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Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:09 pm
by amber_fluid
I see roller shutters advertised everywhere these days but can anyone recommend to me a company that sells these things at a good price. Also any tips on what I should be looking for when buying? Appreciate any feedback??

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:30 pm
by Squawk
Dont get electric ones - they are hazardous in a fire situation if you are trying to get out a window and you have no power as a result of the fire.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:40 pm
by amber_fluid
Squawk wrote:Dont get electric ones - they are hazardous in a fire situation if you are trying to get out a window and you have no power as a result of the fire.


don't they have a manual operation as well? I just assumed they did.................if they don't it is definitely a potential fire hazard.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:46 pm
by Sheik Yerbouti
amber_fluid wrote:I see roller shutters advertised everywhere these days but can anyone recommend to me a company that sells these things at a good price. Also any tips on what I should be looking for when buying? Appreciate any feedback??

waystomakeyourhouselookloikeshit.com.au

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:56 pm
by gadj1976
We got em. Our house faces the summer sun in the afternoon. Having the roller shutters makes a hell of a difference to the temperature in the front rooms.

I went through Bramalco, but there are cheaper mobs out there. If you do speak to someone else, then ring Bramalco, see if they match it. They came down heaps in price from their initial quote.

I got a powered version in the main bedroom - and realise now that it's a fire hazard, however we got wind up ones in the other bedrooms.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:04 pm
by amber_fluid
gadj1976 wrote:We got em. Our house faces the summer sun in the afternoon. Having the roller shutters makes a hell of a difference to the temperature in the front rooms.

I went through Bramalco, but there are cheaper mobs out there. If you do speak to someone else, then ring Bramalco, see if they match it. They came down heaps in price from their initial quote.

I got a powered version in the main bedroom - and realise now that it's a fire hazard, however we got wind up ones in the other bedrooms.


do you mind if I ask what sort of price you paid? I was told it is on average about $800 per window. 10 windows being $8000............And I'm assuming manual operated shutters are a fair bit cheaper than electric?

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:19 pm
by gadj1976
amber_fluid wrote:
gadj1976 wrote:We got em. Our house faces the summer sun in the afternoon. Having the roller shutters makes a hell of a difference to the temperature in the front rooms.

I went through Bramalco, but there are cheaper mobs out there. If you do speak to someone else, then ring Bramalco, see if they match it. They came down heaps in price from their initial quote.

I got a powered version in the main bedroom - and realise now that it's a fire hazard, however we got wind up ones in the other bedrooms.


do you mind if I ask what sort of price you paid? I was told it is on average about $800 per window. 10 windows being $8000............And I'm assuming manual operated shutters are a fair bit cheaper than electric?


No problem. I reckon it was about 2700 for the 3 windows. One electric, two manual. The one electric one was a double window, hence the cost would be more than normal.

I would expect if you were doing a bathroom or toilet window, the price would be significantly cheaper.

These prices are now 5 years old though, so I don't know if the price has gone up or down since then.

Oh, one thing to note too, I can't sleep unless it's pitch black and with street lights out the front of our house, I really needed them. They work a treat, you can almost make it pitch black in the middle of a cloudy day.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:32 pm
by amber_fluid
our house is north facing as well...............which obviously heats up real quickly in the summer. Do you find the roller shutters dramatically reduce the room temperatures as this is the main reason I'm looking into the shutters?

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:34 pm
by heater31
I have them on all the front windows of my place and like gadj said they do make a difference to keeping heat in and out. For my joint we used the Gotta Getta mob the old man actually informed them of their insulating properties which I am surprised they did not know this. but anyway I think the price was very reasonable and even the next door neighbour copied us in our block of town houses facing the road

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:28 pm
by Squawk
amber_fluid wrote:
Squawk wrote:Dont get electric ones - they are hazardous in a fire situation if you are trying to get out a window and you have no power as a result of the fire.


don't they have a manual operation as well? I just assumed they did.................if they don't it is definitely a potential fire hazard.


Correct - they come in manual with a winder on the inside of the house.

They do make a big difference to the ambient temperature of your house.

