How to repair and upgrade any size wind chime for outdoor use

All wind chimes will suffer some sort of failure given enough time which brings us to the subject of wind chime repair.

Nothing lasts forever yet there are some things you can do to extend your failure rate, the time between failures from years, to decades.

Many wind chimes are poorly designed with flaws built in because of piss-poor engineering, made from inappropriate materials that should never be included on a wind chime, and mass produced or copied by unskilled workers.  

First things first!

• what part failed?
• why did it fail?

The two most important questions one must ask themselves of why your wind chime fell apart. Identify what part failed specifically, and why. The most common reason is, the cord suspending the pipe from the halo broke. Let’s deal with this one first.

Q – Why did the cord break?

A -Most of the time, it failed because it was abraded from undesirable friction or it was organic and rotted out and decomposed naturally as it should. 

How to repair and engineer your way out of this mess –

Remedy = Use inorganic suspension cordage. No natural materials, I suggest braided nylon, high test fishing line, or chain for some large wind chimes such as the wind chimes that I make.

Here is something else that I see many manufacturers doing which is a stunning example of shitty design and again, piss-poor engineering.

One, the cord that extends down from the Halo, to the chime, and back up to the Halo is organic so over time it will rot. And Two, the cord itself passes through the chime horizontally so now there are two more places where the cord will be frayed and fall apart. Had the makers of your wind chime used a solid metal axel as a suspension point to attach the cord, rather than the cord passing through the chime, you would have seen a longer life time of your wind chime.

I get many inquiries from people seeking out where to find new wind chime tubes or wind chime pipes. Unless you know exactly who the manufacturer of your particular wind chime is, and exactly what model you have, matching parts exactly is going to be difficult at best. Many wind chimes have what might be called an automotive finish on them that makes for a really nice looking wind chime when new. However, over time where the hammer strikes the chime the finish wears off and many people become upset over this natural phenomenon.