Graywind Motorized Solar Roller Shades

Overall I had a great experience ordering this product.

After being quoted $10k for a few blinds to be installed in my house, I figured I’d just find a good company to order from online to DIY.

Graywind was great. I bought a set for my sliding doors to try out before buying for the other spaces.

The customer support was responsive within hours on a small issue, and helped resolve it. Outside of that, installation was pretty easy, the shades look good, function properly, and are much more affordable than what I was quoted.

Im going to buy a few more to fill the rest of the areas in my house.

Look high end for the fraction of the price. We were nervous at first to do our own measuring and installing in our brand new home so we tested it in one bedroom and loved the results so we have been slowly adding them to most of the rooms. I think we are at 13-14 sets of these blinds now. I highly recommend them for price and ease of up/down without blocking light when you want it AND no dusting like the old wooden blinds! We have total black out in bedrooms and then 5% in living spaces and both are great options!

Speedy service, everything fits and works perfectly

I only review items that are extremely good or extremely bad, not mediocre. I was tentative about ordering something that was size, color, and having no return policy. These folks will send you a email after ordering before the final item. I re-measured to make sure and made one shade longer. I sent this info to via reply email and got a response overnight confirming the site glitch and mod to size. Great response time! On arrival ( only a week) these items are packed with high efficiency. Done the right way. Installation was as expected but be aware the blinds are factory programmed to the size you supply. I had to play a little, since mine are outside mounts and the windows have wooden trim the clearance for the weighted bottom bar was tight until I re-programmed them. TIP NUMBER ONE! Read the supplied manual from page one! I didn't and complicated matters. On arrival, before out of the box, charge the blue tooth motors. I didn't and ended up sending an email to request help. Again, overnight a response came with step by step instructions on what to do. It took 5 minutes to fix things I screwed up. If you have very wide blinds As suggested mount the center most brackets to the wall and place a level on them to mount the outermost brackets. I was working alone, so I did this way. Programming is straight forward. Just go step by step.
The best thing about these? Customer support! From the begining order to process to installation assistance, it was outstanding! My correspondence was through Zoe most of the time and she came back quickly and efficiently. """"Thank you to her"""" Secondly from packaging through installation, they do things right. You can tell they have worked on all phases of the process to deliver top notch customer experience."

Second Graywind blind in our apartment. Easy installation and works perfectly. Only regret is in not getting the hub as it works with Alexa but setup is a little funky. Love the blinds.

Installed a set of blinds in our family room. Blinds were of high quality and installation was easy. Blinds came programmed and I was able to easily make adjustments using the remote.

Customer service was super! Would definitely recommend these blinds.

I purchased 2 Electric Solar Roller Shades with ZF Rechargeable Smart Motor, ZF Remote Controller and Solar Panels. The solar shades and solar panels were easy to install, fit my windows well and are working great. The ZF Remote came paired with both shade motors and work very well. The upper and lower limits were pre-set and very accurate. The Graywind customer service were very easy to contact and very responsive to the few questions I had.

Received the shade with some damage to the valance but Graywind made it right. Great customer service. Looking to get more for other rooms now

Updated: Graywind has contacted me and we are working through fixing my 2nd window treatment. They are sending me a new motor.

I love these solar shades because it cuts out the harsh sun rays but still allows me to view my backyard and pool. Having desks in front of each window, being able to control the shades with Alexa is great.

I have tried multiple times to request someone to contact me-I haven’t heard back. This would be 5 stars if customer service had called me back. All I wanted was either help troubleshooting the one that didn’t work or replacement

