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Smart curtain openers are the heroes we didn’t know we needed—but they’re the ones we deserve. These little battery-powered robots handle the tedious daily ritual of opening and closing curtains, and they retrofit easily to existing rods and tracks. Easy Blackout Curtains
By tapping an app or talking to a smart speaker, you can open or close your curtains as necessary. Better yet, put them on a schedule, and they’ll automatically cycle at your preferred times.
Though smart curtain openers may seem to be a frivolous luxury, like a lot of smart devices they not only make life more convenient but are also especially helpful for anyone who has mobility or accessibility issues.
This powerful and quiet curtain opener is widely compatible with most curtain styles and supports solar charging.
This easy-to-install opener is especially fast and smooth, has a long-lived battery, and offers a heavy-duty design that should last.
The SwitchBot Curtain 3 is the best smart curtain opener, as it combines a quiet, powerful motor capable of hoisting even heavy curtains with a low-key, unobtrusive design. It’s compatible with all of the major smart-home platforms, it supports most styles of curtains and curtain rods, and you can tack on a solar-panel accessory for additional convenience.
Our runner-up, the Aqara Curtain Driver E1, has a faster motor and is easier to install, but it works with fewer styles of curtains, has a bulkier design, is louder in operation, and has no solar-charging accessory.
This powerful and quiet curtain opener is widely compatible with most curtain styles and supports solar charging.
Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Matter
The SwitchBot Curtain 3 offers reliable performance, a subtler design, and a quieter motor than the competition. And because this third-generation SwitchBot model works with grommet, ring-top, back-tab, and tab-top curtains, it’s the most flexible model we tested and the overwhelming best option for most people.
We also recommend investing a little extra in the solar-panel accessory, which should save you from having to recharge the battery (though in some setups the add-on may be visible, which could be a dealbreaker for some people). Otherwise, you need to recharge the batteries using a plug. SwitchBot says that the batteries should last about eight months; we’re keeping tabs on how good that estimate is.
The Curtain 3 requires a compatible hub for remote access and voice control—without a hub you’re confined to using it like a basic motorized curtain. SwitchBot sells two hubs, the Matter-compatible SwitchBot Hub 2 and the SwitchBot Hub Mini.
This easy-to-install opener is especially fast and smooth, has a long-lived battery, and offers a heavy-duty design that should last.
Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Matter
The Aqara Curtain Driver E1 has a powerful motor that can operate even the heaviest curtains. It installs especially easily and has a rechargeable battery that Aqara says should last a year, but unlike SwitchBot, Aqara doesn’t offer the option of a solar charger. The E1 isn’t compatible with as many types of rod-style curtains as the SwitchBot Curtain 3 is, and the included clips and plastic strip that you install for grommet-style curtains stand out more than the SwitchBot model’s pieces.
The Aqara Hub M2 is required to enable smart capabilities, including app access and voice control. The Curtain Driver E1 supports Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Matter, but we found it especially easy to set up with Apple Home, thanks to Aqara’s Apple Home–enabled hub.
For a decade I covered smart-home technology at CNET. I’ve wrangled robot vacuums, jumped inside washing machines, hated on smart displays, and appeared in videos as a creepy electrician and Santa—for science.
Smart curtain openers provide a streamlined way to rid yourself of the small daily chore of closing and opening curtains. Once you install the device, you can easily schedule it to open and close your curtains at a set time every day as part of your daily routine, to help manage natural light, or to mimic being home when you’re on vacation. They’re also good devices for older adults or anyone who has limited mobility or dexterity. These gizmos offer potential energy savings, as well, by helping to insulate your windows from unwanted outside air.
The smart curtain openers we tested aren’t exactly cheap—they start around $90 a pop, and you need one opener per curtain panel, plus a hub if you want maximum smart capabilities such as remote access or voice control. Still, getting one or several of these devices is much more cost effective than completely replacing your curtains with motorized models, such as the dealer-installed Somfy Irismo 45 WireFree RTS system.
Sometimes, smart curtain openers are sold in multipacks or bundled with a hub or other accessories at a slight discount. If your window has two curtain panels, you’ll need two curtain openers.
Depending on how see-through your curtains are, you might be able to see a curtain opener through them even if they are fully closed, which some people may find unappealing. Also, if you have grommet, ring-top, or tab-top curtains, you will see where the bot attaches to the curtain rod at the top, which, again, may be aesthetically off-putting for some folks.
