SmartWings Matter-over-Thread Shade Motors Review

Over the weekend, I installed new smart shades in my home. I was looking for a suitable replacement for my mix of roller motors for a while now, as having different models led to an inconsistent experience. I had one shade powered by a Zemismart Matter-over-Wi-Fi motor and two others with Tuya Zigbee motors. One of the Tuya motors struggled with the weight of the blind, producing a weird noise near the top and seemed likely to fail soon.

When SmartWings contacted me and offered a testing sample to SmartHomeScene, I decided it was time to put in the work and replace my living space blinds. SmartWings offers a complete replacement solution where you choose the design, motor type, and accessories, then simply install them. It took most of the afternoon, but it was a fun project—and it made my wife happy.

In this review article, I’m sharing my experience in choosing, installing, and setting up the SmartWings Woven Wood shades and integrating them with Home Assistant. My particular motors use Matter-over-Thread, although SmartWings offers Zigbee and Z-Wave versions too. Be warned, SmartWings shades and not cheap and come with a hefty price tag.

DISCLAIMER: SmartWings provided me with three Matter-over-Thread smart shades of my choice for the purpose of a review. This will in no way influence, sway or affect my opinion of their products and will just be my usual observations and unbiased testing approach. I shared my guidelines and principles for collaboration with their PR person, to which they fully agreed.

Ordering process and SmartWings package contents

Even though SmartWings has it’s own store on Amazon, the best way to order is directly through the SmartWings website. It’s much easier to choose the measurements, blind type, fabric design, motor, and accessories there. Plus, they offer free worldwide shipping on all orders!

SmartWings’ product range is so extensive that it can be overwhelming just browsing through their selection. This is a good time to involve your significant other in choosing the design. Once you’ve decided on a style and set your size, you’ll need to select a few additional options.

The first thing you need to decide on is the motor type. From the connected versions, SmartWings offers Zigbee, Z-Wave, Alexa (Wi-Fi), HomeKit-over-Thread and Matter-over-Thread variants of their motors. I highly suggest going for a local-only protocol like Zigbee, Z-Wave or Thread and ignoring the others. Homekit-over-Thread is redundant if you get the Matter-over-Thread version, as it will work with HomeKit too.

The Zigbee variant is supported in both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT, exposing a cover entity, a battery entity and a link quality sensor. The Z-Wave version also works with Home Assistant, exposing the same entities. It’s worth noting that since SmartWings motors are battery powered, neither is a router in the mesh network.

Every SmartWings motor can be charged via an USB-C cable. If you can, I recommend getting the solar panel too, as it makes hiding the wires so much easier and keeping the blinds always charged. However, the battery can go up to 6 month on a single charge, so if you decide to skip the solar panel you can always recharge manually from time to time.

The USB-C connector and motor pairing button are located at the bottom, easily accessible once the shades are installed in place. A small antenna sticks out from the motor, which can be tucked away from sight.

The motor comes pre-installed inside an aluminum rod that runs the length of the roller blind or shade. During the ordering process, you also choose the installation side of the motor. When you order based on your measurements, the motor is also pre-calibrated. The factory sets the fully open and closed positions according to the blind’s length. All you need to do is pair the motor with your smart home controller—in my case, a Thread Border Router (SLZB-06M in Home Assistant).

The final thing you need to choose is an optional remote. All SmartWings remotes are multi-channel and operate on 433 MHz. Even if you have several blinds, only one remote is enough to control multiple motors. The Helix Dial Remote is much more expensive then the others, but it looks and feels so good. It’s completely made out of aluminum alloy, it’s heavy, and can be mounted on a wall or simply placed on a shelf with the included stand.

SmartWings Installation and Calibration

Since SmartWings shades and blinds are a complete replacement, rather than retrofit motors or controllers, the installation process is very easy and straightforward. The blinds and motors are completely assembled, calibrated and ready to use. All that’s left for the user is to mount them on the wall, ceiling, or inside the window frame.

All I needed was a measuring tape, a bubble leveler, a drill and a helping hand. You’re not going to be able to do this on your own, so involve someone to help you. Once I measured and chose the proper position for the blinds, it was drilling and mounting time.

Since my mounting position is outside the window frame, the mounting bracket that came in the package had 4 screw holes to hold it onto the wall. Even though all screws are included in the box, I decided two per bracket is more then enough to hold the shade firmly in place. About one and half hour later, I had all three blinds mounted in place. And they looked beautiful.

