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News — lubrication

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The Curtain Ninja Quick Guide to Curtain Track Maintenance

For regular maintenance of cord or hand operated curtain tracks we recommend the use of a silicone based lubricant applied to the track extrusion, runners and all moving parts in a cord operated track.  Application on a 6 monthly basis is typically sufficient to ensure reliable operation of most tracks, however in situations with very heavy curtains or in a high dust/dirt environment this application interval may be shortened.

Although most silicone lubricants are non-staining and should not leave marks on your curtains should they be accidentally oversprayed, we recommend pulling the curtains away from the application area and avoiding directly spraying the face of the fabric with the lubricant.

Any silicone based lubricant should be suitable for this purpose, however we recommend Helmar H4000 lubricant.  Oil based lubricants such as WD-40 are NOT suitable.

Beyond lubrication we recommend regular inspection of runners and overlap components, and replacement of any components that are dragging or otherwise not sliding smoothly on the track.  Runners for example can become difficult to slide as they go brittle with age, and replacement of the runners at less than 30c each is far cheaper than repair of gyprock and replacement of brackets if a stuck runner causes the user to put too much weight onto the cord mechanisms.  Runners to suit Sylon, STM and McKechnie tracks are available on the Curtain Ninja Track Parts page.

With cord operated tracks, the most common cause of failure is moving the curtains by hand rather than using the cords.  When a cord operated track is moved by hand the tension in the cords is not taken up evenly on both sides, which often leads to the cord becoming tangled around the track runners.  The overlap and underlap arms that pull the curtains along the track also become bent when downwards force is applied by moving the curtains by hand, as they are not designed to withstand downward pressure in the same way as the springy runners are.