SmartWings Motorized Smart Blinds Review

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[Music]
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[Music]
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hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here for a
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different kind of review here today
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today I'm taking a look at the motorized
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blinds from the company smart wings now
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over the years I've bought a wide range
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of blinds for either the church that I
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Pastor or for our home so I'm well
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versed in having to choose appro at type
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blinds for the application I'm also well
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aware that they aren't cheap having
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spent thousands of dollars on them in
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the past however I needed a blind for
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this office that I often also use as my
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studio and a couple of primary factors
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for that one is privacy I will do
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counseling in this office or meetings
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with people and so a lot of activity
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going on outside the window can be
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distractive and also make people feel
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like they uh don't have the kind of
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privacy that they're necessarily looking
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looking for and then on a secondary
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concern when it comes to filming in this
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space I've worked to try to limit the
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amount of echo in here and to improve
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the sound quality but being able to
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control the lighting through a blind and
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particularly one in the style that I
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have chosen here that gives me a wide
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range of options over how much either
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light I have coming through uh kind of
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the translucent slat or of course the
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option to open it all together so I uh
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when smart Wings reached out to me to
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see if I was interested in doing a
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collaboration with them I said yes
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because it both fit a need for me and
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this particular application but also is
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something that I was already considering
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doing uh for the reasons that I've given
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you already so today what I'm going to
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try to do is to try to walk through the
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process of of good and bad in this whole
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journey and and so that you can maybe
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have a sense of whether or not this is a
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company that you could look to for your
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own blinds in the future so first of all
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give you a couple of the features to go
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over obviously as noted these are
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motorized blinds that I've chosen and
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motorized is kind of their thing uh it's
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not just about blinds themselves but
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about having motorized and control
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through a variety of means whether it be
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a a dedicated remote control like this
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but then also through some other options
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if you're looking to use something like
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Amazon Alexa or uh Google homekit
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various applications to where if you're
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wanting to integrate into kind of a
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smart Home Solution they're definitely
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designed around that one of the things
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that I actually really liked about this
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particular application as well is the
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fact that they do have a solar charging
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option and it's a small solar panel that
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will go actually on the window in in
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this case it's very easy to put it in a
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place to where essentially you'll never
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see or never notice it but obviously
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it's going to be getting that available
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window light coming through and keeping
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it charging I think this is a really
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great option if you happen to have a
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very high an inaccessible window now in
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this case my window is not overly High
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however I certainly can't access the top
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of it without uh having a ladder it's
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something like 7 and 1/2 ft up and so uh
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tall enough to where I do need a ladder
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to access that space the other thing
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that I found as I begin to explore their
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options in terms of the style of Shades
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that uh smart Wings does have a huge
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range of options available a lot of
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different applications and uh I actually
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took me a while to kind of come up with
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what I thought would work because they
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had some wood style blinds that I
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thought were cool because I do have some
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wood Accents in this particular office
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space but I ended up going with what I
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what I chose for the reasons I'll give
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you in just a moment the other kind of
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uh kind of standout feature of smart
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Wings is that all of their blinds do
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include free shipping and that is to a
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variety of company or countries I should
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say and you'll be able to quickly
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determine whether or not that applies to
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your country because either they ship to
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your country and you have free shipping
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or they don't ship to your country and
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it's just not even an option at this
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point so let's talk about what I
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particularly chose here in for this
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space I decided to go with their
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motorized zebra Shades and in the
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translucent style I wasn't looking for a
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complete blackout solution in fact I
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wanted a solution to where at the most
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um you know in the most kind of closed
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down space it would be something like
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this to where it's not blocking all of
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the light still kind of giving a little
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bit of a glow to the room but able to
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provide privacy and then also to really
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control the quantity of light that's
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coming in and I really like the zebra
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style because it does give you the
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option of having privacy and light you
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know if you just choose to go with these
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slats there still is kind of a Shear in
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there and so it's you can see in and out
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but it's particularly from the outside
