These shades are a great help I'm elderly and going window to window is a task.

Setting up the Switchbot shade and configuring a couple of automations to control them took no time at all. Very happy with the purchase and the delivery process as well.

SwitchBot Roller Shade

I read reviews online that warned the installation could be challenging. I found it required some patience and attention to detail, but the documentation was clear and complete, and that's a one-time effort that made the savings over custom shades well worth it. The shades integrated into my smart home environment seamlessly, and they work quite well.

I was quite impressed with this product. Clearly its highlight is the adaptability: the installation process is quite involved, but worth the savings over custom made shades. The method for cutting the shade to the correct width is very clever; the cutter works great and the cut is very clean. The instructions are fairly accurate, but there are still many little issues that might be resolved with extra information. For example, after cutting the shade, it must be completely unrolled and shifted a bit in the holding aluminum rod: my shade didn’t move at all and I was afraid to apply force; I ended up prying it quite hard to unblock it without damaging it. I hardly think it was a problem with my specimen and it was also the small one: I can imagine it being amplified in the wider models. My installation was inside a frame, quite tight: roller shades must be perfectly vertical and most houses don’t have perfectly level window frames; it would be nice to have some way to precisely adjust the vertical position of a bracket (I had to use some cardboard fillers). I understand this is an issue of all roller shades, not just the switchbot one, but since this is about self-install (by a non professional) I thought it would have been a nice touch. Finally, I spent some time trying to hide the wire of the solar panel inside the panel packaging only to realize that the design of the panel box does not allow that (there is room inside, but there is no room in the hole where the cable leaves the box); so, I had to route the cable by folding it a few time with lots of tape on the window frame. I love the idea of using a solar panel so to not have to worry about charging/replacing batteries. I took me quite a while (a few hours) to complete the installation as I was double checking and reviewing all the step in fear of making an irreversible mistake. But it’s a cool product and a clever adjustment system. Will probably buy more to fit other windows.