Gen. 2 Hybrid (FM and Zigbee) E-Wand Starter Kit (Without CPC Bridge) - 3 Hybrid E-Wands and 1 Remote Control. Released June 2021

I am a long-time SmartThings user so I was looking for a way to automate my vertical blinds in a Zigbee, SmartThings-compatible way. The Current E-Wand shows up as a generic light dimmer in SmartThings, and are controllable in SmartThings without any problems. The price on this 3-wand pack might seem expensive at first, but I was able to justify it since replacing the blinds with another window treatment would have been far more expensive. Just take a plunge.I have only installed these wands for about two weeks but I am happy with their performance. They solve a problem and accurately open and close the blinds. Some other e-wands have come and gone but this company and product seem to have staying power (June 2024).

Pros - these are so much more convenient than reaching over the family room sofa to manually close the 4 blinds along the wall. These are more affordable than “real” motorized blinds. Cons - the wand is quite bulky, longer than a regular wand and the diameter is larger than a AA battery. Probably wouldn’t look as bulky on larger windows. Of the 4 I purchased, 3 needed new batteries even though the batteries included didn’t appear to be used. If the batteries aren’t fresh, the wand won’t program correctly. The box for the set of 3 however didn’t look brand new as there was no outer wrapping and the inside was crushed, unlike like the box for the single wand which was perfect. Programming the remote, while simple, was a pain. If you over or under tighten during programming, you’ll have to start the programming over or the blinds will start and finish operating at different speeds and look uneven. My remote is programmed to operate all 4 blinds at the same time - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t where 1 random blind won’t open or close. At times 1 of the blinds operates by itself, I changed the batteries, so we’ll see. Update: I had to return these. One of the 4 lost programming to the remote and it just won’t sync and 1 wouldn’t stop randomly opening/closing. I’d close them at night and the one was open in the morning and then would randomly start working by itself in the middle of the day. I changed all the batteries and re-programed both but nothing worked.

Cheaper than many of the other options for automating blinds that I researched. Easy install, easy pairing. Working great directly with my Hubitat hub. Hopefully battery life is reasonable. Considering getting another of these 3 packs to install on some other windows.Edit: Yikes! I waited for these to come back in stock but the price has risen $150 dollars. Hope this is temporary, I can't justify more at this price point.

The media could not be loaded. This E-wand automatically opens and shuts all our blinds at once, or individually, or by group (room). The installation on our existing blinds was quick and simple, and when we did contact customer service for advice they responded promptly and were very helpful. We set up the automation several ways so we could pick the easiest way to open and close the blinds from anywhere in the house; via Alexa, via the ap on our phones, via the remote, and via a simple twist group. The twist group allows us to just twist one wand to open or close all other blinds in that room.

I bought the 3 pack and put one in my home office and the other two in my living room across the house, and attempted to connect all three through SmartThings. The SmartThings hub is roughly smack dab in between the two locations, but the Office wand is the only one that would reliably stay connected, so I ended up buying the e-Wand bridge for the other two (and connected that to Alexa - the wands themselves will pair with SmartThings but the eWand bridge does not, it will connect to Alexa as a Skill). I'd rather have all three in SmartThings obviously but I can't knock this product because another product has integration issues with it. If you have a smaller home or all the windows are in the same location, you probably won't have that issue.This brand has a leg up on some of the competition because unlike others you can control it manually via the wand (my bedroom blinds have a different brand e-wand that you can only control via the app). You can also use the remote or flip the switch & let them open & close via light and/or temp sensors on the wand. That's extremely useful as a fail-safe in case your internet is down when it comes time to run your routines. I live in a city where it is unwise to leave your windows uncovered at night with the lights on inside, so it's a safety feature for me and the main reason I wanted these.Now that the ones in the back have their own hub, they have stayed connected and run just as reliably as any other smart product. I love walking out into a house full of sunlight in the morning, and coming home to an open house after work. It's a luxury item for sure but once you get them working, you never have to think about it and only have to sit back and enjoy the light. My only concern is that after only 3 weeks of inconsistent daily use, the battery is already down to 80% which means they'll have to be replaced every 3 months or so depending on use.

Slightly bigger than normal tilt rods, but they work wonderfully. Very versatile controls either manually or using the remote. The automatic light and temperature sensors make my old blinds take care of themselves; no more manually opening and closing unless I want to.