I cleaned mine with the attachment to my carpet cleaner. I hosed them down first, and used the carpet cleaner accessory for furniture(the one that just sprays and sucks, no spinning action) and it worked great. They look brand new. I've had mine for 20 years and only ever vacuumed them. I did both sides and the water was black! It was worth the time. I will post before and after pictures.

Hi all I also have 10 HD Silhoutte blinds that needed cleaning. I did buy the machine and started cleaning the first blind. I must say it does clean very well however, it is a mess and time consuming. My wife and I decided to do it the easy way and if it didn't work I was willing to give up and buy new blinds. We filled the tub with water about a third of the way and added Oxyclean (generous amount) and simply soaked the blinds for a few minutes each and rinsed them out. Let the blinds drain out in the tub afterwards. I could not believe my eyes when we put the blinds up. They were like new again. I cannot believe how much HD dealers charge for cleaning these blinds. it only cost me the price of a box of Oxyclean and 1 hour of my time.

Hi all, to those of you who have used Oxiclean or other oxygen bleach on these -- how much did you use? Jackb said "a generous amount" but I'm wondering how much that is. I've got mildew spots on the bottom third of my Silhouettes. I've been soaking them for 2 hours in about 1/3 of a tub with 5 scoops of oxy bleach powder with some gentle rubbing every so often. So far I'm not getting any spots going away.

I tried the Little Green first, with them hanging, but had no success, so now I'm trying the soaking, but maybe I'm not using enough oxy?

Any reccos? Thanks!

Sorry for the late respons Teusdayschiled
I have used quite alot of oxyclean. my blinds didn't have mildew spots but they did pick up alot of dust for over 8 years. my house was rented and the tenant did nothing to maintain a clean house. when i started cleaning the blinds the water was turning dark gray. I did the process few times and each time adding few scoops of oxyclean. i used a large pan to rinse off each blind while holding it open. this did the trick and my blinds are as new. I hope you were able to clean yours.

Regards,

Jackb115

I recently bought a home that had Hunter Douglas Silhouette shades in the kitchen. They were about 6 years old and had never been cleaned. As I wasn't the one who paid the high prices for them, I had nothing to lose. I took them down, put them in the bathtub (head rail and all) and soaked them in laundry detergent and bleach. I rinsed them and let them dry on towels for a couple of hours. They were like new and I rehung them. Don't know what all the commotion is about. They work beautifully.

I recently bought a home that had Hunter Douglas Silhouette shades in the kitchen. They were about 6 years old and had never been cleaned. As I wasn't the one who paid the high prices for them, I had nothing to lose. I took them down, put them in the bathtub (head rail and all) and soaked them in laundry detergent and bleach. I rinsed them and let them dry on towels for a couple of hours. They were like new and I rehung them. Don't know what all the commotion is about. They work beautifully.

Never use bleach on sihouettes

I'm an interior designer and installed Silhouettes throughout my home 20 years ago. They've been professionally cleaned several times. The last time, it was disappointing - several hundred dollars for a very poor job and wouldn't return calls to rectify. This autumn I decided to attempt cleaning them myself and made the decision to clean (perhaps risk) the smallest blind as a test run. This is the process I used for the 1st and subsequent blinds:

1 - Filled the walk-in shower with warm water (about 2") & Oxyclean according to directions
2 - Soaked blinds for 5-10 minutes, used a soft bristled manicure brush to gently run it left to right, then right to left to help loosen dirt and insect remains. In a few places, the brush wouldn't dislodge the nastier stuff. I taped 2 wooden bbq skewers together for length (pointy sides at taped joint) and used the flat side to gently dislodge) by scraping the remains between the sheer fabrics that had stuck.
3 - Used handheld shower (gentle spray) to rinse, top to bottom
4 - Hung over shower curtain rod that was placed in the center of shower; tilted top and bottom rails from hi to lo until water stopped pouring out (make sure curtain rod is firmly in place. If you don't have a horizontal tile lip to place the rod above for > stability, consider another way to get as much water out as possible to lessen the weight prior to hanging on rod)
5 - Let air dry with the help of a small fan for about 30-60 minutes depending on size
6 - Hung back in place overnight unrolled; on the 2nd day, I rolled completely up thinking that could help eliminate any puckering for about 12 hours. I allowed the 1st blind to hang for a month to test this out)

Worked like a charm! Seriously, had I known it was this easy, I would have saved myself BIG bucks over the years.