Before buying, be sure to check the diameter of your curtain rod against the requirements for each individual curtain bot. The SwitchBot Curtain 3 is compatible with curtain rods ranging from 0.59 to 1.57 inches in diameter, while the Aqara Curtain Driver E1 works with a smaller range of 0.98 to 1.26 inches in diameter. The SwitchBot model also works with telescopic rod styles.
Curtain openers have weight limitations, which may be an issue if your curtains are particularly heavy-duty fabric or especially wide. The rod version of the SwitchBot Curtain 3 is designed to move up to 33 pounds; its rail version promises to handle a little over 35 pounds. Each Aqara Curtain Driver E1 model can handle around 26.5 pounds of material.
We researched a wide variety of models and features when choosing which smart curtain openers to review. Any opener we selected to test needed to include the following features:
Along with those requirements, we also wanted any smart curtain opener to offer additional capabilities, such as:
When testing smart curtain openers, we looked for the following:
I installed the curtain openers and then set them up using the native app, after which I also paired them with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri using the respective smart-platform apps or native capabilities on an iPhone 14 Plus. My network relies on an Eero 6+ as a Thread border router, and I used an Amazon Echo Dot With Clock, an Apple HomePod Mini, and a Google Nest Hub Max as Matter controllers. For test curtains I used a rod-style holder with two curtain panels.
I installed and used each smart curtain opener and considered the ease—or difficulty—of the installation, as well as the companion app. I paid particular attention to the mechanical aspects of the openers, such as how quickly they opened, how loud or quiet their motors were, and how smoothly they operated.
I also placed my phone in the same position and distance from each opener and then used a decibel-meter app to measure how loud each model was. The SwitchBot Curtain 3 registered at 55 decibels running normally and dropped the noise to just 31 decibels in its QuietDrift mode. I measured Aqara’s Curtain Driver E1 at 52 decibels when it was operating normally.
I also created an Automation that opened and closed the curtains when an integrated light sensor detected a certain level of light. The Aqara model has a built-in light sensor; the SwitchBot opener doesn’t, but its optional solar panel has one built in that works the same way.
This powerful and quiet curtain opener is widely compatible with most curtain styles and supports solar charging.
The SwitchBot Curtain 3 gives you the best mix of features for a smart curtain opener, offering a streamlined design that isn’t distracting when it’s mounted on the window-facing side, reliable performance, and an especially quiet motor (when it’s in QuietDrift mode; more on that below).
Designed to work with any curtain rod from 0.59 inch to 1.57 inches in diameter, the rod version of the Curtain 3 is more flexible than any other system we tested. SwitchBot also sells a U-rail version (an I-rail model is coming but not yet available). The Curtain 3 is the only model we tested that works with telescopic curtain rods too, and it comes with a Rod Connector adapter, which we didn’t need to use in our testing.
In the package, SwitchBot includes an assortment of clips and a chain, which you may need depending on the style of curtains you have. A SwitchBot representative told me that the clips are especially beneficial to prevent snagging when you’re using the device with a grommet-style curtain.
It won’t interrupt a conversation. In normal operation, the SwitchBot Curtain 3 runs with just a slight hum—the sound isn’t jarring, but you can definitely tell when the device has been triggered. (The same is true for the Aqara Curtain Driver E1.) In my tests, the sound wasn’t loud enough to wake my napping son when the curtains closed on schedule as the intense late-afternoon sun streaked through the window.
However, the Curtain 3 also has what SwitchBot calls QuietDrift, which is designed to make the opening and closing movements all but undetectable. And it works: In that mode the SwitchBot opener was 24 decibels quieter than in normal mode when I measured it with a sound-meter app 1 foot away from the device. It’s quiet enough that you could sleep through it—and I often did when the curtain automatically opened in the morning.
In the QuietDrift mode, the opener didn’t exactly hit the 25-decibel claim on SwitchBot’s site, but a decibel reading in the low 30s indicates a significant drop, enough that the sound moves well into the background.
The reason it’s quieter, however, is that QuietDrift is slow—really slow. My two 50-inch-wide curtain panels took about 10 seconds longer to open or close with the device in QuietDrift compared with the normal setting. In most situations this will be fine, as it basically becomes a background motion that you barely notice.
