SwitchBot Blind Tilt: Making your dumb blinds smart

SwitchBot Blind Tilt. Picture: SwitchBot.

SwtcthBot continues its mission to make our homes smarter by finding clever ways of motorising and automating everyday items such as curtains, switches and now vertical blinds. I’ve been testing the SwitchBot Blind Tilt for the last month to see how well it works and if it’s worth the investment.

Design

The SwitchBot Blind Tilt will only work on vertical blinds to change the tilt of the slats from open to closed up and down but it can’t pull up the blinds altogether. Your blinds also have to have a wand that twists and this is what the Blind Tilt is installed onto so that it can do its magic. The kit comes with all the necessary bits you’ll need to mount onto the wand along with a small solar panel that should in theory charge the internal battery on the Blind Tilt as well as assist with the light sensing feature.

Installation and setup

The kit comes with three clamp sizes to ensure you get a good fit for your particular wand. The Blind Tilt then hangs off the top of the blind with the preinstalled sticky tabs and screws — I found it didn’t need the screws, so I didn’t use them.

The solar panel has a cable that connects to the USB-C port on the Blind Tilt and I then mounted it near the window to maximise light hitting the panel. You can charge the Blind Tilt manually too and I found at this time of year, the solar panel wasn’t charging it. In the month I’ve been using it, the battery has only dropped by 10%.

The SwitchBot app is needed to control the Blind Tilt and adding it to the app is quick and easy. You’ll first need to create a free SwitchBot account if you don’t have one already and then go through a calibration routine to teach the Blind Tilt the fully open and closed positions. It does this by spinning the wand clockwise and anticlockwise using the internal motor.

Your phone connects with the Blind Tilt via Bluetooth and you can purchase an optional two-button remote so that you can have to reach for your phone each time you want to open or close the blinds. You can also set schedules to have them open first thing in the morning and last thing at night too.

A light sensing feature is an interesting option that uses the solar panel to detect the amount of light entering the window and then adjust the blind slats to allow more or less light in. I found this feature a little confusing to figure out, but with a little trial and error, I got it to work.

Voice control

If you have a SwitchBot Hub Mini, you can utilise the device, like with other SwitchBot devices, through a Wi-Fi connection and, consequently, with Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, and IFTTT. The Hub is relatively inexpensive for what it does because you can also use it to control other devices such as your TV, projector or any device that uses an IR remote control.

Verdict

The SwitchBot Blind Tilt is a great solution for those who want to make their existing vertical blinds smart. I found it extremely useful in my home office to be able to control the amount of light entering the room. In the afternoon, if the sun is out, the direct sunlight creates a lot of glare and being able to control the blind tilt remotely is amazing. The light sensing feature should be more useful in the summer when I’ll be able to test this feature more extensively — the last month has had very little sunshine so I wasn't able to use it much.

SwitchBot Blind Tilt - €69.99 SwitchBot