Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Marginally improved procedure and design when compared to the primary
- Intuitive operation, with a great deal of automation options
- Mild sensing manner is effective well—even while it is in beta
Drawbacks
- Still an unattractive include-on if your curtains aren’t fully opaque
- Not extremely tranquil
- Hub demanded for broader wise property integration
Our Verdict
Minimal updates strengthen on the authentic SwitchBot Curtain though maintaining pricing intact.
Price tag When Reviewed
$99.00
Ideal Price ranges Nowadays: SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2
$84.14
Free
Very last year’s SwitchBot Curtain was a decent very first endeavor at automating the opening and closing of curtains, but the business obviously saw that its edition-one release experienced some growing to do. The fantastic information is that the Curtain Rod 2 tends to make significant improvements on the structure and function of the primary SwitchBot Curtain. The superior information is that the rate hasn’t altered, remaining at $99 for a solitary machine. (Try to remember that if you have double curtains, you will will need to acquire a single for every aspect.)
The in general seem of the Curtain Rod 2 is about the identical as the unique: It is a chunky, oblong device with two lesser parts that snap onto to possibly facet of its motor. Though the first Curtain attached to a rod with a removeable piece that clipped to the leading of the curtain rod, sandwiching it concerning the motor under and the hunk of plastic over, the new Curtain Rod 2 is self-contained, with a pair of much more handy (and moderately much more eye-catching) spring-loaded clips that clutch the rod like a pair of wheeled claws.
The SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2 is intended for these forms of curtains hung on a typical spherical curtain rod.
Switchbot
That spring is tight, which made it a tiny tough to affix the Curtain Rod 2 to a thick curtain rod (the system nevertheless supports rods 15- to 40mm in diameter), but not extremely tricky. As with the first-gen device, you are going to need to have to invest in a distinctive solution if as an alternative of common cylindrical rod, you have either I Rail or U Rail tracks. You will have to have to put in modest plastic clips atop your curtain’s tabs to give the motor one thing to force from as it moves if you have grommet-type curtains, an incorporated string of beads with clips hooked up will help to execute the identical point, but this adds a little bit of complexity.
SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2 is Bluetooth only, unless…
The SwitchBot Curtain 2 remains a Bluetooth-only machine, which helps make for a brief setup. If you also have a SwitchBot Hub Mini ($39), you can bridge the bot to your Wi-Fi community, making it possible for you to use the controller when you’re absent from household. You can also pair it with Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri shortcuts, and IFTTT, among the others. You can skip the hub if you will need only local control with your smartphone.
The beefy device (it weighs extra than a pound) continue to features a battery that prices through USB-C cable (incorporated). The maker delivers no specifications on envisioned battery lifespan, but you can get a $19 photo voltaic panel to preserve the battery topped off.
SwitchBot’s app is properly designed and simple to use. The Light Sensing attribute works pretty effectively, specially considering that it is nonetheless currently being beta examined.
Christopher Null/Foundry
Set up is brief and consists of a short calibration to explain to the app the place the curtains’ right open and closed positions are at. Manual manage is very simple and intuitive—open, close, or pause—while additional great-grained control lets you partly open up or close drapes, established procedure on a hold off timer, or configure a recurring program for operation.
A light-sensing feature allows you automate curtain operations centered on ambient light-weight, and it operates remarkably very well thinking of it’s nevertheless likely through beta testing. Finally, for most modes you can inform SwitchBot to work in Efficiency Manner or a quieter Silent Method. The latter ratchets down the motor electrical power, nevertheless, which can lead to it to get trapped mid-operation if it’s shifting large drapes.
SwitchBot’s optional solar panel, $19, will hold the SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2’s battery topped off, but remember you’ll will need a person for each SwitchBot (and you are going to want two SwitchBots if you have two curtains that near by conference in the middle).
SwitchBot
In Performance Method, the motor feels more effective than the original, while irrespective of whether that is an enhance to the precise hardware or the effects of the redesign is not possible for me to say. (SwitchBot does not present horsepower specs, while both products claim to assistance a maximum curtain fat of 17 kilos.) In any scenario, I identified the movement to be smoother and additional confident than on the before product.
The modestly enhanced SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2
This next-gen gadget does not solve all the challenges of the primary structure. If you have mini blinds right below your curtains, for illustration, the device can drag versus them as it moves, making troubles. And, of program, several varieties of curtains won’t conceal the however industrial-searching SwitchBot well, if at all. That said, opening curtains is no one’s favored career when morning comes the original SwitchBot Curtain went a extensive way toward streamlining that course of action. This update only improves it—albeit modestly.