtain rod is to a drape. You can have beautiful drapes but if the rod doesn’t work right well it’s frustrating. There are a lot of companies out there that are not selling quality headrails, most people don’t think to ask about the headrail they assume it OK and rightly so.
My problem was I focus on only the color when I should have consider the quality of the headrail. Now you have a excuse but I don’t, after all I’m a window treatment installer I’m aways going out on service calls regarding poor working vertical blinds. Now I won’t make that mistake again.
There is a headrail out there that is consider the cadillac of the industry which I have been familiar with for a long time but for some reason didn’t think about it back when we were re-decorating.
As an installer I come across many different types of vertical blinds and found that they fall into three categories. Good, better and best. Most fall into the good category, a few make it into the better category and only one makes it into the best. I am in the process of ordering a new blind and it will be from the best category. But maybe you don’t need the best. Maybe you don’t plan on staying in the house too much longer. What ever the case the better is still better then the good category. Here’s some of the feature and benefits of all three categories.
Good….
- This accounts for most, this is what you will get off the shelve. This is also what your get from many places you order from.
Better….more info
- All metal headrail, Extra heavy duty.
- Self aligning carrier stems, Eliminates out of sync louvers. This feature sets it apart from the good, very nice feature, if the vanes ever get out of whack you can get them back in sync simply by pulling the chain. If I had this feature I might still have a functional vertical blind.
Best….more info
- Only two fall into this category and that is the Super-Vue G71 and Ultra-Vue both made by Graber.
- Extruded aluminum headrail, Extra heavy duty allows for wider widths. Self aligning carrier stems, Eliminates out of sync louvers.
- Stainless steel carrier system for precise spacing of louvers and smooth traversing.
- Stack release for allowing for vanes to be moved for window cleaning.
- Interchangeable carrier stems….this is the biggie. Now when those little plastic things break you can remove them and insert a new one without taking down anything.
Now just to give you an idea of price. As the time of writing this article if you were to buy a vertical for a sliding glass doors 84 wide by 84 long in solid vinyl . In the good category it might cost about $80.00, in the better category would be about $ 114.00 and in the best category would cost about $169.00.
So if your considering a vertical blinds for sliding glass doors or any other window. The upgraded headrail will elimimate many of the issues associated with this treatment. I think some of you reading this can relate to the problems I ran into. If you have a story about your treatment whether positive or negative please share it with us in the comments below. It may help others who read this. Thank you
For more info on the better vertical blind headrails click here
For more info on the best vertical blind headrails click here
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