Whole house smart blinds

[Austinauto]

I'm in the middle of planning to outfit my entire house with motorized smart blinds. The dream was to go with Lutron, but after pricing it out the numbers are just way outside my budget. For a whole home setup, it's hard to justify that kind of spend, even though I know their quality and integration are top notch.
Because of that, I've been looking at sourcing directly from China. There are a handful of manufacturers offering tubular motors and smart controllers that claim to integrate with Alexa, Google, or even Home Assistant. The catch, of course, is figuring out which ones are reliable long term, how noisy they are, and whether the software side actually plays nice in a real world setup

 

[MysteryBook]

@Austinauto I think you really have to be careful. The quality can be a complete gamble.
The most important thing is to find a manufacturer that uses a reliable communication protocol.
Look for a company that offers motors that work with Zigbee or Z-Wave.
These are open standards, and devices that use them are almost always more reliable and easier to integrate with Home Assistant than proprietary Wi-Fi only devices that rely on a manufacturer's specific app.

 

[kitchenlights_79]

I'm not sure about this. Have you found any that run quietly and work well with Home Assistant without needing the internet? Also wondering if anyone's checked how long the batteries last or had problems with software updates.