Reviewing the SwitchBot Smart Roller Shades

Installing smart blinds, shades, and drapes typically isn’t someone’s first choice when starting to create a smart home. However smart window coverings provide numerous benefits, including added convenience, privacy, energy savings, security, and more.

When it comes to choosing the type of smart window coverings that make sense for the client, there are a wide range of options to choose from – but they all fall into one of two categories: off-the-shelf, or custom made.

IKEA has a popular off-the-shelf option that’s economically priced and comes in a variety of sizes up to 48” wide. Custom smart shades are offered by brands like Lutron, Crestron, Levelor, Graber, Hunter Douglas, and others. These shades are custom made to the exact size of your windows and include a wide range of fabric choices – and come with a higher price tag.

Looking to find some middle ground in the category, SwitchBot has released a specially designed, and economically priced, smart roller shade that can be custom fit by the homeowner so they will perfectly fit almost any window.

SwitchBot, an award-winning company, has been in business since 2016 with a focus on products that make the existing items in your home smart. SwitchBot makes products that don’t replace old, dumb, devices with new smart ones. Instead, many of their products update your dumb devices with new smart features so your existing blinds, curtains, locks, and light switches don’t end up in a landfill. Examples of these products include:

• SwitchBot Bot – A smart actuator that can be used to turn almost any switch on/off.
• SwitchBot Lock Pro – A retrofit smart lock that turns an existing deadbolt lock into a smart lock.
• SwitchBot Curtain – A smart curtain controller that attaches to a curtain rod and automates the operation of the curtain.
• SwitchBot Blind Tilt – A smart blind controller that attaches to the wand used to open/close blinds and automates their operation.

In addition, SwitchBot manufactures a line of smart cleaning robots, appliances, sensors, and many other devices, including the new SwitchBot Roller Shade.

Installing the Roller Shade

The SwitchBot Roller Shade bridges the gap between economical off-the-shelf smart shades and custom smart shades. The shades are offered in four sizes to fit windows between 22.8” wide and 72.8” wide. But what makes the SwitchBot Roller Shade unique is that its size can be customized by the homeowner to exactly fit their window.

SwitchBot provided me with two SwitchBot Roller Shades to evaluate for this article. They come with almost everything you need for installation, even a screwdriver. What you will need to supply are a tape measure, pencil, scissors, drill, drill bit (7/32”), hammer, and a ladder or step stool (depending on how high off the floor you will be mounting your Roller Shade).

The Roller Shade can be mounted two different ways: Above your window (outside the window frame), or inside your window frame. I chose to mount the two roller shades I was provided inside the frames of two windows in a spare bedroom in our house. I chose this mounting option because I believe it is a bit harder to accomplish as the measurements have to be very precise so the shade fits perfectly.

I’m not going to go through every step of the installation process. However, I will say that the first step is to install the SwitchBot app and connect the Roller Shade to the app. With that done you have four choices for how to be guided through the installation process:

1. Video instructions in the app
2. Written instructions with pictures in the app
3. Printed instructions included with the Roller Shade
4. A YouTube installation video

I found that trying to view the installation video in the app didn’t work for me; it was too small to clearly see the installation process. I also found that there were problems with the display of some of the images shown with the written instructions in the app (this may have been fixed in an update to the app). So, the best approach for me was to use the printed instructions included with the Roller Shade in combination with the YouTube video.

The process of installing the brackets that hold the roller shade is very well explained in the written instructions that accompany the product, as was the process of adjusting the size of the aluminum frame that houses the fabric roll so it will fit your window. SwitchBot even makes it as easy as possible to custom cut the fabric roll by including a special tool that is specifically designed for this purpose. However, I still found that the cutting process required very careful study of the YouTube installation video to get it right. After all, you only have one chance to cut the fabric roll correctly. If you cut it too short you have ruined a good product.

I should mention that not everyone will need to custom cut the fabric roll. It depends on the size of your window and the size you want the Roller Shade to be. In addition, you will have more leeway in sizing the shade when you choose to mount the shade outside the window frame.

The procedure I used to custom cut the fabric roll was to watch the video for one step in the process, pause the video, read the subtitle to make sure I understood what I had to do (the video doesn’t have a voice track), perform that step on my Roller Shade, watch the next step in the video, pause it, etc. Doing this I was able to perfectly cut the fabric to the proper length on my first try.