Last summer I bought and installed two of these motorized shades at my summer home. This fall, I purchased and installed two additional shades for my summer home, and five shades for my principal home.
The mounting brackets are sturdy, with spring loaded “teeth” to securely grip the shade. After installing the brackets, you just insert the back edge of the shade into the back teeth, push back, raise front edge to engage the front teeth, and you are done! After the first shade, it only took me about 2 minutes to install each additional shade.
The frame and valance are made from sturdy extruded aluminum. For one of my windows, I made a measuring error and chose to shorten the shade by about 1/8 inch. I disassembled the shade, cut 1/8 inch off the frame and the roller tube, and reassembled easily. This was a lot faster than asking the company to send a replacement shade.
Because I didn’t identify each specific shade on my order, after I mounted the shades I discovered that the shades were not in the order (1,2,3,4,5) I wanted, but I easily reprogrammed each shade to line them up the way I wanted.
The remote control can be used to adjust each shade individually (the remote will accommodate up to 15 shades). An undocumented bonus feature is that, if you select shade number zero on the remote, all the shades will open/close simultaneously!
Pros
Great quality of both roller shade hardware and fabric
Easy and secure mounting brackets
Really good light filtering
Quiet motors
Great price – 1/3 of the cost proposed by the big “discount” window coverings places
Easy installation
Very responsive customer service
Cons
Poor documentation, obviously written by someone for whom English is not their native language

Somehow after the order was placed, I realized that they were the wrong color and openness. I wanted silver 3% openness. However, Zoe responded to my email and assured me that they would adjust the order. Not realizing they were coming from China, I was a bit concerned that they would be held up in shipment and potentially damaged, but WOW, they came in earlier than expected and I have to say the company has this packing thing down to perfection. Surprisingly all the blinds were marked for their specific location and the remotes already programed for each blind. Now that is detail!!!

They all arrived on New Year’s Eve, and I installed them on New Year’s Day, first thing in the morning. What a great way to start the year. They are just WONDERFUL, fit perfectly and was easy to install.
We recently purchased our retirement home and updating a little at a time to stretch out the available funds. After getting these five we are budgeting to do the entire home.

The last thing I need to do I get these to work with Alexa. I upgraded my Echo Dot’s and purchased two echo dot 4th generation and they did not work, but again my mistake, Zoe emailed me promptly stating that I needed to get the ECHO with hub not the dot. Still waiting for Amazon to ship these to me so I can get them all voice activated.

We had some guest over during the holidays and they all loved the blind’s and I had to send them all the link to Graywind. Hopefully, they will all upgrade their tired looking blinds to Graywind Solar.

Thank you so much for your assistance and we look forward to our next purchase of beautiful Graywind Solar blinds to install in our forever home.

Photo attached of the bedroom install before and after and the great room video.

Great product. Well built. Easy to install.

We had massive back doors installed and then needed to have some privacy at night when everyone could look right into our main living space. We went with the 1% solar shade. Turned out great, I was able to program both shades to work simultaneously. One motor arrived broken, customer service was impeccable, sent me a replacement STAT. In hindsight I wish I would’ve gone with the 3% or 5% but it is what it is. Other than that, no regrets.

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 g...

The best thing about these blinds is actually the customer service. They are very responsible and take responsibility to solve issues. In my case I didn't get the valence with my order and they immediately send another package out to get it to me. The blinds themselves are also very nice and work well. The solar panel is a good option if you can install it so you never have to charge them. Time will tell on durability, but I have have some of these for over a year now and no issues.

Absolutely wonderful!

These blinds were super easy to install. I hung 3 by myself - no helper. They look very nice! RF remote is a little finicky, but works 98% of time if pointing from far enough away. Ordered 8 more!

I give it five stars for the value. They work well and we got the solar recharging option. Haven’t tried to hookup Alexa yet. They come preprogrammed. I made the mistake of changing it from GC (group code) to program 2. That meant I had to reprogram that bold (major hassle trying to get it to stop up and down properly). Worst part was trying to figure out what the directions we saying. Value yes, ease of programming no.

