Front Remis Concertina Blinds Bonding Together (1 Viewer)

[Kingham]

I recently posted this on an owner's forum, but not yet found anyone with a similar experience and thought I'd try a bigger audience.

When the van's not in use at home, I keep all of the blinds closed, to prevent prying eyes and also to keep the heat and light to a minimum. On several occasions now, when I have gone to open the windscreen blinds, I have found that they have bonded together, I'm assuming with the heat and I've had to use considerable force to prise them apart. The force is enough to make me think I'm not far off breaking them.

There are magnetic strips held within aluminium extrusions, which form the joining face of each blind. When the blinds are closed, the magnets touch together and keep the blinds closed. In my previous two vans, the magnets have barely been adequate and I've resorted to using elastic bands to help keep the blinds closed.

This issue is not 'over strong' magnets, as they easily release if I open them shortly after closing them. It is only after a few days of heat and it's as if the faces of the extrusion are melting and fusing together. Once forced open, there is nothing on the faces to suggest they have been stuck together.

When trying to open them a few days ago, the force caused the handles to fall off ! I've got a short video of that, but it won't load due to being too large ??

I have managed to fix the handles back on and coated the faces of the magnets and extrusion, with French chalk dust, hoping this would solve the problem, but they were still firmly joined together today.

A tape on each face, or a thin coat of Vaseline are my next options.

 

[Diggerdi]

We have the same problem with ours. Can only imagine that the longer you leave them closed, the stronger the magnetic force is. The first time it happened I had to separate them with a table knife! It is rather worrying as we have to use a lot of "brute strength". As you say, once they are opened, they are fine until left for a week or more.

 

[Figaro]

Maybe a bit of adhesive used to stick the magnetic strips to the aluminium frame.
I`d try the chalk dust or vaseline, I`m sure that will cure the problem

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[Gorse Hill]

Same happens to us, nightmare to get undone and like yourself the Handle has come off, I found by holding both clips and gentley pull apart at a slight angle (tilt) rather than pulling apart seems to work better if that makes sense
Must have changed the design somehow, our previous van x250 worked much better and it looks like they have also changed the pleated material on newer versions

 

[wigster]

Silicone spray would be my next move.

 

[DavidG58]

and I thought my broken clip was a problem

can you pull them nearly closed when left, so not quite attached to each other the gap will not let much heat / cold in / out and not much visibility for badduns, not what should be needed, but may stop it being an issue.

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[Kingham]

@DavidG58 That would work, but the tension in the blinds pulls them open to well over half of the screen, so they wouldn't sit in a 'nearly, but not quite' closed position, without devising something to keep them nearly closed.

 

[Kingham]

We have the same problem with ours. Can only imagine that the longer you leave them closed, the stronger the magnetic force is. The first time it happened I had to separate them with a table knife! It is rather worrying as we have to use a lot of "brute strength". As you say, once they are opened, they are fine until left for a week or more.

I'm not convinced that the magnetic force of what are basically two fairly weak magnetic strips, could increase to such an extent where knives have to be used to lever them apart. Magnets tend to lose their strength over time, rather than increase it.
Certainly on mine, it feels as if something could be leeching from the contact surfaces and bonding them together.

 

[cornish boy]

How about running a strip of sellotape down both edges so when they are closed the two surfaces can't touch but the magnets can do their job?

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[Kingham]

........

A tape on each face, or a thin coat of Vaseline are my next options.

How about running a strip of sellotape down both edges so when they are closed the two surfaces can't touch but the magnets can do their job?

Great minds think alike

The only reason it wasn't ahead of my French chalk attempt, is that longer term, I imagine the heat affecting the tape and ending up with a sticky mess of partly stuck sellotape.

 

[irnbru]

I didn't think they were meant to be used for prolonged periods of time. Think I read that somewhere.

If we are parked up for several days we use our silver screens, only draw the Remis blinds at night.

 

[Kingham]

I didn't think they were meant to be used for prolonged periods of time. Think I read that somewhere.

If we are parked up for several days we use our silver screens, only draw the Remis blinds at night.

I don't know, but will have a look through the bumph to see if it carries a warning - thanks.

I've read similar about the older types of side window blinds, where prolonged use would cause them to lose tension, but can't see why this type of Remis would suffer from longer periods of being closed (other than the point of my post of course )

My previous vans had the Remis fitted and were fine over long periods.

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[cornish boy]

Great minds think alike

The only reason it wasn't ahead of my French chalk attempt, is that longer term, I imagine the heat affecting the tape and ending up with a sticky mess of partly stuck sellotape.

I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully
I must read posts more carefully

howabout using cling film to test out the theory?

