Graywind Motorized Roller Shades 100% Blackout Free Stop Window Shades Cordless Wireless Remote Control Window Roller Blinds with Valance for Smart Home and Office, Customized Size, Jacquard White

Foreword:As I work from home, I find myself engaging in multiple video conferences and meetings. I am normally not a vain person, but in my very competitive job, I try to maintain appearences, and a part of that is lighting. I wanted something more effective than my cheap vertical blinds which do a poor job of blocking out light when I need my room to be dark, and something I can open remotely so that way I do not have to leave my desk when a new meeting starts. And thus began my multiple month-long search for smart curtains.I learned that companies like hunter-douglas and somfy refused to sell directly to me online, insisting I speak to a distributor/dealer first. That was the fastest turn-off I've ever experienced towards a company.Lutron's Serena brand quoted $737 for the cheapest shades and fabric that matched my dimensions.Ikea's Futyr looked really nice, but they were out of stock, and didn't make a model wide enough to cover my window with a single piece of fabric.This left Yoolax (which offered it for $400), and as I shopped for a yoolax curtain, I noticed they were out of stock of their zigbee controlled motors, but I did stumble across Graywind, which wasn't out of stock, and offered a model with a solar panel and a zigbee controller at a similar price. (I wanted zigbee for security, cost, and ease-of-use reasons. Going with a rf hub is more expensive, and involves setting up some 3rd party device which is a potential security vulnerability to my wifi network if the manufacturer stops releasing security updates for it.) Considering the fact that my electric bill is already higher than it needs to be, I was very excited to get the solar panel equipped model and not add to it.Purchasing:Going through the amazon customizer was fairly simple and straightforwards, although there was a few spelling/grammer mistakes, it was more than clear enough to order the shades customized to my window. I was contacted by an agent on behalf of graywind, and had them change my fabric choice from jacquard white, to jacquard gray.Latency/lead:As advertised, Graywind took roughly 4 business days to manufacture my curtain, and Fedex had it on my doorstep in an additional week. Far from Amazon's 2-day delivery that they offer with prime, but what can I expect for something custom-made across the world?Installation:Unfortunately, the instructions and techniques are designed for 2 people, in that someone needs to hold the shade against the wall while another person uses a pencil to mark along the wall where the mounting hardware needs to be installed. Considering I was doing this by myself, I instead got my tape measure and with a lot of marking and measuring, calculated where my brackets needed to be on the wall without pressing the shade to the wall. However, Graywind's instructions were designed to be used on every surface, in any arrangemant, possibly without the features I took advantage of to make sure my brackets were aligned properly. With that constraint in mind, I cannot fault Graywind's documentation.The documentation implied there was 2 brackets included. I received 3, because I ordered an excessively long unit. Since the brackets clip into a rail-like arrangement on the top of the unit, you could theoretically use 4, 5, 6, etc brackets, and I would have preferred that so I could use adhesives to mount it rather than drilling holes in my apartment's wall. Graywind seemed more than eager to send me additional brackets, when I wrote to them providing feedback, so if you would like to use an adhesive like command strips, make sure to ask for some extra brackets.Finally, I had to install the battery in the remote, which was difficult due to the lack of batteries included in the package. A quick trip to my local supermarket later, and the remote was working.Programming:There were 3 things that needed to be done for programming. 1, Remote pairing. 2, Limit setup. 3, Alexa pairing.Remote pairing went flawlessly. Followed the manual, and it worked on the first try.The unit performed exactly as it should, the only issue is that the manual implied something else. To be specific, it implied that the upper and lower limits are not set and need to be set prior to use. This caused me to spend a half hour trying to get the limits set, and becoming mildly upset when the unit didn't move to the limits I "set".Thankfully, one of Graywind's agents made a post on the Q&A section of these shade's product page, stating that the units come with their limits pre-programmed at the factory. Eventually, it clicked in my head, and I read the manual's guidance for deleting limits, to which it stated that the upper limit cannot be deleted and the unit must be factory reset in order for the change to take place. Whatever, so I factory reset, got my limits set properly, and moved onto the final stage.Alexa pairing was near-flawless. Since I was using zigbee, I'd have to put the device into pairing mode for my Echo system to control it. After mis-reading the instructions, the device not responding, and then properly reading the instructions, I got the unit into pairing mode. Turns out that it either isn't compatible with the zigbee hub in a first-generation echo plus, or the pairing mode only lasts a few seconds, as I put it into pairing and *then* attempted discovery with my echo, which was unsuccessful. No worries, since I had an echo studio in another room, I ran discovery on that, *before* quickly putting the unit into pairing mode. That procedure worked on the first try.Usage/operation:The device isn't particularly fast, taking 25 seconds to move 50 inches. Mind, since this is a roller shade, the speed will slightly increase during the latter portion of the retraction (meaning that 100 inches won't take 50 seconds, but more like 48s, and 25 inches would take 15s instead of 12.5s) due to the material wrapping around the armature increasing its diameter. Still, 25 seconds is more than acceptable to me and for my purposes.During the first 10 or 20 cycles, the unit made a strange rattling noise, which was severely off-putting. Thankfully, whatever was rattling settled in, and the unit now only hums quietly from the motor.The material itself looks nice, and is a fairly good blackout material, easily darkening my room when I want to reduce the incoming light. From what I can tell, the solar panel works and keeps the unit running, although for the first few hours, I had the unit running on a portable battery bank to ensure that the motor wouldn't damage the battery while I fiddled with it. I will update this review if I encounter issues with the panel, but I love not having something else eat up my electric bill, or valuable socket space.Alexa can control the device with the following commands:"Alexa, open/raise (my/the) [device name]", ex "Alexa, open my curtains", "Alexa, raise drapes one", etc."Alexa, close/lower (my/the) [device name]", ex "Alexa, close bedroom curtains", "Alexa, lower the shades", etc."Alexa, open/close/raise/lower (my/the) [device name] to 1-100%", ex "Alexa, open my curtains to 15%", "Alexa, lower shades one to 50%", etc.Percentages are measured in percent open (ex: 15% moves the shade up a little, but 90% will have the shade open almost all the way), and are agnostic to whichever lower/raise command you use, always moving in either direction to the percent specified. The motor is very accurate, and the percentage commands are extremely powerful, especially if your window is facing away from the sun (since then, all the light entering is diffused, reflected light from the outside enviornment) as you can specify percentages to fine-tune the amount of light in a room to your liking.The remote is a bit more clunky and imprecise, and the zigbee remote uses something similar to a touchscreen, rather than buttons with undermounted switches. Consequently, I found myself accidentally pressing buttons on the remote a lot. My solution was to leave the remote set to a different channel (eg: shade is on channel 1, so when im not using the remote, i set it to channel 2), so that way I don't accidentally issue commands. To be honest however, if you have an echo device, or even the alexa app on your phone, that is much easier to use than the remote and I only use it during meetings, when I want to adjust the light without my viewer noticing my vanity.I cannot really comment much on the style or design, as I am very much a function-over-form person, or to be more precise: form should be derived from function. This roller shade functions well, and for that, I am satisfied with it. My only regret is accidentally buying the model with the valance, since it does absolutely nothing for me, but at least its color-matched to the fabric.Overall, I'm very happy with these shades, as they're exactly what I wanted for my room with no substantial issues. If I had more windows that needed new shades, I would definetly buy this model sans valance again. As 400 usd is a tad pricy on my income (although cheap in the smart shades market), I thankfully do not need any more.

