Tip Of The Week from Designer Blinds #6

The Owner's Guide is
included with every order.

Use the Remote Control To
Reset the upper and lower limits.

Silhouette PowerRise

Silhouette PowerRise is helping to bring motorized products to a much wider group of consumers. While it is a relatively trouble-free product, there are a few things that dealers, installers and consumers need to be aware of. Most of the information can be found in the Owner's Guide/Operating and Installation Instructions booklet that comes with every order of PowerRise. In this article, I will highlight a two of the most common issues that arise: Vane Alignment and Resetting the Upper and Lower Limits.

First, there are just a couple of notes to make over what's new in Silhouette PowerRise. On the Satellite Battery Pack, the size of the shortest wire length has been changed to 15" (it was 16" before). For the Satellite Eye, the shortest available wire length has been increased from 16" to 20. Additionally a new component has been added, the AC Transformer with a 16-foot wire. This transformer plugs into a standard electrical outlet and makes it possible to install Silhouette PowerRise shadings without having to use batteries at all! Just remember that each PowerRise shade would need its own set of batteries or the AC Transformer.

The AC Transformer — is also available on Duette PowerRise)

Vane Alignment

Hunter Douglas recently released a Technical Bulletin advising that Silhouette PowerRise shadings cannot be guaranteed to have perfect vane alignment due to the nature of the motor that is used. Here is the wording from that bulletin:

"The Silhouette with PowerRise is a battery operated system that is subject to voltage variation with the age of the alkaline batteries. Due to this, during normal operation, customers who have side-by-side applications will see a difference in vane alignment

"The Motors can stop in slightly different positions, depending on when the signal from the remote control is received by the infrared eye. This situation applies when the shading is either raised or lowered or when the vanes are tilted open or closed."

What this boils down to is that we have to make sure our customers understand that there will always be variations in the PowerRise vanes due to the inherent properties of battery operation. Don't forget that there is a hard-wired motorized Silhouette available that will give better vane alignment results. It is a more expensive product, but works very reliably.

Resetting the Upper and Lower Limits

From time to time the upper and lower limits on a Silhouette will need to be reset - a very simple procedure. This is necessary because of the way the motor functions.

The Upper Limit

Reset the UPPER LIMIT when the bottom rail does not raise fully into the headrail. To reset the limit and clear the memory, just raise the shading to its highest point. Using the remote control press the up arrow and hold it for about five seconds. The bottom rail will move up slightly and you will be able to hear the motor operate briefly. That's it. The upper limit has now been reset. Note: resetting the upper limit will clear any memory stop settings.

The Lower Limit

Reset the LOWER LIMIT when the vanes do not fully open or close. To reset the lower limit, press the down button on the remote control to lower the shading. When the shading stops, press the down button on the remote control to open the vanes. When the vanes are fully opened, press and hold the down button for about five seconds. The vanes will move to an over-rotated position. This resets the bottom limit and the vanes will now rotate as expected.

NOTE: Limits can only be reset using the remote control. The manual control button on the shade or the satellite eye will not perform a reset.