SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2 review: This smart curtain controller gets a streamlined design

Cost When Reviewed

$99.00

Finest Prices Nowadays: SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2

$84.14

Free

Very last year’s SwitchBot Curtain was a good to start with attempt at automating the opening and closing of curtains, but the business clearly saw that its edition-one particular release had some growing to do. The superior information is that the Curtain Rod 2 can make major improvements on the structure and function of the initial SwitchBot Curtain. The much better information is that the selling price hasn’t altered, remaining at $99 for a single unit. (Recall that if you have double curtains, you’ll want to buy one for each individual facet.)

The over-all appear of the Curtain Rod 2 is about the exact as the unique: It is a chunky, rectangular machine with two smaller sized pieces that snap on to to both aspect of its motor. Whilst the initial Curtain attached to a rod with a removeable piece that clipped to the major of the curtain rod, sandwiching it in between the motor under and the hunk of plastic over, the new Curtain Rod 2 is self-contained, with a pair of a lot more convenient (and moderately more beautiful) spring-loaded clips that clutch the rod like a pair of wheeled claws.

Switchbot

That spring is limited, which built it a tiny tricky to affix the Curtain Rod 2 to a thick curtain rod (the unit nevertheless supports rods 15- to 40mm in diameter), but not overly hard. As with the initially-gen machine, you are going to want to get a different item if instead of standard cylindrical rod, you have either I Rail or U Rail tracks. You are going to have to have to set up tiny plastic clips atop your curtain’s tabs to give the motor some thing to thrust against as it moves if you have grommet-fashion curtains, an included string of beads with clips hooked up will help to accomplish the exact thing, but this adds a little bit of complexity.

SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2 is Bluetooth only, unless…

The SwitchBot Curtain 2 stays a Bluetooth-only product, which makes for a quick set up. 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 while you’re away from home. You can also pair it with Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri shortcuts, and IFTTT, between other people. You can skip the hub if you will need only nearby command with your smartphone.

The beefy unit (it weighs more than a pound) even now includes a battery that expenses by using USB-C cable (bundled). The maker provides no technical specs on expected battery lifespan, but you can acquire a $19 photo voltaic panel to keep the battery topped off.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Set up is swift and will involve a shorter calibration to explain to the app where the curtains’ proper open and shut positions are at. Manual handle is very simple and intuitive—open, close, or pause—while more high-quality-grained handle allows you partly open up or close drapes, established procedure on a hold off timer, or configure a recurring schedule for procedure.

A gentle-sensing feature lets you automate curtain operations based mostly on ambient gentle, and it operates remarkably well thinking of it’s nonetheless going through beta tests. Finally, for most modes you can inform SwitchBot to operate in Efficiency Method or a quieter Silent Manner. The latter ratchets down the motor energy, however, which can cause it to get trapped mid-operation if it is shifting weighty drapes.

SwitchBot

In General performance Manner, the motor feels much more impressive than the unique, even though whether that is an upgrade to the precise hardware or the effect of the redesign is impossible for me to say. (SwitchBot doesn’t present horsepower specs, while both versions claim to assist a maximum curtain pounds of 17 lbs.) In any situation, I identified the motion to be smoother and extra assured than on the earlier product.

The modestly enhanced SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2

This second-gen gadget doesn’t fix all the complications of the original style and design. If you have mini blinds specifically underneath your curtains, for illustration, the device can drag against them as it moves, developing difficulties. And, of study course, numerous sorts of curtains won’t conceal the continue to industrial-looking SwitchBot well, if at all. That mentioned, opening curtains is no one’s preferred occupation when morning will come the original SwitchBot Curtain went a extensive way toward streamlining that process. This update only enhances it—albeit modestly.