One thing to keep in mind when cutting the fabric roll is to make sure that when you install the fabric roll on the aluminum frame for cutting that the end of the fabric roll is all flush and isn’t shaped like a cone with the outer wraps of the fabric pushed onto the frame farther than the inner wraps due to friction holding back the inner wraps. If you cut the fabric without the ends being flush, then the cut edge of the fabric won’t be straight.

The reality is that if you are meticulous, the process of cutting the fabric roll isn’t that complex. You just need to very carefully follow the instructions.

SwitchBot says that the time to install a Roller Shade should take around 40 minutes. I’m sure that someone familiar with the process could complete the installation in that time. Personally, I found that it took me about twice as long. But I was being very careful to do it right the first time.

Operation

Once installed, the SwitchBot Roller Shade worked very well and operates quite quietly. Out of the box you can control the roller shade with the SwitchBot app, or the included two button wired controller. When coupled with a SwitchBot Hub2, you can control the Roller Shade with Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Siri Shortcuts, IFTTT, SmartThings, Matter, and the SwitchBot API.

I used Alexa and the commands to open/close the shade worked perfectly. Unfortunately, the syntax to, for example, close a shade 70 percent isn’t intuitive. The command for this is: “Alexa, set [shade name] opening to 70”.

I recommend that people purchasing the SwitchBot Roller Shade include the optional solar panel with their purchase. The solar panel makes the SwitchBot Roller Shade maintenance free. While the time between charges, according to SwitchBot, is eight months, Murphy’s law is always in effect, and the battery will inevitably need to be charged at a very inconvenient time.

Integration

SwitchBot offers an applications programming interface (API) so programmers can write software to integrate the operation of their products with different smart home ecosystems. I’ve written driver code to integrate SwitchBot products, including the Roller Shade, with a Crestron smart home system. That driver can be found here.

Areas for Improvement

I think the SwitchBot Roller Shade is a very good product. However, I think there are a few improvements that SwitchBot could make.

1. If you have more than one roller shade in a room, then it is natural to group the shades so they can all be opened / closed in unison with a single command. However, when the shades are grouped, control of the group of shades is tied to the control of the primary shade in the group. All the other shades in the group can still be individually controlled. However, if you try to individually control the primary shade in the group, all the other shades move with it. This may not be a big deal to some people but there may be times when you want to individually control the primary shade. For example, if you are reading a book while seated in a chair that is next to the primary shade, you may want all the other shades in the room open, to let in ambient light. But you may want the shade you are sitting next to closed to reduce glare. SwitchBot should separate the control of the shade group from control of the primary shade in the group so all shades can be individually controlled in addition to being controlled as a group.
2. The Roller Shade is only available with a single fabric choice (gray/white). I think SwitchBot should offer some additional choices so the shade can fit into different décors without a user being forced to go to a fabric store, purchase their own fabric, and swap the two (the process for doing this isn’t documented).
3. The fabric shipped with the Roller Shade is completely light proof, which is a plus. However, there isn’t a way to create a true blackout installation when mounting the shades inside a window frame. Blackout shades typically ship with special channels to block light from seeping into a room around the edges of the fabric. SwitchBot should offer these channels as an option.
4. Shade manufacturers offer matching valences that hide the shade mechanism for a professional appearance in a home. SwitchBot should offer valence options or, at a minimum, provide plans for a homeowner with DIY skills to build one themselves.
5. SwitchBot should make the voice commands to partially open a shade more intuitive.

Conclusions

Motorized shades add real value in a smart home. They provide added convenience, safety, security, and energy savings. The SwitchBot Roller Shade bridges the gap between economical, off-the-shelf, smart shades that only come in a few sizes and expensive custom shades. The ability to have their width customized by the user is unique and allows for a perfect fit, even when installed inside a window frame.

While the overall installation process is reasonably easy, a homeowner will want to very carefully perform the process of cutting the fabric role as a mistake could be costly. Finally, Smart home integrators might even consider offering the SwitchBot Roller Shade as an inexpensive option compared to the fully custom smart shades they typically offer. The lack of margins on the product could potentially be offset by the revenue from installation and integration services. It would also allow the integrator to acquire a customer that normally wouldn’t be the target market for a professionally installed smart home system.