Graywind Motorized Roller Shade Work with Alexa Google 100% Blackout Rechargeable Smart Blinds Remote Control Battery Motor Cordless Window Shades, Customized Size (Bright White)

The shades came in quickly compared to the typical shipment from China. That was a big plus for Graywind. The shades are well made and easy to install. I'm a retired engineer, so I pay attention to build quality, materials and other parts. Graywind uses good parts. I can't speak to durability yet, but initially, things look good.The installation was easy and quick. The install hardware is very good. Programming the remote was about average for these types of RF controls, but some people are going to have trouble with it because the process description isn't totally accurate in the Graywind setup book. The jogging is the key. If you follow the steps exactly and have the correct number of jogs, everything will go okay. You may want to consider pairing the remote and then doing a complete reset (it's easy) and then pairing again. This is a good idea because it's impossible to know what might have been programmed into the motor during manufacturing or testing. If anything is in there, it could cause problems down the line.The shades open and close smoothly and quietly. That's another plus for Graywind.So far, so good. Where the wheels came off was when I setup Alexa. Graywind used a motor with the Zigbee control board. Zigbee is okay, but it has its issues. Some of the Alexa models have built-in hubs that can control "some" Zigbee devices. If your Alexa doesn't have a built-in hub, you'll need an external hub like Samsung's SmartThings.I have a 4th generation Alexa with a hub. I bought it to use with these blinds. I found out that Graywind doesn't have a specific SKILL for their shades. That's not a plus. I had to use basic Alexa functions to control the shades. That's not a plus either. Different Alexa models with hubs use different control protocols. In other words, what works with a 3rd gen Alexa with a hub might not work with a 4th gen Alexa. That's why not having a specific SKILL is a big issue, and a pain in the rear.I've automated my whole house using smart technology and Alexa. I've only used the switches and other devices that work well with Alexa and avoided the ones that are flaky or have protocol issues among other things. Believe me, not all smart devices are smart. My favorite dumb ones are the ones that lose their pairing, or internet connection, every week or so. Generally, they don't reconnect themselves without my intervention, which now is usually a trip to the garbage can.The first time I set up Alexa, I put the shades in pairing mode, and Alexa found all of them. That was the good news. Unfortunately, there weren't any commands, pairs of commands, keywords or anything else that would raise and lower the shades properly. Mostly, I heard that whatever phrase I had used was "not supported by this device." One time I asked Alexa, "Well, what the hell is supported by this device." Of course, Alexa had no answer for that.In addition, the few times I got the shades to move, repeating the process often resulted in failure. This is where Graywind's technical support really falls down. They do a good job with a lot of things, but not with Alexa support for THEIR product.Finally, I gave into to the number one technical support suggestion for every product--reset and start over. That's a real pain since I have to stand on top of an eight foot ladder to get it done on every shade. Anyway, I did it all over again.When I finished, I set up Alexa again. This time I could get the shades to close using "Alexa, close X to 100%" and that's the only keyword phrase that would work. Absolutely, nothing else did. I had read reviews written by people who said Alexa worked with Graywind using other commands, but mine didn't.The open command is "Alexa, open X to 0%" This is irrational. Open and close implies open all the way up and close all the way down. Open X to 0% is the type of phrase thought up by electrical engineers who really don't have a life and don't want you to have one either.Having gotten to this point, I felt the rest would be easy. Wrong! Some Alexa app options like Groups, don't support special characters like % (Writing it out as percent doesn't work either.) which means I couldn't raise and lower all the shades at once by putting them in a group. Again, this is why Graywind needs a SKILL for their shades.The next option was setting up a routine--one for open and one for close. Using custom commands, the routine accepted "Alexa, close X to 100%" That's the good news. The bad news is I needed two routines for every shade. This is definitely the case if you want to use scheduling to open and close the shades. One shade--no problem. Lots of shades-bigger problem.Once I had the shades setup as routine's and working properly. I decided to figure out why I had to the use the 100% in the close phrase. Well, it's because every version of Alexa that has a hub in it, uses a different protocol. Like I said before, I have a 4th gen Alexa. Since I don't have all of the various 4th gen Alexas, I can't tell if there's a different protocol for each version like the plus and the show. It wouldn't surprise me.I appreciated Graywind's efforts to give me support. Especially, their responsiveness, but they weren't much help with Alexa. In my final email, I was told they knew about the 4th gen change requiring the 0 and 100%. Great, why didn't you tell me that in my first email since I told you the problem involved a 4th gen Alexa. Oh, well. Just another long night.Graywind needs to rewrite their instruction book, create a specific Graywind motorized blind SKILL that actually works, and continue training their customer support people in Alexa issues.I gave the blinds 4 stars for the solar panel which is slightly wider than a closed blind, so it's a bit visible. I assume Graywind used the smallest solar panel they could find. Without the solar panel, charging blinds 8 feet in the air is a pain. In one place, Graywind was