You can get 'see through' shutters - you can see out by day. At night tho, with curtains open and lights on, people can see in tho so be wary of that!

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:03 am
by johntheclaret
amber_fluid wrote:
Squawk wrote:Dont get electric ones - they are hazardous in a fire situation if you are trying to get out a window and you have no power as a result of the fire.


don't they have a manual operation as well? I just assumed they did.................if they don't it is definitely a potential fire hazard.


Can't speak for Oz, but in the UK they cretainly do. Best type is an electric shutter powered by a tubular motor. It has limit switches that will automatically stop th down feed and up feed so the shutter motor doesn't carry on trying to drive the shutter. Each tubular motor will have a manual over ride so you should get what is called a rigid eye that screws into a threaded hole, and you operate it similar to a car jack.

Make sure the motor has an inbuilt safety break which locks the motor preventing the shutter from just dropping down in case of failure and it should also have forged steel gears in the gear box. Some cheapo's use plastic gears but these are too easily stripped.

Don't know what you want it for, but you can get direct drive motors that are fixed to the tube and have an inbuilt gear box and chain drive. Usually for heavy duty stuff and would start at about 530Nm.

You can also fix a UPS to the power supply so it would always operate the shutter, fire or no fire, power or no power. These fire shutter motors are a bit more expensive and I wouldn't really recommend them for domestic.

Make sure that the tube the shutter is attached to is also spring loaded, whether you use hand chain op, tubular motor op or direct drive op.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:15 am
by gadj1976
amber_fluid wrote:our house is north facing as well...............which obviously heats up real quickly in the summer. Do you find the roller shutters dramatically reduce the room temperatures as this is the main reason I'm looking into the shutters?


Absolutely. As Squawk says - you can leave them slightly ajar, so that you can let breeze in, but keep the heat out. We normally do this when it gets to 6/7pm in summer when the real heat is out of the sun.

Where abouts are you Amber? I'm in the Modbury area if you want to come and have a squizz. PM me.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:15 am
by amber_fluid
gadj1976 wrote:
amber_fluid wrote:our house is north facing as well...............which obviously heats up real quickly in the summer. Do you find the roller shutters dramatically reduce the room temperatures as this is the main reason I'm looking into the shutters?


Absolutely. As Squawk says - you can leave them slightly ajar, so that you can let breeze in, but keep the heat out. We normally do this when it gets to 6/7pm in summer when the real heat is out of the sun.

Where abouts are you Amber? I'm in the Modbury area if you want to come and have a squizz. PM me.


Thanks for the info.............I'm on the other side of town at Plympton.........so a bit far. Cheers anyway!

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:30 am
by mick
I don't really like the remand centre look :lol:

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:36 am
by JK
Sheik Yerbouti wrote:
amber_fluid wrote:I see roller shutters advertised everywhere these days but can anyone recommend to me a company that sells these things at a good price. Also any tips on what I should be looking for when buying? Appreciate any feedback??

waystomakeyourhouselookloikeshit.com.au


Or failing that try waystomakeyourfamilysafer.com.au

We live in a bit of a dodgy (at times) area (although Im not sure anywhere is completely safe these days) and after interrupting a would be invader last year had to get these things put in, as the missus was struggling big time.

Reckon from memory they were about $800 each, and they do provide good peace of mind.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:09 pm
by gadj1976
Amber, I was at the gym at lunch and Impulse are having a 50% off sale!

Impulsesecurity.com.au I think.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:33 pm
by amber_fluid
gadj1976 wrote:Amber, I was at the gym at lunch and Impulse are having a 50% off sale!

Impulsesecurity.com.au I think.


Cheers for that Gladj.................I will look them up.

Re: Roller shutters!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 4:23 pm
by Psyber
With the first house I built I didn't wake up to the problem of windows facing north or west in SA. I never made that mistake again.
I preferred to sell the house after a few years rather than make it look like Alcatraz though.
The last house I built had northern and southern windows under verandahs, a big verandah in the east and a blank western wall.

For security, I'd either go with the wall mounted cannons or move, or as I was when last in SA be on friendly terms with the local Angels! :wink:
[Never burgled there in 13 years but the new owners were done over in the first week.]