This is the second time I am ordering these blinds. Very happy with the product and excited to install them. People are very friendly at the company and was a pleasure to do business with

First, the pre-order stage:
I had a lot of questions regarding planning the sizes appropriately: This application was for a French Door - the complications were whether it would slide past the lever handle and also, I wanted to plan these by Fabric Width (rather than an inside-mount window frame type application)
Zoe at Graywind was absolutely wonderful - prompt and assuring with her replies to my multiple e-mails.
For other's reference, the 'overall' width is 1.06" (1-1/16") wider than the Fabric - so if like me, you are basing your requirement on the final width of fabric, add 1-1/16" to that for the overall order width.
I had space of about 1-3/8" between the surround of the door panel (on which shade would be mounted) and the inside of the handle (which extended over the glass area) - Zoe again assured me that with a std roll (unrolling from back side of roller) the fabric would be about 0.4" from the frame - her info was spot on as it turns out and the shade, even with the Deluxe Weighted Bottom Rod, these comfortably pass behind the handle (check that out in the video). On the subject of Bottom Weighted Rod - definitely go for this! It's a bargain adder at only $5 and looks so much classier (I asked for the std rods to be included in the shipment just in case I had any issues with clearance - so was able to compare them directly)
The final part of the pre-sales was in being able to secure ZF motors - even though Amazon Listing said out of stock Zoe confirmed they had just received a batch and could assure me I would be included if I ordered soon.
From order date of 5/16, I received them in hand on 6/2 - just over 2 weeks! And another tip on the order in that regard - again, definitely select the expedited delivery - another incredible value at only $24 more.

Packing was excellent - solid carton with dense foam spacers surrounding the actual shade inside.
Installation was extremely simple - for each one, a couple of brackets to install and then simply click the shade into them. I was careful with alignment having three in a row on my French Door. I ensured that the brackets were all level with respect to each other. If you don't get them level, then they won't track perfectly vertically, so be critical with this.
While at the planning/order stage, I selected the motors/charging ports to be at the left of the left shade, right of the right shade and the hinge side of the opening door (which also was the right side) - this means that when the charging cords are attached, they are in the most suitable locations. And one more tip - the charging cord adapter is about 6' long - but additional extensions of 6' more are only $2 ea! Another bargain adder! So I got a couple of those too. On the charger itself, when first plugged in to the shades, the LED shows red and turns green when fully charged. I charged all 4 of mine prior to hanging.

Setting up and testing: The remote pairs easily and the manual accurately reflects the procedure for setting up the various options. I complicated the process by trying to set the limits however - I believe these (at least for top & bottom) are already preset and I simply made it more awkward (confusing) as I tried to teach these. In the end I just completely reset each motor and did the set-up from scratch. It went smoothly after that. One note, the remote does NOT come with a battery so be sure to get a CR2032 Coin Battery beforehand!

Then onto Alexa - I had purchased a new Echo 4 with SmartHub for these. (another tip here - if you have on old dot - working or not - send it in under Amazon trade-up program - I got $5 for a non-working dot but more importantly also a 25% trade-up credit on the new Echo. With a flash sale, my discount and gift card, I was all in at $60 net for my new Echo!)
The pairing was simple and quick. I set all three into Zigbee pairing mode and then asked Alexa to discover and it recognized all three within about 20 secs. I renamed them to a simple scheme.
The next part was not so straight forward - it took me trying LOTS of commands with Alexa not recognizing (saying command not available for that device) before finally finding what worked - 'raise' and 'lower' is what worked. The suggested commands in the user guide did not! (i.e. open, close)
And then another Alexa 'gotcha' - I put the three shades in a group so I could command all three to raise or lower together (you will see in the video that I have just commanded each individually at that stage) - trying to command the group proved impossible - I tried every word I could think might be appropriate (incl the raise and lower that worked for the individual shades) and NOTHING was recognized as an executable action.
Ultimately I hit on a solution - I created custom routines with verbal command to lower all the shades with the custom verbal trigger command with actions including the lower for each shade added; then another routine with same process for raising. That did it! So a little more com...

We put these in hard to reach kitchen window behind the sink to filter direct sun and for privacy. They do exactly what we wanted.

Easy to install. Easy to operate.

Very easy to put up and start using, follow measurement guide for a perfect fit.