- Graywind Motorized Zebra Blinds for Windows, Blackout Smart Blinds with Remote Control, Dual Layer Custom Zebra Shades Work with Alexa, Google Home, Apple Homekit, Classic White

I started out with one test shade before committing (like many others, I was scared about the risk and return difficulty if it hadn’t worked out). I loved the quality and Graywind’s integrity so much, I ended up buying 15 more Zigbee (ZF) light filtering and blackout shades in white, and the 16-channel remote. Both types of these zebra shades look great and work wonderfully. Highly recommend!! Long version: FABRIC / MATERIAL Get the swatches!! It’ll help you very much. Before finding Graywind, I had ordered fabric swatches from the major brands at our home improvement stores and from a couple online vendors. Those “fabrics” all felt like rigid paper, they were fraying at the edges, and didn’t seem like they would last with everyday up/downs and direct sunlight over the years. Graywind’s fabric samples, however, were impressive. The materials are flexible, don’t crease easily, and didn’t show signs of easy fraying. The solid bands feel smooth and thin (but durable) for the light filtering, and smooth and thick for the blackout. The sheer parts feel a bit more rigid than your typical soft sheer curtains, so they may crease if someone/thing keeps folding it repeatedly. After 6 months, I haven't had any issues with the fabric fraying on the shades that completely open/close or partially open. ALIGNMENT OF BANDS For the most part, Graywind did a great job at band alignment between windows (this was a concern I had about buying zebra-style shades). The only caveat was that they would align the bands for only same-length shades. So if you have different sized windows side-by-side in the same room, be aware there may be a misaligned outlier (maybe try asking if they could make them all match). Alignment in the sense that you can superimpose the darkening bands over each other, was also pretty spot-on—with the exception of 2 (out of 16) being about 10 degrees crooked. One thing that was kind of a bummer is that the blocking bands on light filtering shades are much smaller than the blocking bands on the blackouts (e.g. 3” vs 4.5”). So if the difference will bother you, keep that in mind. LIGHTING For some rooms, I got the blackout shades in the rooms to block out light or to avoid our shadows from being seen if someone were standing outside at night. For the rest, I got the light filtering shades because I didn’t want to lose brightness but wanted privacy from the creepy neighbor (fyi if you see your shadow on these shades at night, people outside will also be able to see it if that’s a concern for you). I used a light meter to test the lighting changes with direct sunlight in both shade types while standing 6ft from the front of the shade. With the light filtering shades the lux readings were 199 closed (60% bright), 247 bands aligned (75% bright), 331 fully open (100% bright). With the blackout shades (different room/sun entry) the lux readings were 43 closed (0.3% bright), 5037 bands aligned (39% bright), and 12949 fully open (100% bright). BATTERY / MOTOR / SOUND I’ve had my shades for about 6 months and so far only 1 needed a battery charge at the 4 month mark. The others that fully open/close every day will also be due for a charge soon, so it’s definitely within the 3-6 months window they mention. In their manual, they list the life of the motor to last about 14,000 runs (1 run = fully up and down once), putting it around 38yrs (pretty good if true). As for the sound of the motor, I tested with the sound meter 2ft and 6ft away. The readings were 44dB and 40dB respectively, which is kind of like the hum of a portable heater/fan. It’s not too bad, but as a light sleeper, they do wake me up if I sleep up to their programed opening times. INSTALLATION & 16-CH Remote The installation is pretty straight-forward, and love the mounting brackets that come with this kit! It’s a push and lock mechanism and they hide very well. The valence/shade could be easily taken down, and shifted left or right to center it. My shades are outside mount on the window casing so there is about a 1" gap from the side. However, the increased width of the shades still maintains privacy. The remote control is a sexy sleek push-button type, which I am VERY happy with. (I saw in another review that someone had a touch-remote. Touch remotes, in my experience, are terrible for operating motors because they are either too sensitive or not sensitive enough—making it impossible to fine-tune your settings.) So YAY Graywind for sticking with push-button remotes! SMARTTHINGS (AEOTEC HUB) I can also confirm that the ZF motors can be controlled via SmartThings. Thank you so much to the reviewer on Feb 27 2021—If it wasn’t for their confirmation, I probably wouldn’t have gone with these shades because I was looking specifically for shades/motors that were compatible with my Hub. I’d also recommend the Yoolax custom Device Handler (Google it if this is new to you), as the basic device handler has the up/down setting reversed and doesn’t report the battery levels (for me at least). With the app, you can schedule the times they open or close, and the percentage of openness (between 0-100%). PACKAGING The shades were always packaged very well with flex foam and plastic to protect from the elements and delivery-person abuse. The delivery folks in my area are rough with packages, so I was very grateful for the extra care Graywind puts in each shipment. COMPANY / CUSTOMER SERVICE Graywind is one of those rare companies with integrity, and has shown to care about their customer’s satisfaction and loyalty. Their response times to inquiries has always been under 24hrs. At one point, I had an issue with 3 of my motors not functioning properly, and they were quick to help me resolve the issue, and then check up on me about it. They sometimes send short videos to help show what you need to do, or will walk you through the troubleshoot. Overall, Graywind has great customer service, makes great zebra shades and I would highly recommend!