If using a shower curtain rod, place in the center of the tub (or purchase a new one for a fraction of the cost of sending out to clean).

Burt, I agree with greywings. Could the others that fall apart be knock-offs and not be as well made as Hunter-Douglas? In my personal situation, it was easy and they look great without any puckering. I will still be calling a professional cleaner for 2 that are over 60" wide because they won't fit in the walk-in shower, but am still thinking of a way to do myself!

After the test run, I was able to clean 3 in a couple hours (2 were French patio door coverings that are nearly 6' tall).

The key is handling the blinds "GENTLY" and not soaking which could (surmissing here) could loosen adhesive on the veins - also the reason to use a fan to dry quickly. Nothing in full force to alleviate any stretching that could result in puckering.

Hunter Douglas' disclaimer recommends using the services of a professional blind cleaner who cleans ultrasonically or injection/extraction. Because this worked for me, I cannot say this will work for anyone else's blinds. If you have any doubts, I highly recommend a professional cleaner.

I have read that Silouette Blinds which are the ( Bon Soir ) kind should NEVER be cleaned by anything but injection/extraction. Has anyone else tried to clean theirs other than this way?

The Littlegreen ProHeat Bissell method really worked. I just used it on my Hunter Douglas Silhouette blinds. Thank you so much for the recommendation. Just saved myself $3000 by NOT having to purchase new ones and $1750 not paying for an "ultrasonic" cleaning.

Thanks for giving me the courage to try it! I saw the below post from "oxymee" on another site; I wanted to know if Oxyclean would work since I have food stains on my blinds from my son. I used: 1 scoop Oxyclean, 3 oz Zep commercial upholstery cleaner (Home Depot) and 1 gallon hot water. Mixed them up, let them sit for 20-30 minutes and used the mixture in our Rug Doctor.

The Rug Doctor's hand tool worked awesome. I did a first pass adding the mix, going through the entire silhouette from top to bottom. Then I did a second pass just pulling out excess water (i.e., not holding down the cleaner-release handle.) They came out perfectly white and were dry when I checked them a couple hours later. They smell great, too. :-) They are back up and look great.

***************

"To wash my window blinds, I soak them in oxyclean. It’s amazing how clean they get! I use 1 to 1 1/2 scoops of oxyclean and 1/2 cup of laundry detergent, a long plastic storage container with hot or warm water and soak them for about 1/2 hour or so. Usually I pre-mix the oxyclean in a tall plastic cup to get it activated it in hot water and in 10 min or so it looks like a bluish slushy but then it’s good to go! I soak everything including the wand part and the little sliders for the ends."

Has anyone ever used the Green machine on "Hunter Douglas" Silhouette BonSoir shades. They are very delicate. I had four that I wanted to be cleaned, and one with water marks on it. A professional cleaner in Toronto was going to charge me $75.00 per shade plus shipping costs to clean them, as I live in Northern Ontario

I'm quite sure you could use the Green Machine on Silhouette BonSoir shades. I looked it up and it says that the fabric on the outside and on the inside is 100% polyester. Polyester is very washable. I read that the "inner fabric" is a knit which suggests being gentle, but the outer fabric is a woven polyester, so I think it would work out fine since you won't make direct brush contact with the knit. I'm guessing that the inner knit is fairly strong any way, given all the sun they get.

Hi,

Can I clean my shilloutte blinds on the wall or do I need to take them down? Also, I just ordered the little green machine, have never used and not familiar with it. Do I need to buy a special cleaning solution for the machine? Thank you.

I used my Green Machine on my Silhouettes about 5 yrs ago. They were so filthy that I figured, what did I have to lose. The solution is available at Walmart or K-mart in the vacuum cleaner department. A green bottle.

i spread old sheets out on my (clean) garage floor, and took my fully extended blind there and spread it out over the sheets. The Green Machine has a cycle that sprays soapy water. Don't overdo the soap. Then gently scrub with it and suck the water out. If you don't soak them, they will dry fairly quickly.

i did mine when it was warm outside. That helped them dry. Don't get too close to the top part of the blind and get the lifting mechanism wet.

It was going to cost a fortune to clean them, and I can't imagine that they could have looked any better. I'm not crazy about the darn things anyway. Especially when bugs die inside the spaces.

good luck!

