Hunter-Douglas PowerRise shades – save $ thousands

These shades were originally installed in 2005. The newer Hunter-Douglas power drive systems will not retrofit to the older PowerRise system, so according to Hunter-Douglas the entire shade needs to be replaced. If you do that your new shades will not match the old shades. So, if you want all the shades in the same room to match it is necessary to replace all shades. Every 3 to 5 years they redesign the mechanisms so that after the warranty period they want you to replace you shades even though they are perfectly good except for needing a minor repair. I was told by Hunter-Douglas and the local dealer that the motor was bad and the entire shade needed to be replaced. I refused to accept that conclusion because this particular shade quit working immediately after I switched the battery wand from another shade. After putting a volt meter on the power source I discovered that the batteries were good, but no power was getting to the motor. The dealer claimed to have checked it with a meter, but obviously that was not done. A little thinking, investigating, and tinkering can save you thousands of dollars.