Quick on the draw – can Switchbot’s smart Curtain 3 actually change your life for the better?

Working in tech and gaming makes you lazy. True fact. Life is filled with a constant stream of new gadgets and goodies all of which are aimed at making your life easier, often at the expense of moving. True progress, but with certain devices, and we are going to look at one today, true convenience isn’t the most important thing on offer.

I have been generally smartening up Castle McNally for the past 18 months. A variety of Blade Runner-esque lights come on and off as I move between rooms. I can tell you the temperature in my kitchen right now from upstairs in my office, and I get an over-sensitive alert from my doorbell camera every time my neighbour goes to put something in her outside bin. As I say, true progress.

The issue is, and one that is often forgotten about in a truly smart home, is that if I died tomorrow, my wife and kids wouldn’t know how to turn the living room lights on and off. But I am okay with that because home automation is cool.

I have had my eye on smart curtains (I know, I know) for a while now after seeing them at my brother’s new house in when we visited him in North Carolina a while ago. I have especially wanted a solution for my office/games room as the sun can beam directly into my eyeballs during the day and if I am in the middle of doing something, I can now just hit a key combo on my keyboard and the curtains close automatically – but I am jumping ahead of myself here. Where was I, oh yes, Switchbot’s Curtain 3. Let’s have a look.

Not much sounds lazier than automating the process of opening and closing your curtains and, until fairly recently the idea was a pain and required the installation of bespoke curtain rails. Now I put our curtain rods up when we moved in and they were a traumatic experience as we have a big bay window so I was not about to embark upon anything that would compare with that.

Switchbot sent us a set of its Curtains 3 automatic smart curtain devices along with a pair of smart hubs so I could see what I was missing, and how easy it could be to continue to sit on the couch instead of ever getting up.

Charged by USB C ports the Curtain 3 devices are a pair of relatively big white boxes that hook over your curtain pole inside the fold of the end of your curtain (you can also get one with a U-Rail fitting if that’s what you have).

When you activate them (after pairing each side with the app and going through a simple calibration that tells the app where the center of your window is) a motor in the box will whirr into action and push the curtain to either the left or right (depending on whether you are opening or closing them) until they meet in the middle and stop.
There are several modes you can use here, including Quietdrift – a mode that is much slower and almost silent that you can use to open your curtains a few millimeters a minute so as to gradually let the sunlight in and wake you up, or you can use the normal mode which will just pull them quickly open or closed.

The fact the boxes just hook over your existing curtain rod means no DIY is needed and because they are behind the curtain you don’t have any unsightly hardware or extra wiring on show. When you need to charge them again (and I haven’t yet and have been using them for weeks) you just unhook them and plug them in, or trail a USB charger cable to it instead for a bit.

Now beyond the simple drawing and opening of curtains you can schedule in your home automation app of choice what you want them to do. I have mine set to open and close at specific times of the day depending on how light it is outside.

If we go on vacation or away for the weekend the curtains will still close without anybody being there – it’s a bit like Home Alone – and provides extra security and makes your house look occupied, especially with my lights going on and off and the audio from Angels with Dirty Faces blasting out when anybody comes near to door.

My favorite feature though, and the one that for our house at least makes them truly smart is that you don’t need the app to operate your curtains, meaning, unlike all the lights, people can close and open them still even without me being there.

A quick tug on the curtain in the direction you want them to head in will kick the motor into life and they will open or close as if you had swiped your finger on your smartphone in Home Assistant.

You can add a Switchbot Hub into the mix and dispense with the Switchbot app altogether as the Curtain 3 supports Matter so you can add them to Homekit and control them with Siri, Alexa or, like me, dispense with all the spying and integrate them into Home Assistant for a truly smart experience.

Although you can buy Curtain 3 in a 1-pack,  most people will need two, one for each curtain and that will set you back currently $179.99, The hub adds another $70 if you want to add one but also can control other devices and includes geofencing and a wifi Thermometer that provides info your can add elsewhere into your setup. It’s a worthy addition in my opinion, and if you are falling into the smart home black hole, you may already have a set up you want to integrate into, so it then becomes a necessity.

So – Curtain 3 provides much more than basic convenience – it enhances security and is easy to add to your set up. It can wake you up gently to get your day started in the right way, and, most importantly, it freaks out the cat.

If you are looking to enhance your smart home beyond some Nanoleaf lights, check out what Switchbot has to offer.

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