This article is reprinted from the review of William J Brown on Amazon.
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William J Brown moved into a new home in Colorado and needed window treatments to block out the intense sun while maintaining a modern look. They chose Graywind's blinds because of their higher quality, smart home tech, better pricing, and faster shipping. Graywind offered a sleek 5% see-through black shade that complemented their modern taste and large windows. William found Graywind's buying experience on Amazon far better than Blinds.com, with a more straightforward process. Graywind's everyday pricing was competitive, especially considering the smart home integrations included. The installation was manageable, and the Graywind app setup and Alexa integration were user-friendly. Overall, William highly recommends Graywind over traditional window treatment companies for their superior product, pricing, and efficiency.
Purchase information :
Graywind Motorized Solar Shades
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2023
Color: Solar - 5% Black
Material Type: 2 - Hardwired Smart Motor
CONTEXT:
We moved into a brand new home that required a lot of window treatments. We live in Colorado, so its sunny year around. Initially, I ordered roller shades from Blinds.com for 4 bedrooms (around $17k in total). I got either hardwired or solar powered shades for all of those bedrooms. I looked at these shades on Amazon and thought i'd give it a try.
OVERALL:
I definitely recommend going with Graywind over Blinds.com or three-day blinds or whatever for multiple reasons. This is a higher quality product (includes smart home tech) with a better price tag and faster shipping times.
USE CASE:
I needed window treatments to block out some of the intense sun that cascades into our south-facing living room that receives a lot of direct sunlight year around. The window/view is awesome, so I didn't want to black it out completely. I also wanted something that would go unnoticed at night/evening/morning when the shades were completely rolled up. I have included some photos of the results: no shades, partial shades, and full shades.
BUYING EXPERIENCE:
My experience using Amazon compared to using Blinds.com (as in entering the measurement details) was FAR better. The blinds.com user experience is clumsy and really not straight forward. Conversely, the buying process and user interface simply using Amazon was not pretty, but super functional and straightforward.
SELECTION:
Graywind doesn't have as many color variants as some of the competitors, but I actually thought that was easier/better. I don't need 70+ colors to choose from ... I opted for 5% see through black, which in theory ("black shades") sounds bad, but its not at all, it's a modern good look in my mind. Our taste is "modern" and we have enormous windows. I read a blog post that, ironically, you can see through black shades way better than white ones. White roller shades can look washed out and a bit cheap. I found this to be totally true. These shades offer light protection and blocking without totally ruining the view and/or vibe of the room.
PRICE/VALUE:
Graywind has better everyday prices than Blinds.com. I quoted what I wanted on Blinds.com and Graywind and they were within 10% of each other WHEN Blinds.com was running a promotion. Graywind has better "everyday" pricing ... which I really liked. I didn't feel the need to wait for some promotion like with the other folks. If you go with a Blinds.com and don't use a promotion then you will be paying at least 30-40% more, which is a lot of more money.
PRICE/VALUE SMART HOME INTEGRATIONS:
If you go with blinds.com they really really jack up the price when you start adding smart home bridges/integrations and you are left with the Somfy system (which totally sucks and is not the most up-to-date smart home tech). Most of these roller shades offered by graywind automatically come with smart home tech, which is amazing value.
SHIPPING/TIMING:
Graywind is cutting and manufacturing from China. But everything processed and shipped about a week faster than Blinds.com. Here is my timing: Ordered on 11.4, Graywind reached out to confirm all details on 11.6. manufactured and shipped out order by 11.11, received at my house via Fedex on 11.16. In total the process was 12 calendar days, super fast compared to my experience with blinds.com which took up to three calendar weeks when I ordered this summer.
PHYSICAL INSTALL:
I am pretty handy so the install was not terrible. I put these up myself (1 person), three units in total in about 2 hours. I used the hardware but opted for my own screws/fasteners to mount directly into the window framing.
REMOTE PROGRAMMING:
I had to adjust the lower limits on these to not hit molding. That was sort of annoying all around because you have to press the button(s) exactly specifically as the instructions indicate. This was somewhat frustrating but also I have had similarly frustrating experiences with blinds.com roller shades and the somfy systems. Note: I didn't account for molding at the bottom of the windows so that is why the shades were going "too low", that was something I overlooked, not something Graywind did wrong.
GRAYWIND APP SETUP:
Super duper easy and straight forward. Better than most in the smart home game.
ALEXA INTEGRATION:
Easy because of how reliable the Graywind app is.
I pretty much never write these reviews because I buy so much stuff on Amazon. However, I felt motivated and emboldened to share my opinion because these guys were so much better (in all measurable ways) relative to blinds.coms and three day blinds - which I have both used in the past and view as like the "comcast" of window treatment companies, which is why I was excited to find the Graywind solution on Amazon and even more excited when the shades ended up being better all around. I am sure there are little things here or there that Graywind can do better, but compared to the old "big guys"/ legacy vendors/options out there, Graywind is significantly better in all ways (superior product at a lower price and ships faster). Cheers!
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