0:10
>> Couple of years ago, my wife and I were
0:12
at [music] a spa and we were on one of
0:15
these hanging beds that they had there
0:17
and my wife said, "Oh, I'd love to have
0:19
one of those." I looked at it and said,
0:21
"Hey, I can build one of those." And she
0:22
laughed at me thinking I was joking. I
0:24
wasn't. So, we took pictures of the
0:26
design and I came home and I replicated
0:30
it. It's been a fantastic place to hang
0:32
out after using the sauna or
0:35
for me taking a nap on a nice day. I
0:38
originally built it wide open, but about
0:40
a year and a half ago, I closed it in at
0:42
the back because we had added a cold
0:43
plunge and I wanted to situate that in
0:46
the back of it. But, I've been kicking
0:48
around the idea for a few years of
0:51
actually having the ability to close it
0:52
in somewhat. And so, I actually enclosed
0:55
it in plastic in the winter trying to
0:57
keep whatever's inside of here out of
0:59
the elements, but also with the idea of
1:00
maybe we'll be able to use it during the
1:02
winter. Most of the time here in Canada,
1:04
it's way too cold for that. So, we use
1:05
it just a a few days out of the winter
1:07
bundled on under a lot of blankets.
1:10
But, I've been exploring the idea of
1:13
doing some outdoor blinds onto it to
1:15
just give some flexibility even in the
1:17
nicer weather. And so, today is the day
1:21
and I have in front of me uh blinds that
1:23
I have ordered from Kinkajou that are
1:26
motorized outdoor shades. We're going to
1:28
do the install and I'll give you the
1:29
time lapse of the actual process in case
1:32
you're considering closing in a pergola
1:34
yourself or using it's in some other
1:36
kind of porch area doing some outdoor
1:40
And then we'll take a closer look after
1:41
they're installed hopefully without
1:42
issues and then see what the quality is
1:44
like, what the functionality is like,
1:46
and I'll give you an evaluation of the
1:48
whole process after using them for a few
1:50
days. So, fingers crossed. Let's dive
1:53
in. Let's get these things installed.
2:46
>> All right, all of the blinds are up and
2:48
I got them installed last weekend. I've
2:51
used them a little bit over the weekend
2:53
and I made some of my final tweaks just
2:56
to kind of evaluate the installation to
2:58
make sure I had it exactly the way that
3:00
I wanted it. So, now I can give you kind
3:01
of a follow-up on that. As far as the
3:03
actual installation process,
3:05
instructions are about average. They
3:07
didn't stand out as being particularly
3:09
fantastic and neither were they overly
3:11
difficult to use. It was a fairly
3:14
straightforward installation process.
3:15
Really, the only challenge is as you may
3:17
have noticed in the time lapse, I was
3:19
trying to install blinds up to 115 in
3:23
long, which is the maximum that you can
3:25
order for these exterior shades, which
3:27
by the way, in their marketing they show
3:30
covering a span of I don't know, looks
3:32
like 25 ft or something like that. And
3:35
or or 20 ft. You can't get them that big
3:38
and so this opening here is basically
3:39
the maximum that you're at. 115 in
3:42
is what I was able to order and and so
3:45
obviously trying to hold that up to
3:47
click it into place by myself was a bit
3:49
of a challenge. So, I kind of ended up
3:51
cheating a bit by using a ladder to
3:53
support one end while I locked in one
3:55
side then moved over to lock in the
3:56
other side and then worked in the middle
3:58
after that. And and so obviously the
4:00
best case scenario is to not try to
4:02
install those by yourself. Be smarter
4:04
than what I was. And other than that,
4:05
not a big deal. So one final thing that
4:08
I needed to do is because of this
4:09
particular installation, I put in the
4:11
guides to help with wind and to keep
4:14
everything stable as it goes up and
4:16
down. I had to because I'm on concrete,
4:18
I didn't want to actually put tap cons
4:20
into my concrete here and so actually
4:22
mounted the bottom anchors at to the
4:25
side of my post as low down as possible.