The main caveat is that QuietDrift works only for Schedules and Automations, so it doesn’t work when you’re opening and closing the curtains on demand in the app, through voice assistants, or with the remote. In addition, enabling QuietDrift drains the batteries faster (another reason to invest in SwitchBot’s solar-panel accessory).
SwitchBot says that the device’s 3,350 mAh battery should last for as long as eight months (specs spreadsheet) before needing to be charged. Aqara claims that the 6,400 mAh battery in the Curtain Driver E1 will work for up to one year.
Be prepared to invest in accessories. The Curtain 3 isn’t really smart unless you also buy the $70 SwitchBot Hub 2, which adds remote access and the full range of smart-home options, including voice control. Without a hub, you’re limited to controlling the Curtain 3 by Bluetooth, within a range of roughly 30 feet or less, and you don’t have the ability to create Automations or control the device remotely.
SwitchBot also sells a compatible solar charger (about $25 per opener, or sold in a pack of two for about $50 or four for nearly $100), which is worth the investment: The solar charger eliminates worries about changing or recharging batteries, and it has a built-in light sensor, which you can use for creating Automations. After you plug in the solar panel and straighten its connector arm, the app automatically recognizes the accessory, showing a little sun on the battery display icon.
Unfortunately, the solar panel, which measures 7 inches tall by 3 inches wide, is large enough to be visible through the window. You can play around with placement to reduce its visibility from outside.
SwitchBot says that the solar charger requires at least three hours of direct sunlight to truly eliminate the need for you to charge the battery. I got about five hours of direct light in my testing location.
The $20 SwitchBot Remote isn’t a must-have but may be useful in situations where a member of the household doesn’t want to use an app or speak voice commands to a smart speaker.
You can mostly hide the magic. When installed, the Curtain 3 itself is fully hidden from people inside the house, staying behind most curtains, which is terrific—these things aren’t meant to be a distraction. But that depends on the fabric of your curtains: If you have gauzy, light-filtering material instead of something opaque, you might be able to see the silhouette of the Curtain 3, and that goes double for the solar-panel charger, which is distracting. If your curtains aren’t see-through, you should be able to hide all the gadgetry, but if you can’t do that, you may be unhappy with the result.
Installation should be easier. Each SwitchBot Curtain 3 has two hooked arms that snap onto the curtain rod. (SwitchBot gave this design an excellent name, calling it DynamiClamp.) You can remove the arms from the main part of the curtain opener by pressing the tab on each side of the unit. SwitchBot suggests removing one of the arms during installation, so you start by hooking one arm on the curtain rod attached to the main robot; once that’s in place, you attach the second arm and connect everything together. Installing the curtain opener in this order is supposed to make things easier, but the arms don’t have much give and are kind of stubborn when you try to position them correctly, a task that could be a challenge or require assistance depending on your level of dexterity and mobility.
Setting up Apple Home with Matter was clunky. The SwitchBot Hub 2 works with Matter, but the setup in the app is still in beta, and we found the process tedious. Note that the Matter protocol in general is still in its early days, and getting everything up and running poses a learning curve.
The process involves performing a reset and finding and copying a code—and then, after all that, Matter sees each of the sensors in the Curtain 3 system as a distinct device, which can be confusing. For example, the SwitchBot Hub 2 has humidity and temperature sensors, so in Apple’s Home app they appear in the list as “Matter Accessory,2” and “Matter Accessory,3.” Here’s hoping that future updates will smooth the process out.
Review SwitchBot’s privacy statement for more information.
This easy-to-install opener is especially fast and smooth, has a long-lived battery, and offers a heavy-duty design that should last.
The Aqara Curtain Driver E1 is well designed, easy to install, and made to fit seamlessly on any curtain rod between 0.98 and 1.26 inches in diameter. It’s also a fast-moving robot with an estimated battery life of up to one year, in contrast to SwitchBot’s expected eight months (specs spreadsheet) for the Curtain 3. This Aqara model uses a 6,400 mAh rechargeable battery, while the SwitchBot opener is outfitted with a smaller, 3,350 mAh rechargeable battery.
