Roman R6 Cordless vs Silent Gliss 5100 for a Wide Bay Window Curtain Track

A 3.6 metre bay in three facets, about 1.2 metres each, is where curtain hardware stops being interchangeable. The Roman R6 Cordless runs a spring-loaded lift mechanism inside a headrail and is sold mainly as a made-to-measure blind rather than a bay track. The Silent Gliss 5100 is an aluminium curtain track specified for hand-drawn or corded operation, with pre-formed bends available at 90, 120 and 150 degrees. Both can appear in the same shortlist for the same window, yet the fabric weight and the bay angles push them toward different jobs.

Glide load and the bend

The figure that matters on a wide bay is the amount of fabric hanging from each glide. Silent Gliss 5100 uses the firm’s own gliders running inside an extruded aluminium channel, and the system is specified for medium-weight curtains across long runs. On a 3.6 metre track with a lined cotton curtain, the moving load sits somewhere between 6 and 9 kg, depending on fullness and whether the lining is thermal.

That load is shared by dozens of gliders. The aluminium track also has enough stiffness to hold a formed bend without sagging between brackets. Silent Gliss quotes bracket spacing for the 5100 at intervals that become closer as curtain weight rises.

A bay adds another demand. A bracket belongs at or near each internal angle, because the pre-formed bend should not carry curtain weight cantilevered from one side. If no bracket sits within 100 mm of the angle, the bend can turn into a stiff spot, and the leading glide is the part that usually makes the problem obvious.

The Roman R6 Cordless does not drag fabric sideways. It lifts a blind vertically on a cord-free spring balance, so it is dealing with the drop of one fabric panel. Across a three-facet bay, one spring headrail cannot follow an internal angle; the usual layout is three separate R6 units, one per facet.

Three blinds bring three headrails, three bracket sets, and three pull actions. They also avoid the glide-load question entirely, because nothing traverses around the bay.

What cordless removes

The R6 Cordless removes the chain and the cleat. Under the UK’s child safety standard for internal blinds, corded and chained ready-made products must be supplied with a tensioner or breakaway device. A cordless spring system has no loop that needs securing to the wall, which makes it a strong fit for a bay window in a room used by young children.

Silent Gliss 5100 in hand-drawn form has no cord either. The curtain is pulled by a wand or by the leading edge. The child-safety cord issue appears only when the 5100 is ordered with the corded traverse option, which routes a draw cord down one return.

Daily use separates the two more than the word cordless does. A spring blind on a 1.2 metre facet can lift smoothly, although a three-facet bay means lifting and lowering three units. A single hand-drawn curtain on a 5100 can open the whole bay in one movement, while the R6 keeps the wall free of chains and cleats.

Measuring a three-facet bay

The measurement that sinks many bay orders is the internal angle. A bay is rarely a clean 90 or 135 degrees. Builders work to the brick, and a 1930s semi bay can sit at 137 or 142 degrees at the returns.

The Silent Gliss 5100 bend is supplied to a fixed angle. Each internal angle needs measuring with a sliding bevel and a protractor, followed by a match to the nearest available bend with a small correction accepted, or a custom-formed bend where the range allows it.

Run the tape along each facet face, not corner to corner across the opening. For a three-facet bay, the order needs five numbers: centre facet width, both side facet widths, and both internal angles.

Outer returns need their own allowance. Adding 150 to 200 mm past each outer return lets the curtain stack off the glass. Mounting height then sets the drop and clearance: a track fixed 150 mm above the reveal and returned to the wall clears the head of the window and lets the curtain hang past the sill.

R6 Cordless measuring treats each facet as an independent blind. The width is the exact reveal width minus the manufacturer’s deduction for the fitting, and the drop runs from the top of the reveal to the sill.

Three separate recesses mean three separate deductions. If the plaster returns are out of square, each blind is cut for its own facet. There is no bend to form, although a blind cut 4 mm too wide will not sit in a recess.

Fixing into the reveal

Both systems need fixings that hold in the material behind the reveal. In a plaster-on-brick reveal, a Fischer DUOPOWER wall plug with the screw required by the bracket covers mixed substrates above many old bay windows: the plug knots in solid brick and folds in plasterboard voids.

Drill to the plug length, not deeper. The bracket then sits flush, and the track or headrail has a better chance of running level across all three facets.

Cost, light control, heading and stack

Three R6 Cordless blinds at made-to-measure width, lined, produce a per-unit price that is multiplied by three. Paying for fitting can also mean three fitting sessions. Hardware alone can sit in the low hundreds per blind for a mid fabric, so three blinds may reach a four-figure sum before curtains are considered as the alternative.

The Silent Gliss 5100 specification uses one track, two pre-formed bends, end stops, and a glider count sized to the run. A 3.6 metre 5100 with two bends and the glider pack sits well below the three-blind total on hardware. The larger spend usually arrives with the curtain itself, especially when it is made to measure with a pinch pleat heading and thermal lining; the blind option puts more of the bill into repeated mechanisms.

Three separate blinds give three light-control zones. The centre facet can be lifted while the sides stay down. A single curtain on a 5100 covers the bay as one span unless it is split into pairs meeting at each internal angle, which brings in an overlap arm at the centre and a bay-corner joining detail.

Stack depth is the specification detail that often matters after the fitting is finished. On a 1.2 metre centre facet, a pinch-pleat curtain at standard fullness can stack back 250 to 300 mm each side when fully open. In a bay, that stack sits where the bend has already crowded the gliders.

The cure is in the order details. The curtain can be made slightly narrower at the leading edge, or the outer returns can be pushed wider, so the open fabric clears the glass instead of blocking a large part of the centre pane.

A wave heading changes the stack again. The 5100 supports a wave glide system that holds fabric in a continuous S-curve. Wave stacks tighter and usually sits better around a bend than pinch pleat, although keeping the wave even requires the cord-drawn version, bringing back the cord issue that made the blind attractive in the first place.

The brochures make the two systems look comparable until the bay angle becomes part of the order. A cordless blind can ignore that angle by splitting the opening into three separate units; a bent track has to live with it every time a glide passes the corner. The uncomfortable detail is that the cheaper-looking specification may depend on the least visible measurement in the bay.