UK Blinds and Curtains Zigbee Automation

[marble lava]

Hi - I am looking for recommendations + advice on Zigbee automations, specifically ZHA, for curtain and blinds (for the UK).

SmartWings seems to be the best in-class but they don't have any UK measurers/installers, stock or a mis-measure guarantee. So the risk of buying expensive curtains/blinds is too high for me.

The only other non-alibaba option looks to be Aqara E1 and T1S. Most of the messages in this Discord (from ~2023) say that these have various problems, e.g. inability to update, cannot see battery life.

1. Am I missing any brands that have this offering?
2. Are there any gotchas I should know of about the Aqara products (e.g. really loud, don't work with heavy curtains, flaky performance, etc)?

[heavy fiber]

I have 4 E1s in this house. They are fantastic. Battery line is very good, though it depends on the size of the blind.

My blinds were all made to measure and installed first (not by me) and the motor was retro fitted by me. The blinds are all Roman blinds with the typical “balled” cord.

The fitting is interesting. You can either put the motor inside the reveal or on the wall. I’ve done both. The much bigger blinds in the bedroom are inside the reveal but that wasn’t possible on the other two. The 90 degree twist doesn’t matter thankfully.

With E1 you can calibrate the end points for the motion without using the app. There’s some weird button combinations described in the manual.

You mentioned noise. I don’t find them excessively noisy. But everyone’s ears are different.

[marble lava]

Amazing, much appreciate the feedback

[heavy fiber]

That was the battery from one of my SwithBot curtain motors, whoops! This is definitely the blind motor. Get about six months between charges the that E1. Blind motors in my bedroom last about 3 months but they are about twice the size.

They are awesome as well, the switchbot curtain motors. The only downside is they are Bluetooth but I have a proxy nearby. I would have stuck with Aqara and Zigbee if I could but the curtain pole is just a few mm too chunky.

[heavy fiber]

The T1S look interesting but I have no experience. It would be tricky to fit it yourself for sure, far from impossible though. All depends how brave you are. You can do anything a pro can do. Just takes research, which is easier than ever these days, and a bit of courage.

[heavy fiber]

Automations are fun for blinds. I have an over complicated setup using the Sun entity in HA but combined with some overrides so the blinds don’t open in my bedroom at 4am at the height of summer. Same for the evening. Much easier to get the not-so-little boy off to bed if the blinds/curtains aren’t open at bed time. When you get round to automating the things you’ll figure this out. 🙂

[near trench]

I’m using an Aqara E1 to manage a fairly heavy Roman Blind and use automations for opening and closing which include coping with the big variances in sunrise and sunset times.