We’re going to do a quick review of smart outdoor motorised shades from Weffort — another brand that makes smart shades compatible with popular Smart Home platforms, including Home Assistant, SmartThings, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and Amazon Alexa.
The cool thing about Weffort’s shades is that everything’s fully customisable and made-to-order — from the fabric and motors to casing styles, size, and the Smart Home platform you want to use with. With various options, it might sound complicated at first (usually people just let a pro handle it), but it’s actually way easier than you think. Plus, the shades are lightweight, so you can totally install them by yourself.
Custom-made shades
Before we got the test unit from Weffort, they let us locate a good spot for installation and testing so that we could take measurements following the guide on their website, which also has tips on choosing materials, installation, measurements, and maintenance.
Weffort has over nine types of shades — roller, zebra, honeycomb (cellular), outdoor, Roman, dual/combination, and more. They even let you order fabric samples to check them out before deciding.
There are two motor options: a plug-in version or a built-in lithium battery version. You can control the shades with a simple IR remote or fancy Smart Home mobile apps using popular standards like Zigbee, Matter, Apple HomeKit or Z-Wave.
You can configure everything up yourself on their website then place the order. About 2 weeks, your customised shade will arrive at your door.
Since different motors support different Smart Home platforms, check the chart below for what works with what.
For this review, we went with an outdoor shade to test out. It’s got a built-in battery motor and uses Matter over Thread connectivity, the latest Smart Home technology. Since there were no power outlets nearby, we hooked it up with a solar panel to keep the battery charged.
We installed it outside the bedroom, where we wanted privacy and some light filtering at night. In the end, we went with black fabric with just 1% openness to fit our needs.
Before writing this review, we actually used it for over three weeks — from DIY installing a nearly 3-meter-wide shade, measuring how well it filtered the outside light, measuring the noise level while it runs. We also set up automations to control and link it with other smart home devices in order to meet our daily requirements .
Let’s dive into the details.
Weffort outdoor smart shade unboxing
The received package was well-protected and shipped via DHL, surrounded by shock-absorbing materials. Once unboxed, everything appeared to be in perfect condition.
There was only one long box, and everything was neatly packed inside — including:
- The shade rail and fabric
- An installation manual
- A remote programming guide
- A Smart Home (Matter) setup guide
- A battery charging cable
- Screws, wall plugs, and 4 mounting brackets
- An IR remote control
- A power adapter
- A guide tail
- A compact solar panel
We checked the fabric quality. It is premium and well-made. The shade rail appears to be sturdy in black aluminium, surprisingly it’s lightweight despite being over 2.5+ meters width and almost 3 meters height.
Motor and solar panel specifications
Since this product is made-to-order and customised according to the customer’s request, the specifications below refer specifically to the Matter / Thread motorised version, which differs from other motor types
- Connectivity – Matter / Thread
- Motor torque -1.1 N / 24 rpm
- Chipset – Unspecified Nordic Semi nRF microcontrollers
- Battery – 3x 18650 cells (2600 mAh each)
- Charging time – Approximately 4–6 hours per full charge
- Battery life – One charge lasts up to 6 months (1 open/close cycle per day)
- LED indicator – Flashing green = charging, Solid green = fully charged
- Standby current – 1A
- Nominal voltage – 12V
Solar panel specifications:
- Efficiency – 22%
- Open-circuit Voltage (Voc) – 22.4V
- Short-circuit Current (Isc) – 252mA
- Operating voltage (Vm) – 17.6V
- Operating current (Im) – 227mA
- Power – 4.0W
Shade installation
The shade rail comes with four mounting brackets (refer to image below). These brackets will be attached to the outside wall of the bedroom window — right on the white cement frame by using the screws and wall plugs that came with. We just make sure all four brackets are evenly spaced and perfectly level so the weight is well distributed.
Once the brackets are secured, simply snap the shade rail into place. Push it in until you hear a click sound — that means it’s locked in. For our setup, the motor was configured to be on the left side, where we connected the solar panel’s charging cable. The panel sits right where it gets plenty of sunlight during the day.
After completed mounting the shade, we woke it up by pressing a small button (it’s shipped in sleep mode for safety during transport). Then we paired it with the included IR remote, and adjusted the upper and lower limits using the remote buttons. Finally, we added the shade to our Smart Home system, testing it with Home Assistant, a very popular open-source platform.
The whole installation took less than 30 minutes and just one person could do it easily. Honestly, it was way simpler than expected — and best of all, it potentially saved the installation costs too.