The Curtain Driver E1 is available in curtain rod ($100 each) and track versions ($90 each). For either style you need the $60 Aqara Hub M2 to enable smart functionality. Connecting it to Apple Home simply requires scanning a code found on the bottom of the hub; in our tests, doing so was notably easier than connecting the SwitchBot hub to Matter.
The $18 Aqara Wireless Mini Switch is a remote-control unit that you may consider if members of your household don’t have access to (or interest in using) smartphone apps.
Installation is blissfully easy. Unlike the process with the SwitchBot Curtain 3, installing the Aqara Curtain Driver E1 is simple. It relies on a hook design that rises and lowers with just a couple of button presses.
Pressing a button twice on top of the Curtain Driver E1 releases a pair of hooks. After you put the robot on top of the curtain rod and press the button twice again, the hooks move back into position and lock around the rod. The Aqara robot senses where it needs to stop when it reaches the curtain rod, creating a more custom fit than you can get from the SwitchBot design’s roller arms, which have more play.
Like the Curtain 3, the Curtain Driver E1 comes with clips to attach to the curtain rings or elsewhere, depending on the type of curtains you have. Instead of a chain like the one that SwitchBot provides, Aqara includes a long plastic strip with holes, which are meant to connect to each of the clips and then the curtain rings; Aqara specifically recommends using these for grommet-style curtains (PDF).
Unfortunately, using the plastic strip and clips fails the “unobtrusive design” test. The result wasn’t merely noticeable—it looked bad. Once I installed everything, I went back and spent a few extra minutes tweaking the setup to better hide the strips and clips, but some people may be unhappy about having to do that.
Hartley Charlton of MacRumors had the same concern: “The instruction manual suggests using the clips and strip along the top of a curtain, presumably to help the motor pull it along uniformly, but I found this fiddly and unsightly, with the clips scraping along my ceiling, so I left them off and this didn’t seem to affect the motor’s ability to pull the curtain at all.”
In my installation the plastic strip did not scrape the ceiling.
It gives you privacy in a hurry. I can’t think of a scenario where you might especially need fast-opening curtains, but if you are into dramatically closing your curtains, this Aqara device can help. In our tests, the Aqara Curtain Driver E1 reached the finish line as the SwitchBot Curtain 3 continued to putter along contentedly.
Granted, the difference was a matter of seconds, but thanks to that speed, the Aqara unit seemed more responsive to commands, without feeling too rough or threatening to damage the curtain rod in its zeal to open or close.
It works with only two types of rod curtains. Whereas SwitchBot’s rod-style robot works with grommet, ring-top, back-tab, and tab-top curtain styles, the rod-version Aqara Curtain Driver E1 supports only grommet and ring-top curtain styles. If you have one of those types of rod curtains, you’re good. If not, don’t expect to be able to rig this opener up so that it’ll work with your curtains—it won’t.
The Aqara Curtain Driver E1 (track version) is another model that works with both U-rail and I-rail curtain styles.
Aqara offers an optional smart remote. The $18 Aqara Wireless Mini Switch provides a way for people to access the smart features sans smartphone. You can program the switch with up to three functions, so you can have it simply open and close your curtains, for example, or set it to trigger a Scene in which, say, the curtains close and your smart lights turn on. It’s a nice alternative to reaching for a phone, especially as you can change its programming easily.
One problem I had, though, is that no matter how hard I tried, I could not open the slotted battery compartment as intended. And other people seem to have experienced the same problem. The best advice in that linked Reddit thread suggests sticking the adhesive on the back of the remote to something and then turning the remote. This tactic worked for me, but it’s way too much effort to open a simple battery door to replace the included Panasonic CR2032 coin cell battery.
Review Aqara’s privacy statement for more information.
The Somfy Irismo 45 WireFree RTS is another interesting option for smart curtain control, but instead of a little gizmo that retrofits to an existing curtain rod or track, this system includes a rod and an integrated smart motor. Because this device is in a different category, we don’t currently plan to test it.
This article was edited by Jon Chase and Grant Clauser.
Megan Wollerton is a product tester and an award-winning feature writer. Previously she spent a decade at CNET reviewing all manner of gear and writing long stories about nature. Before that, she blogged for NBC's Syfy Channel. When she isn’t overusing the em dash, Megan is either spending time outside or tracking down the best desserts in a 100-mile radius.
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