What's Inside a Flexi Leash?

My good old 2006 Flexi Comfort retractable leash died recently. It stopped retracting at a speedy eye-injuring pace and began leisurely rolling itself back in with the occasional pause. Ten years of solid service isn't too bad, though today's Flexis come with a lifetime warranty. The responsible, adult thing to do would be to toss the tired, worn out leash and buy a new one. Obviously that's not what I did.

Flexi Leash Safety

Years of Flexi propaganda had me convinced that within the case there lurked a Death Spring that could fly out and kill me and everyone I loved. Flexi leashes come with a lot of warnings, but I mostly stick with the more visible belt or tape ones, and only use them in places where my dog can safely be 15' away from me, so I like to think I'm safe from traumatic finger amputations and nasty cord burns. As long as the Death Spring Containment Case wasn't opened, we were all safe.

Then my Flexi leash stopped retracting and I threw caution to the wind, by which I mean I googled "flexi leash repair" and looked at pictures of other people taking them apart to bolster my confidence. Apparently the case could be cracked open without immediately unleashing the Death Spring.

Tool Time

After removing the two screws holding the case together, I carefully pried the thing open with a screwdriver. No Death Spring in sight. Inside, there was a white plastic wheel holding the length of the leash, the brake and lock, and that was it.

I had hoped that an obvious and fixable problem would immediately become apparent when I opened the case. Maybe there was a twist in the leash, or something needing lubrication, something other than "spring's fucked, buy a new leash".

The Secrets Within

The leash remained functional with the case opened, so I was able to see the mechanisms and the action. I pulled out the tape and let it retract, during the pauses there was still something moving inside the wheel. Maybe the Death Spring was slipping?

Clearly the next step was to remove the white wheel. I had always envisioned the Death Spring as a huge coil, and I assumed it must be held between the wheel and the other side of the case.

Convinced that the green peg in the center was all that contained the Death Spring, I trapped the leash in a vise while I pried the wheel loose. To my great disappointment, there was no great burst of primal energy, and the other side of the wheel looked pretty much the same. There was still no obvious reason why the leash wouldn't retract smoothly.

In the hole in the center of the ring though, I could now see a strip of metal with a big kink in the end.

The inner part of the white wheel was clearly a separate part that could be removed. This must be the lair of the Death Spring. By this point though, I was pretty sure that nothing was going to pop out at me. This spring probably wasn't even tightly wound anymore. 

I could spin the end of the metal strip around with a screwdriver, coiling it tighter until it popped back to its original position.

It looked similarly nonthreatening with the cover removed. Just a piece of wound up metal. It's difficult to tell from the picture, but this is a very long strip of very thin metal. The coils together looked a lot like a solid cylinder of solid silver material.

With the cover off, I again spun the end of the strip around with a screwdriver and...

HOLY SHIT! It exploded out of the wheel in a huge jumble of twisted metal!

Death Spring Located!

I had been playing with the very end of this huge spring without realizing that the wheel around it was holding it in tension. As soon as I pulled it a tiny bit sideways, the whole thing shot out.

See that straight bit at the bottom? That part has lost its tension entirely. It's likely the reason why the leash would reel in very slowly at certain points. While it's possible to re-tension a spring by hitting it with a hammer (I do this with clarinet springs), I don't think I'm up to the task of re-tensioning this monster. Even if I could get it contained again. Yikes!

So yes, the spring's fucked and I need to get a new Flexi leash. I'm saving this one for parts, though. I'm thinking we need a pink Flexi Vario with interchangeable end pieces that stretch or light up. Plus there's various attachment for the handle, like a cargo box and a flashlight. So many option! Flexis made after September 2011 have a lifetime warranty, so it could be the last one I ever buy. This green one is the only retractable leash I purchased new, all my others are thrift store finds because I walk on the wild side and use potentially unsafe equipment. 

Thanks for joining me on this journey of discovery!