quoted as saying the shades would have to be recharged every 2 weeks or so. In another place, they said every 300 uses or more. Which is it? I hope the solar panel gets it done. My past experience with solar charging of batteries suggests the roller shade batteries will need full recharging every few months using a 120v source, and the solar panel will extend the life of the charge, but not eliminate the need for a full recharge periodically.. I hope that's not the case with these. We'll see. The USB cable for the solar panel was at least 24 inches long when a 6 inch cable would have been better. It's hard to position the USB cable so the shades don't catch on it in the down cycle.I would buy the blinds again—especially now that I've figured out all the problems.Update: 6/3/22 I was too optimistic about having figured out all the problems. One of the shades wouldn't hold a charge more than a three or four weeks. Graywind had previously received a bad batch of batteries that they knew about. Because of that, they sent a new motor and battery, and I changed it.Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the story. The solar panels on the shades didn't seem to be working properly. The output amps were within spec, but the charge just didn't seem to be getting to the battery. I thought I still had bad batteries.Testing a couple of more things, I discovered that the 24 inch long cable Graywind was sending with the blinds was not docking properly with the female plug on the motor, so the connection was randomly failing. The problem was the locking mechanism on the micro b male part of the cable was not compatible with the female port on the motor, so it would work itself loose simply from the vibration of the blinds moving up and down.I bought a couple of 6 inch cables and adjusted the locking tabs and shape until it snugly docked with the female motor port. Now it doesn't work itself loose, and the charging appears to work correctly now .We love the shades but not all the adventure making them reliable. This is a tricky kind of problem to figure out, and happens because manufactures use parts from multiple suppliers. I doubt Graywind even knows about this problem. If you have an issue with charging from the solar panels, check the connection. If it's suspicious, fix it. Not all USB connectors are made to exacting standards. It's like sleeves on a shirt. Long is not always long, and 32 inches is more or less 32.Update 8-14-2022 I have to downgrade these shades to 3 stars. I've had too many problems. I only own two of them. Unfortunately, they are installed on high windows, so I have to use a 10 ft ladder to reach them. The first shade had battery problems over and over. Finally, Graywind replaced the motor. That sounds good, but Graywind didn't pay the labor cost of taking an 80 plus inch wide shade down, putting in the new motor and reinstalling it. That cost a hundred dollars in labor, not including my time. I can't work up high any more, so someone else has to take them down and put them up, even though I do the motor replacing myself.Today, the 2nd shade failed. Now the second 34 inch wide blind is malfunctioning. It stopped working this morning. It wouldn't respond to Amazon or the remote. We had to drag out the 10 ft ladder for the 50th time and plug the shade in. Then it responded to the remote, but it had lost all of its setting.I've reset it three times, power cycled it and it will not keep any settings. It jogs at the correct times, but won't retain the settings. I set the up position, and then set the down position. All the jogs are correct indicating the settings are saved. When I press the up bottom, the blind doesn't go up, it simply jogs one increment at a time a few times. It doesn't matter how I press the button. When it finally does go up, it doesn't stop at the set point. It just keeps going until I hit the stop button. This means the memory is not holding the settings. Alexa says the blind is malfunctioning. Finally, Alexa got something right!Other than the reset in the manual, there isn't any other way to reset the blind I'm aware of. Now I'm going to have to replace another motor. More ladder time. More crap. More hours uninstalling and reinstalling, and then--programming and getting it to work with Alexa. Wow, what fun! This motor is made by A-OK-motor in Guangdong, Province. A-Ok says their concept is ”High Standards, Quality, Zero Defects”. I've got two of their defects in my house. I guess they missed on that one! So if you buy these shades, pick the ZF31 motor. Maybe it's closer to zero defects.Graywind customer service is great! They always respond promptly. I guess they know A-OK motors have problems. They're going to replace both motors with a different brand. I hope this one works better. Now I have to spend the time and money replacing 2 motors. Since they don't use the same remote and they have different set up and programming steps, replacing both is rational but a pain.We love the shades but the motors have caused a lot of headaches and lost time and money.Here are the stars by category for the Graywind motorized blackout roller shades Alexa compatible.Quality of the shades 5-- shades only 5 stars. 1 star for repeated motor failuresShipping speed 5Ease of Installation 5Remote Pairing & limit setting 3.5Alexa setup 1Customer service email speed 5Customer support shades 5Customer support Alexa 2Written Instructions 3Customer support effort 5Solar Panel 4Motor Charging 2Update: April 2023. The new motors have worked okay. No charging problems. We're just getting into heavy use season, so I'll update after that. So far so good.Update: May 2023. The new motors and batteries have worked well on autopilot for a month, so I upgraded the review to 4 stars. We really like these blinds. If the motors and batteries work all summer long without us having to take the blinds down to replace the motor unit, etc. then we can say Graywind fixed the problem.Update: Aug 2023 The new motors and batteries have worked all summer using them everyday without any problems.

