What the Hey.
Effing shade router is not working for the billionth time.
Horrible unreliable and unintuitive
I don't know what else to say. This is hands-down the worst app I've ever used on any iOS system. I could almost forgive the dimwitted set up paradigm if the app functioned reliably once set up was accomplished. But alas ,it does not
Weak Effort
No reason for this app and bride to not connect or integrate with IFTTT or the Harmony Hub. Their new power view will connect with the harmony hub. My blinds are not even a year old and I can’t upgrade to power view. No excuse for such poor customer service!
Buggy and primitive
The app has some useful features like setting up rooms and preset positions but it bugs out often. About half the time, the app switches by itself between the opening page and the shades page, preventing you from selecting an option. Small fixes by Hunter Douglas could make this a great app.
Horrible
This is the worst setup imaginable. Hopefully you'll read this before buying and instead buy the competitions product. This is the least convenient automatic window treatment/blinds setup I've ever experienced. Wish I never bought.
Too Many Constraints
There are three artificial constraints within this app – hence the negative review. Two of them are simply an annoyance, and a workaround for each can be [somewhat] easily developed. The third, scheduling, defeats the intent of the app – the only workaround is integration into a home automation system, such as Control4; or manually making adjustments every few weeks, thus reverting an app back into a manual system.
The scheduling component of the app allows for specific time of day, or one hour before/after sunrise and sunset. That is unacceptable in the Denver, Colorado metro area (ironically where HD automation is headquartered) where, if you have high windows facing the mountains, the sun needs to be blocked at least three hours before sunset (especially in the summer). Their recommendation of using a specific time of day and then adjusting that every couple of weeks is nonsense – change the app!
The constraint of only allowing eight shades can be easily worked around. In our case we have “great room upper” as one room, and “great room lower” as another. It’s a pain, but it’s workable (does require some advance planning, however). The other constraint is really a programming issue – it seems the DB commit is only performed when you hit the back button on the bottom of the screen. Since setting up rooms and scenes is not something that is done all the time (and making a mistake is hopefully even less often), it really is only a pain when initially setting up the system (or re-programming).
My only other complaint is the lack of documentation on the platinum bridge – which is not part of this app – but it’s what the app relies upon. In our case we couldn’t get the app to work at all until we figured out how to wipe out everything and start over.
The scheduling component of the app allows for specific time of day, or one hour before/after sunrise and sunset. That is unacceptable in the Denver, Colorado metro area (ironically where HD automation is headquartered) where, if you have high windows facing the mountains, the sun needs to be blocked at least three hours before sunset (especially in the summer). Their recommendation of using a specific time of day and then adjusting that every couple of weeks is nonsense – change the app!
The constraint of only allowing eight shades can be easily worked around. In our case we have “great room upper” as one room, and “great room lower” as another. It’s a pain, but it’s workable (does require some advance planning, however). The other constraint is really a programming issue – it seems the DB commit is only performed when you hit the back button on the bottom of the screen. Since setting up rooms and scenes is not something that is done all the time (and making a mistake is hopefully even less often), it really is only a pain when initially setting up the system (or re-programming).
My only other complaint is the lack of documentation on the platinum bridge – which is not part of this app – but it’s what the app relies upon. In our case we couldn’t get the app to work at all until we figured out how to wipe out everything and start over.
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Don't waste your $375... Or even $1
Deserves NO stars. This is the crappiest home automation equipment/app I've ever used! It's worse than x10 products in the '90s. Glitchy, buggy, half works half the time. So that's a generous 25%. Will drive you crazy guaranteed. Oh... AND it's NOT a remote connection - only works from the app IF you're on the same wifi network as the bridge AND it's NOT internet connected. Buyer beware!!!
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Awful
Looks like it was written by a school kid at the weekend.
Have to work at it but it is solid after that.
We have 26 powered duet shades in our home, with five rooms and six scenes. We have them programmed to simultaneously close all west facing windows in three rooms for sun protection, and then open again 25 minutes prior to sunset. Out of the 9 west facing windows across three rooms, occasionally one will not operate - it seems to just miss seeing the close command, But I would say that 98% of the time it operates perfectly.
When I recently added another scene for the four south facing windows to do something similar, I encountered a problem in that when one south facing window was commanded closed by the app, an unrelated window would close also. Calling Customer support got me right through, and they suggested a “hard reset” on both of these window shades.
First delete the shades from the app. Hold the shade manual button down for 10-15 seconds until two jogs of the shade took place. Note on the first jog the shade will stop moving, but keep holding the button down until the second jog takes place. That will wipe out programming for that shade from the hand-held or wall switch. Then add the shade back into remote / wall-switch, and add the shade back into your room within the app. That solved the problem.
I have to recalculate sunset every 2-3 weeks within the app, but other than that I am very satisfied with the product. Note our bridge is centrally located to the house, and have found I need two repeaters to reliably reach the most remote shade locations.
I did note they have a new product to replace the platinum app that is not compatible with my current shades. Phone support says they will continue to support the older version of shades, but they could not speak to anymore software updates in the future.
When I recently added another scene for the four south facing windows to do something similar, I encountered a problem in that when one south facing window was commanded closed by the app, an unrelated window would close also. Calling Customer support got me right through, and they suggested a “hard reset” on both of these window shades.
First delete the shades from the app. Hold the shade manual button down for 10-15 seconds until two jogs of the shade took place. Note on the first jog the shade will stop moving, but keep holding the button down until the second jog takes place. That will wipe out programming for that shade from the hand-held or wall switch. Then add the shade back into remote / wall-switch, and add the shade back into your room within the app. That solved the problem.
I have to recalculate sunset every 2-3 weeks within the app, but other than that I am very satisfied with the product. Note our bridge is centrally located to the house, and have found I need two repeaters to reliably reach the most remote shade locations.
I did note they have a new product to replace the platinum app that is not compatible with my current shades. Phone support says they will continue to support the older version of shades, but they could not speak to anymore software updates in the future.
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Platinum customers dumped
This app is such a shame given the high-end market Hunter Douglas is trying to maintain. What it appears is that those customers with the Platinum system blinds have been dumped for any future significant development of this app and Hunter Douglas's R&D is going solely into its new PowerView blinds (and PowerView app). The app for that system is polished and what one would expect from this company. There is no reason Hunter Douglas can't make these improvements for the Platinum line and improve this app. Since the Platinum blinds aren't compatible with the PowerView app I guess I'm expected to buy all new blinds if I want the sleek new app. Absurd. No loyalty to current customers and this app with no future reflects that. Can't you give us at least the ability to modify the bridge IP so we can access the app remotely!?
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