4:28
So because I was up just a little bit
4:30
higher than what I would have been if
4:31
they were on the ground, I needed to
4:33
to reset the lower limit of where it
4:36
kind of like natally goes down to. And
4:41
what I I had to go back to their
4:44
website. Unfortunately, they do have
4:46
pretty easy instructions that teach you
4:47
how to reprogram these and so you can
4:51
you know, define either their lower or
4:53
their upper limit if you need to tweak
4:54
that. In this case, for me it was just
4:56
the lower limit that I really needed to
4:58
tweak, but I was able to in just a few
5:00
minutes to reprogram that. And so now as
5:03
you can see, it is going to stop at the
5:06
exact place that I want to where it's
5:08
not creating any kind of wrinkling, it's
5:10
not going down to far and so that was a
5:13
nice easy tweak I was able to make. Now,
5:15
they do have a few different remote
5:16
options. I elected to go with the model
5:19
that is a wall mounted. However, when I
5:22
say wall mounted, it doesn't mean as you
5:24
can see, it's easy to take it off. It's
5:26
just attaches via magnets into its
5:28
holder. You can see one of them up
5:29
behind me cuz I installed one inside, I
5:31
installed one outside. You can pop that
5:33
off if you want to go around to it. You
5:35
can go through and you can either
5:37
control the blinds individually if
5:38
you've got multiple blind configuration
5:40
as I've got here or you can control them
5:43
all together as a group. Pretty
5:45
straightforward and easy to use on that
5:46
front. Now one of the other more motor
5:48
choices, actually a couple of motor
5:49
choices, you can just get a standard
5:51
motor that's going to be controlled by
5:52
the remote control as I've been
5:53
demonstrating. You also have the option,
5:55
if you're wanting to go with a more
5:57
integrated setup, you can either get a
5:59
motor with a built-in uh with a matter
6:02
hub also, or you can get it with a
6:05
matter over thread motor. And so, that
6:07
will allow you to integrate with things
6:09
like Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home,
6:12
things like that. And so, that you can
6:14
just go into your For example, for me
6:16
it's Google Home app, and you can
6:18
control the blinds from within your your
6:21
phone, or you can set up automated
6:23
systems if you want the blinds to, you
6:25
know, kind of correspond with sun up,
6:27
sun down, etc., etc. You can control all
6:30
of that through that. So, just one other
6:31
layer of flexibility that you can build
6:33
into the system if you want to do a more
6:36
integrated and you're maybe a little bit
6:37
tech-savvy and can figure out how to set
6:39
all that up. So, how about the motor
6:41
performance? Now, I opted to get the um
6:44
optional solar panels. They're fairly
6:46
inexpensive, and so it just means that
6:48
you don't have to worry about any other
6:49
charging type configuration. Although,
6:51
you do have to deal with, you know, the
6:53
potential unsightliness of having that
6:55
little solar panel. In this case,
6:57
because they don't actually require a
6:58
lot of sun, I just mounted them along
7:00
the tops of these. I first had them up
7:03
on the wood, decided against that, and
7:04
so I moved them down to this to where
7:06
they'll get a little bit of sunlight
7:07
during the day, but frankly they don't
7:09
need a whole lot. Truth of the matter is
7:12
these blinds, they don't use a lot of
7:14
energy going up and down, and you could
7:16
just hook up a USB power source. It's a
7:18
USB-C port that's on the motor itself,
7:21
charge it a few times a year, and
7:22
probably be fine unless you have some
7:24
kind of like crazy extreme usage. But,
7:27
beyond that, the actual
7:29
motor itself, I'm going to switch to
7:31
this one here. The motor itself is quiet
7:34
and smooth. You know, frankly, I've used
7:37
a number of motorized blinds, and so far
7:39
I've been pretty impressed with the
7:42
overall performance of them in general.
7:44
And so, as you can see, it doesn't like
7:46
fly up and down, but it moves nice and
7:49
smooth. It's very, very quiet in
7:51
operation. See if you can pick up any
7:55
You might have heard just a little bit
7:56
of sound there through my microphone,
7:58
but frankly, it is very, very quiet. It
8:01
moves up and down smoothly. As you might
8:03
have seen there, it has a nice kind of
8:05
deceleration as it gets towards its end
8:08
point. And so, I mean,
8:10
there's nothing really to complain
8:11
about. It's pretty straightforward
8:13
process. And particularly once I've had
8:16
reprogrammed it to the height and the
8:18
lower travel limits that I want, it
8:20
moves kind of perfectly through what I
8:22
want it to do. Actually, found it to be
8:25
very nice. I took my first nap in here
8:27
since putting those on. The weather
8:28
right now, it's it's May 2026, and the
8:31
weather has been all over the place and
8:32
mostly very cool. It wasn't bad when I
8:35
came out, the sun was shining, but
8:36
because the wind was blowing a little
8:38
bit, I put up a couple of sides and left
8:40
just this side open, which is away from
8:42
the direction of the wind.
8:43
Well, when I woke up, a storm had blown
8:47
Rain was pounding down, and as soon as I
8:50
started to put up that upside, rain
8:52
started blowing into the area where I
8:54
was. And so, I was really delighted at
8:56
how well it kept the weather out. And
8:58
so, anyway, so I'm pretty happy on that
9:01
aspect of performance. All right, so
9:02
let's talk about the actual blind
9:04
material themselves. I actually ended up
9:05
going with the 5% white gray. And so, 5%
9:09
is the highest level of transparency.