After a bad experience with smartblinds (do not order here specially for large sizes) I ordered the maximum size for one 8 feet by 8 feet SGD. Maximum size available is 99 inches. I did read a review from an engineer here that made me give it a try, and I am glad I did.InstructionsBooklet is not clear. Troubleshooting section is poorly written. When connecting, It infers you tell alexa to find the device and it doesn’t (this is because I have a hub and not the Alexa ZigBee integrated device they want). Press the button up with the metal toothpick they provide for 5 seconds and the blue light will flash, then you can add it to your particular gateway.There are no skills for Alexa and google home only opens and closes it to a percentage, no native support. I have both google assistant and Alexa, can’t make it work with both at the same time. For some reason if alexa grabs it the assistant doesn’t work and vice versa.I don’t know why they don’t have a wifi battery operated motor yet.Quality of materials and shipping:Ultra-smooth white polyester? Fabric. It has a vinyl feel but it’s not. Vinyl tends to get hot, so I did not choose this option. The fabric can indeed be used like a giant projector screen. Mine came without a single wrinkle on it, and upon opening and closing the mechanism there isn’t any issue. You might think this is how is supposed to go but when I ordered from smartblinds their product wrinkled during test and they could not solve the problem and suggested I go for a set of smaller ones instead. I ended up canceling the order.The metal valance helps with aesthetics, and blocks the light. It has a grove in which the brackets clip into.Fabrication and shipping are blazing fast. I ordered on march 29 and got it by morning April 7. The package comes in a long skinny square box and the solar panel was on the side of it. It was a miracle it did not get damaged. But otherwise nicely packed.Installation:Very easy installation (external). I mounted the bracket into the groove before installing them just to get a feel. The package has everything you need, including screws and brackets. This device is light but sturdy. Do not make the mistake of attaching it to sheetrock; locate studs and use common sense. I installed mine on concrete and did not use the screws provided opting for tapcons instead. The installation brackets have a degree of separation of about one inch between the fabric and the window which lets light scape in at the sides. The little ray of light will drive you bonkers. That is solved by using channels along both sides. If you want absolute darkness, you need these (they sell channels). At the top, the 1/8 of an inch bracket thickness will also let light in, tape the back with white gorilla tape and make sure you remove it before taking it off. Light also leaks at the corners, tape it. As for the bottom it does leak a little light, door weather stripper solves that issue.The solar panel does not bring anything to mount it on the space in between the blind and the window and the instructions show a diagram of some bracket. I thought I could use a phone bracket to mount it since sticking it to the glass itself does not work for me as I chose the motor to be located on the movable panel side. (Motor location should be on fixed panel side) I ended up attaching the panel using a pair of aluminum u channels. Please figure out the installation of the solar panel first!!!! The Julet provided is not even a foot long. Please check where and how will you install this before ordering. The solar panel does not show any specifications or details of output. Light flashes blue when charging. Its plastic, wont brake if you drop it.Operation:It comes with a remote and it can be connected to Alexa / google home. I did not order the hub, instead I went to ali express and got me one of those ZigBee/Ble mesh/WIFI/ rf all in one routers for cheap. It does not make sense to have a single hub for this and every other appliance in me house and having to pay 80 on top of it. Its fast and super quiet. I can open this thing at 3 am when I want to look at the full moon no problems. I currently have it connected to google assistant and it can open and close to whatever degree you command, and it does routines. I can confirm the curtains work with the open/close to x degree command. I tried adding it to I am happy with it.Customer Service:Excellent customer service. I had an issue with the remote moving like a cm at a time that was not outlined in the manual and they replied promptly with very detailed information. If you happen to unpair the motor and the remote moves like this, set the top/ bottom position and press up or down for 3 seconds and it will go fast. Once the limits are set the remote will behave normally.Motor sensor could have been hidden better. It sticks like an eye sore with a do not cut tag.The remote does not turn off.So far so good, I will come here to update my experience again.