Welcome To Our Blog

Our 2022 January Sale is now on! Newblinds.co.uk is offering 20% off all blinds and fly screens - both manually operated and automated during the month of January! Simply use discount code JAN20OFF at checkout to grab that EXTRA 20% saving on your order, when you spend over £100! New Year -  New Blinds? Now that the Christmas and New Year celebrations are drawing to a close, we know it's a bit of a slog until Spring when the weather starts to improve. It's a time when many of us hibernate. Cold weather and dark nights with box sets on the TV. If you're like me, many of you will have also made a New Years resolution to get on top of those DIY jobs which you've been putting off, or which you ran out of time to polish off before Christmas! January is a great time to make those cost-effective tweaks but impactful improvements to lift your decor, and your mood!

If you have a STRONG Roller Blind and need to install a fresh SOMFY Sonesse 40 WT (Relay) or RTS (Radio) operated motor, this post will talk you through the parts involved and the process. You may need to carry out this process for the following reasons: You are upgrading from chain to motorised operation. You are switching from one motor type to another. You have received a replacement motor due to fault or damage. You may also wish to use these instructions as a guide to ensure that your existing SOMFY Sonesse 40 motor is correctly installed in the tube. We sometimes find that motors, or the motor collar or drive-wheel can become disengaged from the neck of the motor during installation or in transit. If the motor is not inserted correctly, this can lead to "wobble", vibration, or noise during operation. This video will explain the correct fitment, which should eliminate these issues.

Newblinds.co.uk Black Friday event starts today! Running all the way through until end-of-day (midnight) on Cyber Monday, 29th November, our fantastic pre-Christmas blow-out event offers 20% off any purchase over £100. What's more, if your order is over £149, we'll throw in free mainland UK shipping!  Simply enter code bf20 in the shopping cart and your 20% discount will be applied, where your basket value is over £100. Click here to start shopping Newblinds.co.uk Black Friday Deals!

If you are looking for roller blinds featuring prints by Disney, Star Wars and Marvel, unfortunately, they have now been discontinued. Our fabric supplier, Louvolte, offered these prints under license for several years, allowing us to incorporate stunning designs featuring Mickey Mouse, Dumbo, Spiderman, Marvel Avengers, Toy Story and Storm Troopers across our range of blackout roller blinds, Perfect Fit Blinds and electric blinds. The were a firm favourite amongst our customers (and certain members of our customer services team!) We appreciate that this is disappointing for fans of Disney, Star Wars and Marvel. Will this be the last time that we see these fantastic characters adorn custom made window shading? Who knows! We certainly hope not! For those of you looking for prints suitable for nurseries, kids bedrooms and educational environments, watch this space. We have recently reviewed the new Louvolite fabric collection for 2022, and are pleased to report that they have some fabulous designs which we'll be rolling out into our roller blinds categories in time for their launch in January. Of course, all kids blinds will be made-to-measure, of the highest quality and available to buy online, delivered directly to your door. You'll be able to order free fabric samples, ahead of making your purchase.

Relay motors or Radio motors? In terms of blind control, there are two key types of blind motor, that make up the majority of the units sold in the UK and further afield: Radio operation (wireless): These can be battery operated, such as  the Sonesse 30 ULTRA RTS Li-ion used in our battery operated roller blinds. They can also be 230vAC llike the Sonesse 40 RTS used in our 230vAC radio operated roller blinds. 12vDC radio operation motors are also available. 230vAC relay operation (wired): for example the Somfy Sonesse 40 WT or NEWBLINDS Quiet Relay Operated motor, used in our 230vAC relay operated blinds The question is, when buying automated blinds, when should you consider using wired control by relay? When not to use relay operated blinds Firstly, let's rule out scenarios where relay operated blinds are not suitable: Wireless control by handsets or wall switches If you wish to control wirelessly, by handset or by wireless wall switch, then relay operated motors aren't for you. You can't control a relay operated blind wirelessly.

If you are thinking about buying and installing electric blinds, then it is important to plan ahead to ensure you have the right power supply, connections and cabling in place to supply your blinds with power. One of the questions we are frequently asked by our customers is "what size of fuse do I need for electric blinds". The questions we are going to answer in this article are: What is a fuse and why is it important? Will my blind cable come fitted with a plug? What is the ampage of these motors? What size fuse should I choose for my electric blinds? I have more than one blind, do they need to be individually fused? Do I need to consider fuses for battery powered blinds? For the purposes of this article we will consider 230vAC radio operated roller blinds with Somfy Sonesse 40 RTS or Newblinds Radio motors, because these are connected directly to the mains power. When we talk about radio operated blinds we mean blinds controlled wirelessly by some form of radio controller - this might be a handset, wireless wall switch or a centrat hub system such as Somfy TaHoma or Louvolite One Touch Hub. 

The Sonesse 30 motor is a low voltage electric blind motor by Somfy which is typically used for Roller Blinds but can also be used for Roman, Venetian and other types of shades. DC powered (low voltage) motors often offer a little bit more functionality to their AC (mains powered) counter-parts and one of the nice features of the Sonesse 30 RTS motor is that you can change the speed of the motor. AC motors like the Sonesse 40 RTS or WT typically come with set motor speeds that aren't adjustable. It's possible to adjust the speed of a Sonesse 30 RTS motor between 6 and 28 RPM. The following instructions will allow you to adjust the speed of your Sonesse 30 RTS motor.  With your motor powered up, follow the instructions below: 1) Select the channel on the handset, that the motor is programmed to. 2) On the handset press and hold "Up", "Down" and "My" buttons together  3) The motor will start to run up and down for 10 seconds 4) Pressing up will speed up the motor  5) Pressing down will slow the motor down 6) When you are happy with the speed of the motor, press and hold MY to record this as the new motor speed. I would always recommend powering down other blinds whilst you are doing this - especially blind motors that are programmed to the same channel as the motor you are adjusting. 