Have owned Silhouettes for about 15 years and can't wait to clean them. One thing that may help evryone is that to get the insect bodies out here is what I have done. Went to the fish store and purchased and 4 foot long clear straight tube 1 3/16 diameter. These are used in large aquariums. If you put this tube in each of the "honeycombs" of the shade, hold your vacuum to the end (with no attachment on) and the little things come right out. With wider shades, you have to go to the other side and do the same thing. Hope this helps someone as reading this and getting hints on how to use the Green Machine has helped me.

Never heard of the little green machine until reading this, but just ordered one!

SPMom...thanks for the dead bug tip. Do you have a pic of this tube. We don't have a fish store and I am going to try to find this tube online.

Thank you for this post...I bought the $79 green machine (without water heater) and just finished my first set of 11 year old white silhouettes. They were filthy and I was so stressed over how to clean them...they look brand new!!! I'm so stoked!! Can't thank you enough...had you not shared this method I'd have been stuck with a huge bill from the "professional cleaner"!

I made the mistake of putting my toddler grandson in one of our twin beds without a waterproof mattress protector. He was potty trained but had on a pull-up that wasn't adequate. The green machine worked like magic!

glad it worked so well for you.

dgmarie, I don't know if you're still around as this is an 8 year old post, but I want to send a huge thanks to you! Until I read this thread, I was doubtful I could clean my Silhouettes on my own. The Green Machine did the job perfectly. I was super excited to see my blinds go from dingy and grey to bright white!

All the fantastic ideas on this thread helped me to devise a good set up to clean my blinds. So thought I'd add to this wonderful collection of ideas by sharing mine:

I laid out an old vinyl shower curtain on top of some old boards on my lawn (I laid down the boards to give myself a smooth, solid surface to vaccuum against... helps improve the suction; and did it over the lawn so at least the water could be reused, keeping the lawn watered). I "presoaked" the blinds by spraying them with a spray bottle of soapy water. I only use nontoxic cleaners in my home so I mixed a bit of Dr. Bronner's liquid soap with water.

I then sucked up the dirty soapy water with the GM then rinsed off with the garden hose. For extra dirty blinds (e.g. the one in the dining room behind my kids' seats), I did more than one pass, scrubbed and cleaned both sides of the blinds. To dry them, I hung them on the clothes line.

They were never cleaned for at least 10 years; yet, save for some stubborn food stains, all of the blinds look like new! Now I know how easy and cheap I can DIY clean them, they will get a regular cleaning from now on. Thanks SO MUCH dgmarie!

For the person who asked for before and after photos: I wasn't organized enough to snap "before" photos but here is an "after":

This blind in particular had a dusty grey film all over it and spots of mildew at the bottom edges. It looks a bit grey in the photo because of the lighting and the shadows. It's actually a glimmery bright white! :)

After stressing about if DYI cleaning would work, I took the plunge, and WOW!! I ran warm water, and liquid Tide in my bathtub, and soaked my luminettes for about 10 minutes, swishing the water once in a while. I rinsed them with the hand shower, and hung them to dry over the tub, and voila, they are white again, and beautiful. BTW, my shades are 12 years old, have hung in front of an open window, and just survived a bathroom remodel, in which there was dust, dirt, and a lot of sanding going on......highly recommend!

I took mine outside, hung them over a 6 foot ladder, and just sprayed them off with the hose. Now they look brand new. It was all just dust--the run off was dirty!

The problem is now after 16 years the plastic parts are extremely brittle, so when I dropped one, all the plastic parts shattered like glass. I assume they do that on purpose so you have to buy new ones. The fabric is all in perfect shape.

Hoovb, I would call Hunter Douglas and ask for replacement parts - if it looks doable. We had to replace the cord on 2 shades and they sent us replacement cords.

Thanks, Keagle!

I took mine down put them outside on a table took a sponge with dish soap like dawn and then hosed off the soap they were black as well. Then tuned it over did the other side . Let it dry and then did it again. After that I used my steamer when I was done I do not think Hunter Douglas could have done better they were like new!!

did you use the steamer when the blind was still wet or dry? Did you use the steam to release wrinkles or for another reason?

I have Hunter Douglas Silhouette blinds all thru my house including one right next to the stove which had a huge brown stain on the lower half of it. I was about to replace it with another one that we took down.