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it's not easy to see in and so uh it's
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it's a good option there obviously I
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chose what is they call their Z-Wave
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motor and so this motor is quite quiet
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in operation um it's not as you can see
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it's not like blindingly fast in terms
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of going up and down but it's fast
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enough and it's very quiet in operation
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uh whenever I've had people in here that
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wanted to see the the shade and I began
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to operate it people have been duly
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impressed and so if that's your goal to
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show how kind of James Bond high-tech
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you are with your blinds it'll probably
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satisfy that as well I did choose to go
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with this style remote because this is a
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an office it's not um in like my home
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for example where I'm so concerned with
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more like Google Alexa type control but
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just being able to control it this way
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was more important to me I did choose
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the solar panel and so I wouldn't have
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to mess with getting up there to charge
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it in and so uh then when it came to the
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installation process uh it was
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straightforward for the most part
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however there was an error on my part
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that I'll detail in just a moment where
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initially I um I'm made an error in in
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measuring all the spots that I should
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have me uh measured and so the first
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blind that arrived it was correctly made
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but it didn't fit my space and so I had
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to redo it and and so we'll get to that
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in just a moment but outside of that the
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installation was very straightforward to
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be fair I do have experience in
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installing blinds and doing a a wide
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range of of construction type task and
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so for me it was very simple and
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straightforward your mileage is going to
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obviously depending on how comfortable
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you are with um using tools and so but I
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mean there really really isn't a lot of
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tools in involved really as a matter of
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maybe doing a little bit of measuring
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driving in a few screws and then just
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having the sense of being able to uh
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figure out the attach points and so that
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you can actually put that blind up and
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kind of do a little bit of a pull type
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Rock style to where you rotate it up
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into the clips really was something that
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could be done in as long as you have the
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right size blind something that I could
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typically do in less than a half hour so
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let's talk about some things that I like
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uh first of all I really do like the
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look of the fabric here um this is kind
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of a mixed design and so it's actually
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very complimentary to the overall color
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scheme I did find that there was a nice
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variety of looks and options that were
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available and what I chose online it
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proved to be very consistent with the
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actual fabric of the material that
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arrived and so I appreciate that I like
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the solar panel option and the fact that
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it can be easily hidden and also it then
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eliminates the need for doing any kind
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of uh other type of charging uh your
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other option is it would come with an AC
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adapter and a USBC Port there and so you
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could charge it through that means now
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what I I found out kind of after the
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fact is that the normal charging process
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through that USB uh port and then just
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plugging into the wall it takes about 5
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to 6 hours to fully charge the battery
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but the battery will then last for about
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6 months of normal use and so you know
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at the end of the day that's really not
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all that big a deal and so if you decide
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to not spend the extra money for the
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solar panel it's really a relatively
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small inconvenience and so so long as
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you're uh the the top of the blind is
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not up really really high where it's
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truly inaccessible I suspect you can get
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by without the solar panel but the solar
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panel so far has worked a treat and so
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no concerns right that and as I look up
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right at it right now I can see a green
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flashing up there that indicates that it
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is receiving power input from the solar
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panel even though outside it is kind of
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a gray typical winter kind of day
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without any kind of great sunlight out
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there as you can see the motor itself it
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works relatively quietly um it's as
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noted it's not super fast but it is fast
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enough that you know you're basically
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smoothly operating I also appreciate the
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fact that I do in this case I do have
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I've elected to have one section that
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can be cranked out in this large window
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that's behind me here and so what I I
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found is that if I took off that crank
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handle that it very smoothly goes over
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the top of that kind of Bulge out
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section it doesn't hang up on it at all
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it just kind of works smoothly and
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naturally and so no problem there I also
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appreciate the fact that it all these
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smart blinds are truly integrated in all
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the modern processes and so a lot of
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people are are interested in the idea of
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of smart home and kind of automating
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their home to maybe help with having the
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blinds in a certain position at a
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certain time of day you can program a
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custom position uh into even through
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through the remote or you can do it
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through using something like uh you know
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Google home things like that and so the
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upside of that is that if you're needing
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to have the maybe the shade Clos at a