Testing Weffort smart shade with Home Assistant
The motor we chose was the Matter / Thread version. We originally wanted to try the Zigbee model, but since there’s a Wi-Fi access point nearby (less than 3 meters away) and Matter works over IPv6, it just made more sense to go with Matter / Thread. If we had gone with Zigbee, we’d have had to add an extra Zigbee repeater in that area — so yeah, Matter / Thread it is.
Setup was super simple, just like most Matter devices. You just scan the QR code on the rail from Home Assistant Companion on iOS to add it. This is also the same way, no matter what Smart Home platform you’re using (see image below).
For Home Assistant environment, here’s the setup we used:
- Raspberry Pi 4B (8GB RAM)
- Home Assistant Core v2025.6.3
- Home Assistant OS 15.2
Since Thread requires a Thread Border Router to manage devices on the network, in this test we used an Apple HomePod mini running the latest OS26 as thread border router.
After finishing the setup, all the entities showed up nicely in the Home Assistant dashboard (as you can see in the image below). We then tested opening and closing the shade using the Home Assistant Companion app on our iPhone — and everything worked perfectly, just as expected.
Of course, we also created some automations to make the shade open and close automatically base on our condition. For example, it opens every morning at 6AM and closes two hours before bedtime (based on the schedule we set).
The window we installed it on is a sliding type, so there’s nothing blocking the shade’s path. That means we don’t need to write any extra automation to check for obstructions — unlike our previous review, where we installed it on a swing door and had to add a door sensor to prevent the shade from jamming or getting damaged.
You can create a lot more creative with automations too. For instance, you could use room temperature as a trigger, say if the bedroom temperature goes above 33°C, the shade automatically closes to block sunlight and cool down the room. Or if an outdoor wind sensor detects wind speeds over 40 km/h, the shade could open fully to prevent damage from strong gusts.
We also tried to search for a nicer-looking dashboard card that works well with this shade that looks better than the default one. And we found the Enhanced Shutter Card on GitHub. It lets you use a real photo of your window as the background, which looks great and is actually super handy too. You can easily drag your finger up or down on the photo to open or close to certain position.
Check out the video below to see it in action:
Next, we tested the battery. According to Weffort’s specs, if we open and close the shade once a day, a full charge lithium battery should last almost 6 months. We kept an eye on the battery while it was charging via the included solar panel after installation. Even with just one open/close per day, the battery had plenty of power. It kept charging every day, even though the panel wasn’t in direct sunlight and it was the rainy season during our test.
After over three weeks of use, the battery never dropped below 90%. We’re quite impressed with the power management, which is most likely helped by Thread technology, designed to use less energy than other protocols.
The next testing was the privacy and light filtering — refer to image below.
The picture on the left was taken inside the bedroom at dawn. We opened the shade only 25% to show how much light comes in. It doesn’t block 100% of the light, but it does a pretty good job of reducing it. This is great if you’re sensitive to light while sleeping.
The picture on the right shows the privacy test, taken from outside the bedroom at dusk. It provides a good level of privacy. We chose a 1% openness fabric, which is basically the least see-through option.
The last test was the noise measurement while the shade motor was running. The test was done in the morning, right after waking up (~6AM), which is usually the quietest time in the test area. We used a mobile app (dBMeter on iOS) to measure dB level. The result? The motor is super quiet, about the same as normal conversation (~40–50 dB). Definitely won’t wake you up when the shade opens.
Conclusion
We ended up spending quite a bit of time testing since our hectic schedule before writing this review. The good thing is that we really use it in real life for longer than usual. Overall, we believe Weffort makes really good smart shades. The overall experience from easy step-by-step configuration, shipping, installation guides, and support from them was all smooth.
We loved the customisation options, quality of fabric as well as rail, and the lightweight yet sturdy aluminium rail. Its operation’s really quiet — even in the bedroom where you’d easily notice any noise. Lastly, it can be self-installed in under 30 minutes.
Integration with Home Assistant was flawless, although we encountered the unavailable status of the device; however, it was likely an issue with the Matter/ Thread network. Honestly, we barely used the included IR remote since automations handled almost everything nicely. You can also combine it into sensors like temperature, wind, or light — it really depends on how creative you are.
In the end, we feel that Weffort shades combine intelligence and elegance in one package. The only downside? Quality stuff never comes cheap, as their price is pretty premium.
Big thanks to Weffort for sending us the motorised smart outdoor shades to review. You can order the same shades from Amazon or their official website (use Creator8 coupon for an 8% discount), choosing your preferred shade type, fabric, size, and other options.
Computer Engineering who previously worked with multinational IT company, rich experience in IT infrastructure, has a passion on Internet Of Thing i.e., Smart Home, Smart Farm as well as interested on Sustainability such as renewable energy, organic farming
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