Calibration and Remote Programming

If you get a 433 MHz remote with the blinds, it will be automatically paired to each blind. You can cycle through the channels and try if it operates the blinds. If you need to re-pair the motor to the remote:

• Choose a CHANNEL on the remote
• Press and hold the PAIRING button on the motor until it jogs once
• Within 10 seconds, press and hold the STOP button on the remote
• The motor should jog twice, indicating the pairing is successful

As I mentioned, all blinds come pre-calibrated with their minimum and maximum limits set by SmartWings. If you do happen to need to change the limits, follow this procedure, repeating for up and down limits:

• Choose a CHANNEL on the remote
• Press and hold the UP & STOP button on the remote until it jogs once
• Move the maximum limit with UP or DOWN buttons (it moves in small increments)
• Press and hold the UP & STOP button on the remote until it jogs twice

Another adjustable feature of the SmartWings smart motors is the motor speed. By default, the blinds move fairly slowly—but they operate in complete silence! I experimented with increasing the motor speed to see the difference, but ultimately reverted to the default setting, as the near-silent operation was much more enjoyable. The blinds move smoothly and quietly, creating a seamless and pleasant experience. You will find instruction for changing the motor speed in the user manual.

Home Assistant Integration over Thread

The SmartWings Matter-over-Thread motors were very simple and easy to integrate in Home Assistant. The QR codes are attached with a string to the motors themselves, so remember take them off and save them before you mount the blinds.

Pro Tip: Take photos of all your Matter QR codes, label each one clearly, and store them in a dedicated folder. You’ll likely need them again later, and they’re easy to misplace.

The instruction manuals are very clear about the pairing process of the SmartWings Thread motors. You need to hold the button for 6 seconds until the motor jogs once. The LED will light up red and you can add the motor to your Thread network. Of course, you need a suitable Thread Border Router to do this. In my case, I’m using the SLZB-06M PoE coordinator attached to Home Assistant which worked great.

Once paired to Home Assistant, I could control the blinds with a cover entity, check the battery level and check device info like MAC and IP address. I also decided to share the devices to a Google Home Nest Hub I use for testing and a Homey Pro I use in parallel.

There were no hiccups in sharing the devices and I could control everything from each of the hubs. When I opened the shade in on controller, the other would also change state. Matter is definitely maturing and slowly, but surely heading in the right direction.

Operation and Usage

Once everything was properly setup and calibrated, I tinkered for a full day with my new SmartWings shades. I must have opened and closed them close to a 100 times, ensuring everything runs smoothly from different controllers.

I never had doubts about Home Assistant being able to handle Thread properly. This is not my first Matter-over-Thread rodeo and I went into this knowing what to expect. Even though SmartWings motors are sleepy end devices in Thread’s mesh network, they responded to my Home Assistant commands every single time.

Once I issued an open or close command, there is a delay of about 0.5 seconds before the shades start moving. This is the time it requires for my Border Router to wake up the SmartWings motor and get it to operate. After the command finishes, there is about a 10 second delay before the blinds mirror their status to other Matter controllers I’ve shared them with – including Google Home.

The Helix dial remote is very pleasant to use. It’s intuitive, feels heavy and gives off a premium vibe and feel when handled. Cycling through the channels is only done in ascending order though, so if you pair your blind to say, channel 1 and 8 you’re going to have to click the button 7 times to get to the correct channel. The rotating knob is very clicky and gives the user proper positioning feedback, which is also indicated on the remote’s screen. The front glass panel can collect dust and requires wiping from time to time. The remote is recharged via USB-C.

What I truly appreciated was the completely silent operation of the SmartWings motors. I initially worried that excessive noise might ruin the experience, but the opposite turned out to be true. The motors are clearly well-manufactured and calibrated, and the fact that everything comes preassembled from the factory contributes to an impressively quiet performance.

Final Thoughts

SmartWings Smart Blinds and Shades are not a low-cost product, so the decision ultimately depends on how much you value premium blinds of this kind. In terms of build quality and smart features, they are undeniably top-tier. I can comfortably recommend them to anyone whose budget allows such spends.

The overall experience was very easy and pleasant. The shades are easy to install, operate smoothly, and offer a seamless Matter integration. I especially appreciated the fact that the blinds came pre-calibrated, paired to the Helix remote and ready to be mounted.

If you decide to go for SmartWings blinds or shades, here are some links to their different types of coverings.