- Nov 19, 2010
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Am I just heavy-handed, or is the mechanism of the internal frame of these things particularly fragile?
After five trouble-free years, I've had the same issue twice now. The internal frame of a Mini-Heki includes the corrugated blind & flyscreen, each of which you just pull across manually. There's a system of four strings inside the frame which keeps everything smooth and even.
I heard a crack while operating it, and found one of these strings hanging loose, diagonally across the opening. The internal frame is just clipped in place, so I popped it off to have a look. Turns out each string is kept in place by two plastic tabs, which are moulded as part of the leading bars of the blind and flyscreen. It was one of these tabs which had broken off.
In spite of the frame having numerous removable moving parts, turns out you can only buy the whole frame, so I couldn't buy a replacement for the actual broken bit. So I started looking for a way to "fix" it. Sure enough, I found a place where I could run a piece of wire round the plastic bar, to anchor the string exactly where the plastic tab used to hold it. Clipped the frame back in place, and Bob's your uncle.
A little while later the same thing happened again. at first, i assumed my repair hadn't been so wonderful after all, but when I removed the frame again I found my bit of wire still in place and doing its job. It was another plastic tab, off another corner, which had broken!
So today I've doen the same fix on that second corner, and all seems fine again.
Call me a cheapskate, but I resent being asked to pay out for a whole expensive bit of kit just because the manufacturers choose not to sell parts separately. If anyone has the same problem, and wants a more detailed description I'll quite happily e-mail it - just ask on here. You don't need to publish your e-m address, as a Mod I can access that (but of course I don't, unless you ask me to!).
After five trouble-free years, I've had the same issue twice now. The internal frame of a Mini-Heki includes the corrugated blind & flyscreen, each of which you just pull across manually. There's a system of four strings inside the frame which keeps everything smooth and even.
I heard a crack while operating it, and found one of these strings hanging loose, diagonally across the opening. The internal frame is just clipped in place, so I popped it off to have a look. Turns out each string is kept in place by two plastic tabs, which are moulded as part of the leading bars of the blind and flyscreen. It was one of these tabs which had broken off.
In spite of the frame having numerous removable moving parts, turns out you can only buy the whole frame, so I couldn't buy a replacement for the actual broken bit. So I started looking for a way to "fix" it. Sure enough, I found a place where I could run a piece of wire round the plastic bar, to anchor the string exactly where the plastic tab used to hold it. Clipped the frame back in place, and Bob's your uncle.
A little while later the same thing happened again. at first, i assumed my repair hadn't been so wonderful after all, but when I removed the frame again I found my bit of wire still in place and doing its job. It was another plastic tab, off another corner, which had broken!
So today I've doen the same fix on that second corner, and all seems fine again.
Call me a cheapskate, but I resent being asked to pay out for a whole expensive bit of kit just because the manufacturers choose not to sell parts separately. If anyone has the same problem, and wants a more detailed description I'll quite happily e-mail it - just ask on here. You don't need to publish your e-m address, as a Mod I can access that (but of course I don't, unless you ask me to!).
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