Watched a few youtube videos and decided to plunk it into my tub squirted some Dawn dish detergent (as I thought the brown stain might be grease) gently scrubbed it with a microfiber cloth and it came out unbelievably clean.

I left it out to dry outside for about 20 minutes and it looks fab!! No green machine needed.

I am wondering if anyone cleaned the vertical silhouette blinds that go over the French sliding doors? I have 4 of those that are in urgent need of a good cleaning.

Bought the cheaper little green machine yesterday at walmart (79.00) and did my 20 year old silhouette blind.... I couldn't get it down, so just taped up old shower curtain liners behind it and down to the floor to protect hardwood floor... It worked GREAT!!! I just used the bottle of detergent that came with it...the return water was black!!!! They look totally brand new again! I just closed them, brushed horizontally along each panel, opened them and did a more gentle swipe again.... I'm actually glad I left them up, no risk of wrinkling them and they dried quickly! I never post in these things, but this was soooo worth it! I then used the cleaner for my stairway and it did a good job as well! Thanks to the original poster for sharing this tip!

I also have silhouette blinds...i put them in my jacuzzi with a VERY small amount of dawn dish washing liquid. Put the jets on and let them soak a bit. I took the hand held faucet and rinsed really well...several times. Then i took them outside and laid them across the lounge chairs in my backyard which i had covered in bath towels. 30 minutes later i was reinstalling my sparkling WHITE silhouettes. Mine are 120" long and the price i was quoted was obscene.

It absolutely works! I had a "trip and fall" awhile back that sent a full cup of coffee into one of my HD shades like this.

Brought out the baby Bissell and Viola!! Done! So thrilled not to have to spend $700 to replace said blind. (Why the heck are these HD's so stinkin' expensive to begin with? It's not like rocket science goes into these things....!)

A thousand thanks for the tip!

Well, my dirty Silhouettes brought me here and glad it did. I too could not find anyone that even cleans them in my area. They are about 10 years old and as my girlfriend calls them a vanilla color. So I go buy that Bissell Vac and did one of the blinds. To me very little improvement and a lot of work. I am taking that thing back. So then I found another sight and it had pictures to follow. Basically take the blind down, soak in the bathtub with a dash of dawn for 20 minutes. I used a big bath sponge and wiped it down on both sides. I took a piece of wood and cut it to fit between two pillars on my side porch. Then I just draped the blind over the wood. Sprayed it with the garden hose. Bam, looks brand new and better than the Bissell. Total time take down, wash, spray off, dry, 1 hour. took 2 with the Bissell and it did not look near as good. Here is a pick of the first one drying.

Tip, no need to empty the tub and do a 2nd cleaning/rinsing as was recommended. Using the hose to rinse it does a great job. I rinsed the heck out of both sides.

So... I read through all the comments and decided not to buy the green machine. The point was not to spend any money cleaning my blinds so I thought, if it goes wrong, I'll just get curtains. I took the blinds down (which turned out to be extremely easy). Just remember to unscrew the little mechanism that holds down the cords near the bottom first. I took them outside, laid them on a tarp, hosed them down (the water that pooled up was nasty brown).

Then I had a bucket of water with some dawn dish soap and a big scoop of oxy clean and a brush with a handle I had for washing dishes (the kind you can put soap in the handle) and just lightly scrubbed over the blinds starting at the top. Rinsed them off, turned them over and repeated.

Laid them out to dry over 2 chairs. After 30 min, they were still damp but hung them up cause I wanted them to not have a weird crease where they were hung over the chair.

I'm amazed and saved myself loads of money!

I've attached a few pics trying to show the before and after. It's difficult to photograph them so hopefully you can see

That's such a rude and presumptive comment. I most certainly paid for my blinds myself and I cleaned them myself and they're absolutely perfect.

Angiehill, I almost posted the same thing, but my comment would not have been as nice as yours. SM must be bored and needs to stir things up or more likely has an ultrasonic cleaning company and needs the business.

There were many versions before I posted the toned down one :)

I’m embarrassed to say how old my Hunter Douglas Duette and Silhouette cellular shades are. I have washed all of them in the bathtub with mild soap (Woolite) and warm water. The large ones are more difficult, because I have to stand them up and pour the soapy water down them and flip them around. The small ones are so easy, I just set them in the tub. When I finish rinsing them, I close them and squeeze excess water and hang them back up damp. Close them on the window and let air dry. They turn out wonderful. I also had a cord that snapped replaced by a local drapery and blind shop. Replacement is not cheap!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to thank all the people who posted about the use of the Bissell Green Little machine (I think they should rename it to Little Green Giant, but that is taken) to clean their Hunter Douglas silhouettes. Ours are 12 years old and as many have pointed out, you don't know how filthy the are until you wash them.