3/2024 Update: Just purchased five more shades. They were delivered much faster than estimated (about a week) and all shades were per the specs I provided. Installed them myself easily and they look and operate fabulously. Thinking of purchasing some more later this year. Also, sales support (Zoe) was very helpful and timely in responding. Very satisfied again! Original Review: After researching various motorized zebra shades, we settled on Graywind and were not disappointed. We replaced a 12 foot wide roller shade with two 6 foot wide Zebra shades, side by side. They look beautiful, move up and down in a coordinated fashion, and work flawlessly with the remote (single remote for both shades) and Alexa. Also, the electric motors eliminated any hassle related to re-charging. I hid the cords with cord covers (splicing together the included cord and the extension cord by cutting off the plugs), and plugged them into a wall outlet near each shade. The cord covers blend in with the window frame and baseboard, so you would never know the cord is there. The only suggestions for improvement are: identify the spacing between each bracket when the shade is wider that 30 inches (Graywind responded within 24 hours to this question and indicated that, for wider shades, the brackets should be 20 inches apart after an initial bracket on each side, 5 inches from the end); and provide the width of the tube at the bottom of the shade (it's roughly 1/2 inch less that the cassette width). All of our measurements were fine in terms of the cassette and shade, but the tube at the bottom of the shade was a bit wider than we expected and would not clear the baseboard entirely. I simply sanded the baseboard where the shade lowered and then re-painted, and that solved the problem. Next time, I would ensure that the measurements I submitted considered the width of the bottom tube in relation to my baseboard. Without question, we would use this manufacturer again if we need additional motorized window treatments.

These blinds are excellent: -the material is of extremely high quality -installation was straightforward and took <10 minutes -the engineering is smart, providing a very clean and integrated look -motor is quiet -the remote works out of the box, and the Alexa integration is great. The one hiccup was that the new bottom limit I set was ignored by Alexa. I read online about doing a reset to potentially fix it but found it easier to just set up an Alexa routine so that when I say "Alexa, close the blinds" it automatically instructs Alexa to "close the blind to 6%" which is perfect -the customer service really is superb, and that matters when ordering blinds with a lot of customization I got the blackout lux silvery white after debating between that the light-filtering f-white. I'm glad I did, as I do prefer blackout for sleeping. The pictures in other reviews of the blackout white don't do it justice, as the contrasting light coming through the slats gets exaggerated from camera washout. It's a silky but rugged material with a sophisticated pattern/texture. The only drawback was the 3-week wait time, which is probably pretty standard anywhere. I recommend getting the sample book, which is cheap and arrives in just a day or two. It was helpful for deciding on the material. Overall, these are excellent blinds and an excellent value.