r/SmartWings_Home

A year ago, in June, me and my wife decided it’s time to get an actual home. Things moved fast, construction started late October and here we are less than a year later and it’s almost done. I’ve spent a lot of time planning and designing everything inside, from electrical wiring to furniture. 

Started from a 2D plan to a fully designed house. Everything is planned for a smart house running on zigbee (and thread maybe in the future) on Home Assistant, a central rack, APs, cat6 ran everywhere, POE for cameras, displays, thermostats, sensors, you name it. We also built a separate room to be our home cinema/game room, with a “secret door” (a Filomuro door behind wooden slats).

I feel like going through all this trouble and not having smart shades or blinds would be for nothing. Normally, in Romania, outdoor blinds on the windows is the most common. Did the math, watched hundreds of videos and Smartwings was the obvious choice. Ran 220v above every window in the house, settled on the hardwired ones and ordered some fabric samples. We still don’t know which ones we like the most but we’ll probably go for different blackout types, depending on the rooms. Kitchen will definitely have the zebra one, which we love.

Since everything will be running on HA, most of the automations include the shades. My wife loves to sleep in so of course the shades have to be down until she wakes up. Turning off Sleep Mode on her phone will trigger a morning scene to let the light finally enter the “cave” 😁 The Helix dial remote will also probably be on her nightstand. Come to think about it, most of the smart automations are going to fit her needs, while my joy will come from creating them. Happy wife, happy life…

P.S. Just a few pictures attached here, 3D design, render and how it is now. Since we are not in Romania until December, I got some help from my parents for the current state of the house, so obviously those pics are typical “mom pictures”, zero talent at framing properly 🤣 Renders are done based on real objects we already own or others that we've found already and we're going to buy.

I received my first pair of motorized SmartWings Day/Night (Duo) cellular shades yesterday. I was really looking forward to finally replacing my old blinds.
When I opened the box, I noticed some minor scratches. I was disappointed but decided to proceed with the installation. I didn’t initially notice the extent of the scratches on the back, so I examined the mounting clips and ultimately reversed the orientation so the damaged areas would face outward toward the window.
Installation itself went smoothly. The HomeKit connection was easy and the blinds initially functioned perfectly.
Then I lowered the blackout shade and noticed a blue stain/mark in the center of the fabric. After taking a closer look, I found scratches across the blinds, a mangled end cap, and fabric overhanging the edge.
The shades were $835 after tax, so I contacted SmartWings and requested a replacement. These defects were present when the shades arrived and were not caused by installation or use.
Instead, they offered several at-home repair suggestions:
Use fine-grit sandpaper to polish the scratches on the bottom bar.
Clean the blackout fabric with diluted laundry detergent.
Press/tap the loose side caps back into place.
They offered a $30 partial refund as a gesture of goodwill.
Their email also stated that their initial assessment was that the scratches on the bottom bar “may have occurred during the assembly process.”
I understand that some cosmetic issues can potentially be repaired, but these are brand-new shades that arrived with multiple cosmetic/assembly defects. I’m not comfortable sanding or attempting to repair a brand-new $835 purchase myself.
I’ve declined the $30 offer and again requested a replacement shade.
Their policy states that they will honor replacements within 30 days for defects in materials or workmanship, which seems pretty applicable here.
What would you do at this point? Has anyone dealt with SmartWings regarding defects like this? Did they eventually replace the shade?

Update: I spoke with someone at their Texas office this morning. I was told that the shades should be replaced, but that the replacement can only be processed directly through the factory in China.
Apparently, the factory may push back again with another “offer” before agreeing to replace the shades. I asked why the Texas office couldn’t help move the replacement along, and was told that they only handle the technical side of things.

I've spent a while dialing in a "Summer Shade Control" system in Home Assistant across 13 Z-Wave roller shades, and I think it's finally solid enough to share. I have a mix of 70% and 100% Essential Cream Roller Shades with z wave battery motors.

Setup

Shades are split into front-facing (get morning sun, need heat protection) and rear-facing (get afternoon/evening sun). Six automations handle the whole day:

1. Morning Opens: 7am partial open in a few rooms, 9am and 12pm full opens elsewhere, staggered by room usage
2. Early Bedroom Open: if the front door unlocks between 6 and 8am, the primary bedroom shade cracks to 8% so whoever's up doesn't wake the house
3. Front Heat Close: 9:30am and 10:30am, closes front-facing shades, but only if it's sunny/partly cloudy or the temp is already above 78°F
4. Rear Heat Close: same idea for the rear of the house at 12:30pm (plus a 2:30pm catch-up), gated on 82°F instead since those rooms handle a bit more heat before it's a problem
5. Evening Events: sunset minus 2h10m, sunset minus 1h09m, and sunset plus 10m stagger the rear shades open longer for the view, then close everything as the sun actually goes down
6. Night Close: one shade with zero solar gain just closes at 10pm on a timer, no weather logic needed

Weather Check

The heat-close automations check a local temp sensor, so a cloudy/cool day just leaves the shades open instead of closing on a rigid schedule. If the gate doesn't trip, I get an email explaining which shades stayed open and why, so I can override manually if the forecast changes.

Battery monitoring

Every battery-powered shade reports into a weekly Friday email and a low-battery alert (30% warning, 20% critical), sorted worst-to-best so I don't have to hunt for the one that's dying.