Roller shutter motor in front-mounted roller shutters - barrier in the way!

Hello everyone,

I intend to retrofit our roller shutters with electric motors and everything is clear so far, but I always read and see that for installing the motor, the roller shutter curtain must be fully lowered in order to remove the shaft. However, I have the problem that the roller shutter box is installed outside the window, basically within the insulation, and the roller shutter curtain runs along the window. This means I cannot access the box when the curtain is lowered. I cannot reach it from the outside because it is the first and attic floors... Can I also remove the roller shutter with the curtain rolled up and then, if necessary, unroll and roll it up again on the ground? Or does none of this make sense and do I have to access it from the outside using scaffolding?

So this will generally probably not work, as there usually won't be enough space and it will hardly be possible to lift the shaft along with the roller shutter. Incidentally, this is not entirely safe in the upper floor and attic either!

You would definitely need quite a lot of space in the roller shutter box, which from a gut feeling will not be available. And even if it is, you would still have to be able to access it properly in order to lift the roller shutter out at all. I think you will need scaffolding or at least a proper ladder for this.

Hehe, I had the same hesitation at first on the upper floor. But it works from the inside and without much danger, as long as your roller shutter boxes look similar. So first a time comparison, uh, roller shutter box comparison, this is what they look like for us:
[ATTACH alt="WhatsApp Image 2023-01-09 at 08.45.15.jpeg" type="full"]77417[/ATTACH]
At the back in the corners, two screws to loosen the white metal cover.

Cover off, and for upper floor/attic then remove the stops on the shutter, shutter (I find the word hard for the plastic part, for me this is the roller shutter) pull it further up until it comes out of the guide rails on the right and left, then lower the roller shutter out of the cover opening.
At the bottom, I hung one of those balcony box holders from the hardware store for a fiver facing outwards on the window (or make something yourself from metal/wire, doesn’t matter):
[ATTACH alt="balkonkastenhalter-metall-41-x-17-cm-2811369-1.jpg" type="full"]77419[/ATTACH]

Push the roller shutter slightly away from you (standing inside the room...), unhook it at the top from the shaft and let it "slide" down into the holder at the bottom, while manually winding/rolling up at the bottom and placing it in the holder. Basically, it also works without the holder by laying the roller shutter into the room; the holder mainly makes rethreading easier. The actual trick is to get the roller shutter out of the guides and lower it through the box opening further outside so you can roll it up and access the box from inside.
If necessary, do it with two people, especially in the attic. I only did it on the upper floor, and it worked alone without too much danger of falling out the window.
You are also welcome to come by to watch & chat; surprisingly, none of the neighbors have been interested in retrofitting electrification yet. But it does have to be a good whisky that you bring… ;-)

You are also welcome to come by for a look & chat, surprisingly none of the neighbors have shown interest in the retrofitting electrification yet. But it has to be a good whisky that you bring.... ;-)

Thank you very much for the quick and detailed answer! Presumably, it all sounds more complicated than it actually is in the end. Where did you build or where do you live? Maybe a "show & tell" would actually make sense :D (unfortunately, I can't send you a private message due to lack of permission..)

We are in Klein Zimmern near Dieburg. Oha, I am not allowed to start conversations, despite 26 posts and being here for 4 years, interesting... How do we get together? I don't want to write my email or phone number openly here...

We are in Klein Zimmern near Dieburg.
Oh, I’m not even allowed to start conversations, despite 26 posts and being here for 4 years, interesting...
How do we get together? I don’t want to write my email or phone number openly here...

Oh great, that’s only 20 minutes from here. I have created the following meaningless email address which I will simply delete as soon as you leave me your phone number (WhatsApp?) or just your email address: jundb[at]npodcast.de