9:11
You also have a 3% and a 0% option. I
9:14
decided that in this case, I actually
9:16
have a fair amount of privacy already
9:18
baked in. And also, I live in Canada,
9:20
and so it's not like the sun is
9:22
extremely intense here. And so, I
9:25
decided that I would go with something
9:26
that gives me a little bit more
9:27
transparency. It actually is quite
9:29
private from the outside, but it gives
9:31
you a decent amount of visibility from
9:32
the inside. And so, I'm happy with the
9:35
the that I made there. One of the things
9:37
I was concerned about, again, because I
9:38
live in Canada, was is
9:41
these kind of motor configurations, is
9:43
this whole setup going to survive a
9:45
Canadian winter? And so, the report that
9:47
I got back is that the operating
9:49
temperature of the motor is all the way
9:51
down to minus 25 Celsius, and so that
9:54
means that it's going to cover
9:56
on in winter, it's going to cover
9:59
probably 98% of my winter days. We do
10:01
get some days that are below minus 25,
10:03
but uh for the most part, it's going to
10:05
be fine there. And it's good for up to
10:06
plus 60° C. And so, it's able to survive
10:10
the hottest of climates. So, all of that
10:12
was pretty good. That was reassuring in
10:14
and of itself. This fabric is a 400 g
10:18
per meter squared, and so it's a pretty
10:20
heavy material. Color fastness on this,
10:23
in terms of how well it's going to stand
10:24
up to UV damage and fading, it is an
10:28
eight grade, which is the highest of the
10:30
scale. And so, it it means it indicates
10:33
exceptional resistance to fading and
10:36
color change in sunlight, according to
10:39
my research. The fabric thickness here
10:41
is .57 mm, and so it's not thick.
10:45
However, you can feel that it is tough
10:47
and durable, and in fact, it has a
10:48
breaking strength of uh between 1090 and
10:52
1040 Newtons per 5 cm. And so, I just to
10:55
give you again a sense of what those
10:57
numbers mean, there are three levels of
10:59
basically fabric toughness in terms of
11:01
the breaking strength. And so, this is
11:03
the third of the fourth levels.
11:06
And so, it is considered high strength.
11:07
It's at the low end of the high high
11:09
strength spectrum. And so, it should be
11:12
nice and tough, resistant to, you know,
11:14
tearing and damage in that kind of
11:16
sense. Now, we'll see how well it holds
11:18
up over the long haul, but certainly in
11:20
terms of the stats out of the box, it
11:23
seems encouraging. So, what's my
11:27
on Amazon, the lowest rating I saw was a
11:30
4.8 out of five and these outdoor
11:33
motorized shades are five out of five in
11:36
terms of their rating.
11:38
I've bought a lot of quality blinds
11:40
locally for our house and what I have
11:43
found is that when I look at the price
11:45
comparison of what you can get on
11:47
Amazon, basically these are running
11:50
cheaper even with even though they have
11:52
a little bit more features involved as
11:54
far as as I've mentioned the integration
11:57
with you know you kind of automated home
11:59
setup. And so there is there's some
12:01
extra layers of kind of tech savviness
12:04
built into these King Mo blinds that is
12:06
wasn't necessarily there in the blinds
12:08
that I bought locally. And so I think
12:10
that overall this is a competitive price
12:13
for it. Now at the same time I don't
12:15
want to oversell that because for an
12:17
installation like this with large
12:19
motorized blinds covering all of this,
12:22
we're looking at something in the $2,500
12:25
range and so it's a significant
12:26
investment for something like that.
12:28
At the same time however, as far as the
12:30
functionality so far this has worked
12:32
exactly the way that I hoped that it
12:34
would and the installation process was
12:37
straightforward. The blinds seem to be
12:39
well made, the motors are operating in a
12:42
Now it's really a wait and see kind of
12:45
game to see how they hold up in the
12:48
harsh weather conditions that I happen
12:50
to live in and so hopefully I'm just as
12:53
happy with them a few years down the
12:55
road as I am right now.
12:57
I can't use my time machine however and
12:59
so for the moment all I can say is that
13:02
this is what I wanted to see happen for
13:05
this outdoor hanging bed and so so far
13:08
I'm delighted with the King Mo motorized
13:11
blinds that I've installed here and
13:13
hopefully this little review will help
13:16
to answer any questions if you have a
13:17
similar kind of configuration and you're
13:20
maybe hoping kind of considering doing
13:22
outdoor motorized blinds, maybe this
13:24
will help you out. Hope it has. As
13:26
always thanks for watching. Have a great
13:28
And let the light in.