 

[Kingham]

I need some sunshine to test any theories, they only stick when it's hot. Perhaps now that summer is over, the problem is solved for this year

 

[Hellski]

We are currently away in France and experiencing high temperatures (sorry), and have experienced this issue but I remember reading a thread on the exact same problem last year. Someone had advised to pinch the two handles together before opening, I can confirm this method has worked successfully. In the name of research, I will put this to the test again as we are expecting temperatures to reach 30c (sorry again to those currently in Blighty......)

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[BreweryDave]

Don't have this problem as I never close the front blinds - the concertina design is so flawed they take about 3 weeks to fold back into the pillars!

Have resorted to hanging a sheet up tucked into the overcab bed !

 

[Kingham]

We are currently away in France and experiencing high temperatures (sorry), and have experienced this issue but I remember reading a thread on the exact same problem last year. Someone had advised to pinch the two handles together before opening, I can confirm this method has worked successfully. In the name of research, I will put this to the test again as we are expecting temperatures to reach 30c (sorry again to those currently in Blighty......)

You can quickly go off some people

 

[Diggerdi]

I'll watch this thread with interest to see if anyone comes up with a foolproof solution. We're going up to the moho today, it's been shut up for a week and we've had no sunshine, just torrential rain and wind. Just for the record, one of our handles came of but they just clip back in.

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[Stretto Boy]

I suppose you could use silver screens for longer periods but I accept that's not really the point when you buy a van with Remis screens fitted. I haven't experienced this problem myself but then I haven't had them closed for longer than about 48 hours and so outside the parameters of what you are experiencing. Good luck with finding a solution.

 

[Kingham]

.......We're going up to the moho today, it's been shut up for a week and we've had no sunshine, just torrential rain and wind....

Let us know how that goes please.

Mine have been closed since bringing the van back from my dealers on Thursday and I need to go out to it later to get my bag of handbooks, so I'll give them a try.

 

[Neckender]

Same with mine, but I've read somewhere that remis know about the problem and if you complain they send some tape out to put down the edges and this cures the problem.

John.

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[Louis]

Same with mine, but I've read somewhere that remis know about the problem and if you complain they send some tape out to put down the edges and this cures the problem.

John.

Stick on draught proofing sponge on one edge ?

 

[Welsh girl]

What about a strip of polystyrene that you get in some packages. Place that in between the 2 blinds along the edges and the use a short bungee to keep the handles together.

 

[Arzedby]

I've had the same problem. Have always managed to overcome by squeezing the two handles together so that the end strips rock towards each other and then part. Using force to pull apart is likely to damage the blinds.

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[treetops1]

We tend to use the silver screen more ,never had a problem with our blinds ,but we have had problems with our dash melting or going soft when it is hot and always seems to have sticky feel.Not sure anyone has had the same problem it just seems to be to a max 100mm from the screen the rest is ok .We have started to lay a silver screen strip over this area and it does help when we remember lol any advice would be appreciated. Lol

 

[Kingham]

I didn't think they were meant to be used for prolonged periods of time. Think I read that somewhere.

If we are parked up for several days we use our silver screens, only draw the Remis blinds at night.

I really must start reading instruction manuals .... Thanks for the pointer and you are correct, the owner's manual states....

"The system is not intended for use as a blind over longer periods of time (e.g. storage over winter)"

Obviously that could be for several months at a time, whereas this sticking issue is coming up after only a day or two of heat.

The only other warning in the manual states "under exposure to intensive levels of solar heat, the handles may remain hot for longer periods of time". Mine hasn't reached high enough temperatures to make my handles hot yet and there's nothing in the manual about the possibility of them sticking together.

 

[Diggerdi]

Let us know how that goes please.

Will do.

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[cornish boy]

I really must start reading instruction manuals .... Thanks for the pointer and you are correct, the owner's manual states....

"The system is not intended for use as a blind over longer periods of time (e.g. storage over winter)"

Obviously that could be for several months at a time, whereas this sticking issue is coming up after only a day or two of heat.

The only other warning in the manual states "under exposure to intensive levels of solar heat, the handles may remain hot for longer periods of time". Mine hasn't reached high enough temperatures to make my handles hot yet and there's nothing in the manual about the possibility of them sticking together.

We leave our blinds across whenever the van isn't in use or we are on a site. In fact they are pretty much always normally closed except for when we are driving and never had any issues with them sticking.

Now I have said that, I expect that when I go out to it in a minute I will find them stuck.

 

[Kingham]

Same with mine, but I've read somewhere that remis know about the problem and if you complain they send some tape out to put down the edges and this cures the problem.

John.

In my most fluent schoolboy German, I've just filled in an online contact form with REMImobil.

If they understand gobbledygook, I might receive instructions on fixing the problem, or a roll of tape, which I expect will be hi-tec, specially developed heat resistant stuff and not an end bit from a roll of Sellotape's best

The blinds opened correctly when I tried them earlier.

 

[Diggerdi]

Just back from ours and, yes, they were stuck. We didn't struggle with them as we were only calling in to pick up an empty Calor bottle for exchange, but that's another story

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