Shipping time was much quicker than promised! Took about 10 days. Roller shade is awesome & works just as expected! I followed all the steps when I was ordering & it worked out great! I highly recommend this! I will be ordering again for another window. Great quality & color was as I thought.

Please follow the installation instructions and make sure the valance (bottom) isn't trapped between the top valance housing (header) just pull it down to un-trap and after installation if you can avoid it don't mess with the factory settings. Also because the item is coming from China it arrives sooner then you think. Also they state that the charge can last up to six months, I had our shades for a month and our charge is at 50%.

A few observations after several weeks of ownership and use: 1. Graywind does have their act together. They will send you precisely what they say they will send you. Measure carefully and follow directions. 2. I got white blackout blinds with the cloth valance, and they look very nice. I think white was the right choice, and they do really block light effectively. They give you nice brackets but don't tell you how many to use; each blind comes with three. I used two on my 30" wide blinds and three on a 60" and they seem well-supported. 3. I got these with the basic remote--NOT the Zigbee or smarthome configured ones. It's not clear from the materials sometimes, but the basic remote does offer full programmability. I really didn't want to have to deal with smarthome junk or an app that the manufacturer might let die in 5 years. I have seen a lot of reviews saying they tried the remote, it didn't work, and Graywind's solution was to send a hub and have users go to the app. I think I know that's going on here. The rest of this review is really about the setup and programming teething.I've spent a good bit of time with the remote and have it figured out, but let me tell you, the directions don't help. Typically, what you'll find is that the directions are close but not quite correct. It's sort of vibes-based instructions. If you're comfortable messing around with the remote, you can figure it out. But I can see a number of people getting infuriated and giving up. I programmed mine to close at 9 PM 7 days a week and open at 6 AM. They generally do this. After a week, the remote lost time and had to have its clock reset. Why? I don't know. The battery seems fine and is not loose that I can tell. However, you end up taking the battery cover off a lot to enter setting mode, and that doesn't give me hope for the durability here. I do have a drawer of remotes because each blind came with one, and you only need one to control all. Hint: Channel 0 is all blinds assigned to the remote.Graywind does some programming for you at the factory. They assign a channel to each blind and program the open and close positions. This was generally OK. It would be nice if they had put a prominent sticker on each one to denote its channel assignment. That would have saved me the trial and error, and I also could have arrayed the blinds logically (like 1-5 left to right). Oh well.I did have to adjust opening and closing position on one blind because it was retracting too much and getting caught against the mounts. Again, like other instructions, it doesn't quite work like they say, but vibes will get you through. I did get it adjusted. Hint: when the user guide refers to a "jog," that is the action when the blind goes an inch down and jogs back up to that same position. It's like the blind's way of acknowledging a command. The description of the number of jogs is accurate: certain actions have two jogs, and some have one. Pay attention to that.Finally, I have found that occasionally, a blind just won't cooperate. There is a manual button on each blind that you should be able to hold down and use it to make manual adjustments, but it doesn't work like the manual says, so you'll just be holding it down and the blind will just jog. . .and jog. . .and not do what the manual says it should. Strangely, the two times this has happened, I left it alone and the next day, it cooperated with the remote and I got it straightened out.I think these can be pretty reliable once you get them set up and over the teething, but I can see some users getting frustrated with the learning curve and set up. The blinds themselves are good quality and seem like they will last. I'll update this review after a year.

Measurements that you supply to the manufacturer are critical. The measure I provided were followed carefully and the shade fit as advertised.Shade arrived quickly, was easy to install and, so far, works great.

They work perfect. Very easy to install. Measure and then measure again before you order. Also plan your recharge strategy and side. The magnetic cable for higher up rollers works great. You can use a pickup stick to attach when you need to.