Well, after getting a $750.00 estimate from an authorized Hunter Douglas expert cleaner we decided to give it a go ourselves. We did not even bother taking them down. We used plastic sheeting and masking tape to cover up the windows and walls to prevent excessive wetting of all surrounding areas and off we went. After the initial learning curve (we started with a single window shade), the whole thing became a breeze.

That green sucker is simply AMAZING. We never had or needed one so we just got one at the big W for $79 plus a bottle of the cleaning solution. I figured we saved ourselves around 660 bucks, the difference between mister Hunter Douglas cleaner and mister little green machine. My wife could not believe the dirt and grime coming off the blinds, .The results are nothing short of spectacular. The silhouttes are back to their original resplendent off white color. They took no time to completely dry out after after being sucked up by, yes you guessed it, mister green. I will say, after we got the full hang of it, we were actually enjoying the whole cleaning process, all 3 sliding doors. 3 triple windows and 2 more single ones.

Again, thanks to all for the terrific comments and ideas on how to tackle this kind of shore.

Has anyone tried this method on honeycomb cellular shades?

I took my hunter douglas Roman shades down and put them in anoxy clean bath in the tub for may be 3 minutes. All the grease and dirt just rinsed right out. They were kitchen blinds so they get messy. I hung them over lawn chairs to dry in the sun and they look brand new. I thought id have to

replace them .

After reading everyone’s comments I took your advice and washed my Silhouette Blinds in the tub with Dawn Dish detergent. My 13 year old Silhouette looks the same as the “new” Silhouette that was just installed (my grandkids destroyed the original). Thank you!

Oh, and of course, word of caution! If you are using an electric leaf blower, or shop vac in reverse, make sure the cord is plugged into a GFI protected socket (which every outdoor socket should be anyways) and keep the end of any electrical cords out of any pools of water. Also, although I wore flip-flops when washing the shades, I dried my feet and put on rubber soled shoes when I dried the shades. Stay safe!

I wish I had read this sooner…. My sillouette blinds were so dirty - I decided to take my Little Green Machine and because I am Florida with tile window sills and tile floors, I left them hanging in the windows… I started at the top and squirted on the solution with an oxyclean booster - then just sucked the dirty water off the shade. The blinds are CLEAN!!! The water was black. The Blinds are not as delicate as we are lead to believe.

1. Hi does anyone here have Hunter Douglas vertical luminett ,I can't find an ultrasonic cleaning company in Savannah Ga. so I was thinking of soaking them in the tub also like so many on here with their sillouettes , they are a 120 x 5 though and they have been hanging for the past 15 years,because I didnt know what to do with them, i had the headrail taken down for repairs and saw how dirty they were and have been trying to find someone to clean them before the headrail gets back.

I had 5 large HD Siloettes that are 24 years old. We finally tackled this project after reading this thread. There was some experimentation! First we used an air compressor and blasted out the dust. Next we used the bissel and sprayed and sucked out the dirty water. It did a good job but there were still streaks of dirt. Then we took out the hose and carefully hosed it down on both sides. We decided we didn't need to do the first step! We then hosed it down, used the bissel and then rinsed again with the hose and used the sucking feature of the bissel to dry it out. They came out perfect. It was disgusting how filthy they were. A tip - make sure you do both sides.

The person who said they are not as fragile as they seem is right.

Thanks for the idea ! I did 7 panel with help of my handyman. It came out clean and beautiful.

We are WAY late to this thread but so glad it still exists!

After reading various DIY techniques used, I cleaned our white, 23 year old HD Luminettes. I opted for washing them in a bathtub. Ours are 29" wide x 57" so they fit. I used tide powder and some oxy clean in the tub and agitated the binds (up down mostly). The water got "really dirty" quick. I drained and then filled w/ clean water and repeated. For drying, I used an old pressure fit shower rod in our master bath walk in shower and some Romex electrical cable to hang the blinds in an full open position. They look like NEW.

Thanks everyone!