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certain time of day because you're
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wanting to block maybe some solar energy
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from coming into the home you can do
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that or to have it open at a particular
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time you can automate all that process
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which is really going to appeal to a
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certain kind of of customer also I found
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that the installation process was nice
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and straightforward so how about some
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things that I'm not as crazy about well
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just on a practical level dealing with
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an online company means that you're not
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going to get any kind of local support
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or installation help and so you know if
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you're not comfortable with doing uh
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kind of doing doing the whole process of
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measuring and then installing a blind
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you might want to deal with a local
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company because you're going to get a
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maybe a little bit more help in that
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process and they their customer service
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seems to be good and and and of course I
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ended up having to use it as I've
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already confessed and so anyway uh so
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just be aware of that blinds of course
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can be expensive and so for this
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configuration it is a very large window
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that I am covering here um the window
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itself is about 6t by 7t roughly and so
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it is a large window so it's a large
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blind and so uh but this cost roughly
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$500 including shipping uh there are
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some discounts right now but just so you
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know kind of the basic ballpark of what
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this particular blind cost and so blinds
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can be expensive that's a potential
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negative a third potential negative is
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that some competitors will offer some
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protection and I'm talking about online
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companies that do blinds through a
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similar process they will offer some
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protection that even if you're the one
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that makes a mistake in measuring um
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that you do get you know maybe one
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remake or something like that and that's
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not necessarily the case from kind of
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digging into the fine print doesn't seem
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to be the case here so on that note be
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sure to measure the top the middle and
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the bottom and so in my case because the
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top of the window was fairly High I
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measured the bottom and I measured the
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middle and those measurements were
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consistent and unfortunately in the top
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it actually squeezed in a little bit at
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the top and so the byproduct was is that
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the original blind was about uh you know
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38 um off and so I couldn't in install
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it in that space and so you know had to
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get it remade so learn from my mistake
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measure the top the middle and the
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bottom to make sure that and obviously
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you're going to want to take the
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narrowest measurement to make sure that
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it's going to fit consistently up and
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down so my conclusion is this based on
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my limited experience with just one
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blind I haven't done a wide variety
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blinds like I've done in some other
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cases I actually really like the smart
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Wings motorized blind that I got I
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haven't always invested in motorized
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blinds in the past um you know you don't
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always need them truth be told but they
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can be very handy if you happen to have
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very high Windows which are not going to
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be easily accessed through other means
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they're also very handy if you're
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wanting a very clean looking
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installation where you don't have
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anything kind of dangling down on the
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side they're also I think very handy if
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if you're looking for this style of
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blind kind of a zebra style application
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because you can just stop it wherever
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you want and so you can have some
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Precision if you want that full slot
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available it's quite easy to do with the
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remote and not always as easy to do with
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you know some kind of of other control
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and obviously in this case you're
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depending on how often you're opening
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and closing your blinds for me it's not
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all that often and so it means that I'm
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putting relatively wear and tear on that
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motor and it's far less likely a wear
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out than something if I was adjusting a
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a handle up and down I have ran into
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some issues with blinds in the past
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where after a while particularly if
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they're a roller style that after a
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while you know you're you're having to
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pull further and further down because
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they don't want to retract as well so
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this to me at least in the short term
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I'm about a month in seems like it might
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be a more elegant solution in the long
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term and so so far I would say that if
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you are willing to spend the money to
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get the motorized blind the motorized
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blind is pretty cool
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now right now there is a current sale
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around the holidays where it's 8% off
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sitewide and then if you're making a big
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order $1,500 or more it's 12% off which
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could make some significant difference
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in your overall price of what you're
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paying for so if you're looking for
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blinds here is my experience with smart
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wings so far so good I'm Dustin Abbott
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if you want more information you can
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check out the information in the
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description down below you can buy some
14:26
find some buying links or some research
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links if you want to do more research
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for yourself as always thanks for
14:32
watching have a great day and let the
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light in

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SmartWings Motorized Smart Blinds Review

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