Review in-home: Motorized Somfy smart blinds, rollers, shades

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These days our homes are super smart. With app connected gadgets from lights to thermostats, and speakers to fans, it’s probably no surprise that blinds and window coverings are also now fully automated.
We recently renovated our home, and as part of the plan to make our home as automated as possible, we added smart blinds from Somfy. I’d like to thank Somfy for providing smart blinds for my home for this video. Though they have given me blinds, they haven’t told me what I can’t say or what I have to say about their products, so consider these opinions my own.
I opted for a couple of different window coverings from Somfy, and we’ll look at each one in detail:
A Somfy motorized Roman Shade for the principal bedroom, a designer roller blackout shade for the office and a designer sheer blackout roller shade for the windows in the living room.
I’ll quickly note there are many, MANY choices in blinds, rollers, curtains and coverings in hundreds of different fabrics, shapes and styles so there’s options for every taste. You’ll see what worked for me in my space, but any of this is easily customizable.
The core of each of the shades I chose is the Somfy motor and the TaHoma home control hub. They work with the Somfy TaHoma mobile app. . There are also a few other toys and options; I opted for a sun sensor and a remote control too, which we’ll get into.
Somfy Motors: the core of your blinds
There are a few different motor options with your Somfy blinds; there’s the Sonesse 28, Sonesee Ultra 30 and the Sonesse 40. The guts of each motor are very similar; where they differ is in the noise level; the Sonesse 28 is the loudest, but calling it loudest is like calling a piece of paper falling to the floor loud. The motors get progressively more silent from there. The only real noise is a soft hum, which I think anybody could sleep right through. To test them out, though, I had the Sonesse 28 installed in the blind in the office, Sonesee Ultra 30 in the living room and the silent-operation Sonesse 40 used in the bedroom
(sound up of each)
Power, battery life, charging
Each of these blinds is powered by a rechargeable built-in Lithium-Ion battery, which has a powerful lifting capacity. Each one has a removeable charging cable, which means you don’t need to take the blinds or the battery tube down to charge it. An LED Low battery indicator will let you know if you’re running low on juice, as will the app.
Expected battery life of each of these blinds is about a year, but it does depend on how often you’re moving your blinds.
When it’s time you’ll connect the cord to the tiny charging line, and plug it in. Since my blinds are just a couple of months in, I’m nowhere near needing to charge them yet.
You can also add a small solar panel to keep your blinds charged at all times; these are great for extremely tall or hard to reach windows where climbing up to charge would be treacherous.
Somfy Remote Control
If I ever do need to make on the spot adjustments, I’ve left the Somfy 5-channel remote on the dresser, or I’m able to use the app too. This one remote can control all my motorized Somfy blinds at once or each one individually. My Sonata dealer programmed the remote for me, but it’s possible to do yourself if you want to.
Somfy remote app
Digging in on the Somfy remote app, it’s your control centre for all your blinds.
You can do simple open/close operations, create preset favourites, or make what are called Scenes --essentially schedules, or pre-set actions at certain times. Using the app and Scenes is how I set it up for my blinds to open and close at certain times of day, and the process is really easy.
Google/Alexa voice control
If you've got a smart home already and you use Google or Alexa voice control, you can set things up so that your digital assistant can raise or lower the blinds for you.
Set up for this essentially involves going into your digital assistant app of choice, looking for the Somfy skill or brand, and then linking your account. From there you can say simple things like, “OK Google, Living room up.” And the blinds will open.
Overall, I’m super thrilled with my decision to go with Somfy blinds. They are strong and move easily, and all the components seem very durable. The motors are ultra silent; even the one that’s supposed to be the loudest!
I love the versatility of the extra components, like the sun sensor, solar panels and the quick-grab convenience of a physical remote control. The app is also easy to use and program and lets me share control with the whole family.

[@billfong7861]

Nice blinds, Erin. I will have to look at them. Thanks!

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

Thanks Bill! We love them!

[@ronm6585]

Thank you Erin.

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

You bet!

[@douglasboscato1825]

Hello Erin! I have the same blinds that you have on your living room, but with a different brand motor. My question is, somfy motor lets you adjust, let say “open the blinds 50%” or its only full open/close operations? Thank you soo much! And nice blinds 👏🏻👏🏻

[@michellereynolds8813]

So Cool .. Thanks Erin

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

You're most welcome Michelle!

[@leogodreau9505]

They look very nice. I put in Ikea blinds (9 of them upstairs) and they work well but don't look as nice as these. Other than going through the process of finding a local dealer (I checked), is there any pricing available? I still have a basement window to cover and it's quite wide but not very long.

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

Thank you, Leo! There's just so many factors that go into the price; size, motor choice, fabrics, accessories. It's hard to generalize. But I found the dealer very helpful and helped me get to where I wanted to be.

[@Nakameguro97]

Does Somfy use WiFi or some RF to communicate? I previously had Hunter Douglas powered blinds which used radio frequency (RF) - they were extremely unreliable.

[@palachdredd5830]

Hello lovely Erin) 😍 Your charm amazes the heart) 💓 💋💋💋💋💋💋

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

😊 thank you

[@pvherr]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

Thanks Pablo!

[@74357175]

I think we all very much would like to have heard the *price*.

[@SniperUSMC]

Designer is PC for Expensive

[@robgillim]

stick on paper blinds....yeah , you needed new blinds

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

Haha! Yes.

[@baylor3894]

You are a cutie ❤️

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

😊 thank you