We are occasionally contacted by customers who are programming their electric roller blinds and during the programming process their blind stop responding. I thought it would be useful to write an article explaining why this is likely to be. Mains operated roller blinds have what is known as a "Thermal Trip" incorporated into them. Consider that once installed and configured, roller blinds motors are typically used only periodically in short burts (1 up or down cycle, lasting 1 minute, maybe). During the programming process, the blinds can be used quite intensively for a prolonged period of time. Each the motor is used, it generates a small amount of heat. If it is used intensively for longer periods, then this heat can build up within the motor and the aluminium roller blind tube. You might notice that the motor itself is too hot to touch. Or if the motor is inserted within the roller blind tube, that the roller blind tube is also warm. As a safety feature, the motor's thermal trip is designed to kick in conservatively to prevent the motor from overheating. Because the motor is housed in an aluminium tube, it can take a while to fully cool down. As an example, if you use your blind intensively for say 30 minutes during programming, you may find that it stops working because of the thermal trip. You may come back to it 30 minutes later, use it for a few mins and it may trip again after another period of intense usage/programming. This is because the motor hasn't had chance to cool down adequately. If this is the case, then I'd probably come back to it later in the day to give it chance to cool.

If you have a STRONG Roller Blind and need to install a fresh NEWBLINDS relay or radio operated motor, the below video will talk you through the parts involved and the process. You may need to carry out this process for the following reasons: You are upgrading from chain to motorised operation. You are switching from one motor type to another. You have received a replacement motor due to fault or damage. You may also wish to use these instructions as a guide to ensure that your existing NEWBLINDS motor is correctly installed in the tube. We sometimes find that motors, or the motor collar or drive wheel can become disengaged from the neck of the motor during installation or in transit. If the motor is not inserted correctly, this can lead to "wobble", vibration, or noise during operation. This video will explain the correct fitment, which should eliminate these issues.

We discovered a neat feature of the Louvolite One Touch Home Hub system today. If you want to control electric blinds by App, Alexa, Control4 or Google Home in larger property, this is a great tip for you. First of all, let's re-cap, for those of you who aren't familiar with One Touch blinds or Louvolite's One Touch Home Hub. We offer battery operated roller blinds using Louvolite One Toucn Motors in our electric roller blinds section. These can be controlled by handset, or using a separate device called One Touch Home Hub - this nifty unit connects to your router and allows you to control the blinds from a clever mobile app. Not only this, but the hub can also be connected up with Alexa allowing voice control. Google Home and (for real smart home buffs) Control4 can also be connected. We received an enquiry from a customer who had already purchased a One Touch Home hub from our website along with multiple blinds. The hub was located at one end a larger property and the blinds were spread throughout the property in different rooms. 

The Somfy Sonesse 30 RTS Li-ion rechargeable battery operated motor has a slightly different programming routine to motors with separate batteries and 230v motors. The key differences are as below: You can buy roller blinds using the Sonesse 30 RTS Li-ion motor, by clicking here. WAKE UP MOTOR: To "wake up" the motor, there is a small button on the head of the motor. Press this button briefly until the motor jogs once SLEEP MODE: It's really important that if you have multiple Somfy RTS (Radio) blinds, you only programme or re-programme one blind at a time. All other blinds should be powered down. This is simple with 230vAC Somfy Motors or battery operated motors with separate batteries, because you can either switch off the motor at the mains, or unplug the separate battery tube. With the Sonesse 30 RTS Li-ion motor (and other motors with Integrated Li-ion motors), you power down the motor as follows: Press and Hold EITHER the handset programme button (on the rear), or the motor programme button until the blind jogs once. Then... press and Hold UP, MY and DOWN buttons together until the blind jogs once. CLOSE PROGRAMMING: To close off programming mode, you press the programme button on the back of the remote briefly and the blind will jog. With other RTS motors, you need to press and hold the programme button until it jogs. The full step by step instructions for the Sonesse 30 RTS Li-ion motor are below:

As an automated blinds expert, I've been here many times before. Lovely big patio or bi-fold doors need lovely big blinds. You don't want to interupt the flow of the expanse of glass by introducing multiple blinds accross a single span. And of course, because it's newly refurbished with all smart tech elsewhere in the house - Alexa, Hive, Phillips Hue, the client would like electric blinds. Perfect, but for an expanse this wide you would need mains powered blinds, right?  It used to be a common issue that at the end of a refurb project, customers would look at their wide windows, consider blinds, and then realise after discussing with an blind automation expert that they hadn't planned in any mains power or cabling to the window recess. This used to be a real issue, which could only be over come by breaking down a span of say 3 metres width, to a couple of blinds. Or if that span was made up of multiple panes, then 3 x 1 metre wide windows. It always turned out fine in the end. Automated blinds, regardless of the configuration provide that "wow" factor to finish off any home refurbishment.  But now we have a motor available which solves this problem. The Somfy Sonesse 30 RTS Li-ion motor. You can buy roller blinds using the Sonesse 30 RTS Li-ion motor, by clicking here.