Rolling Shutter Guide
Motors and power
- Wired, remote, override, solar or battery: which shutter motor is right for me?Wired and remote motors run on 120 V house power and suit openings with power nearby; a manual override adds a hand crank for outages. Solar motors need no house wiring and keep working in an outage, given enough daylight. Battery motors suit small shaded openings with no wiring. Only some Gaposa motors stop on an obstacle.Read the guide →
- How do solar-powered rolling shutters work, and where does the panel go?A solar rolling shutter runs a 12 V DC motor from a battery inside a small solar panel, so it needs no house wiring and works in an outage. Mount the panel on the shutter box or a nearby eave, wherever it gets the most daylight. Gaposa rates a full battery for about 35 days at two cycles a day.Read the guide →
- What power does a motorized rolling shutter need?A wired or remote-control shutter motor runs on 120 V AC, 60 Hz household power. The 10-50 Nm sizes draw about 0.7 to 2.1 A and can usually share an existing circuit; 60-120 Nm motors draw up to 5.5 A. Solar and battery motors need no house wiring. Mains connections are for a licensed electrician.Read the guide →
- Which rolling shutter motors have obstacle detection?Only some do. Gaposa Sense motors from 10 to 50 Nm, wired or radio, and Gaposa Autonomo solar motors stop and reverse when the closing curtain meets an obstacle. Manual-override motors, mechanical-limit motors, Gaposa's 80-120 Nm motors and Somfy RTS and LT motors do not. Check the model code on the motor label, not the part name.Read the guide →
- What is a manual override, and do I need one?A manual override is a shutter motor with a built-in gear you turn by hand with a removable wand, so a motorized rolling shutter still opens when the power is out. It comes on wired and remote motors, not solar or battery ones, and it gives up remote limit-setting and, on Gaposa, obstacle detection.Read the guide →
- What size motor does my rolling shutter need?Size a rolling shutter motor by curtain weight, not square feet. Multiply width by height in inches, times the slat's weight per square foot, divide by 144, add a small margin, then pick the smallest motor whose lift rating on your axle tube clears it. A 10 Nm motor lifts about 33 lb; a 120 Nm about 370 lb.Read the guide →
- What are the specs of each rolling shutter motor (torque, speed, current)?Roll-A-Shield's wired and remote shutter motors are 120 V AC, 60 Hz tubular motors from 10 to 120 Nm. Gaposa's 10-50 Nm motors turn at 12-16 rpm and draw 0.9-1.8 A; its 80-120 Nm motors draw 3.1-5.5 A. Somfy's LT50 motors turn at 14 rpm and draw 0.7-2.1 A. Gaposa solar motors run on 12 V DC.Read the guide →
- What are the crown, drive, adapter and bracket on a tubular shutter motor?A tubular shutter motor slides inside the axle. The crown fits over the motor head end and locates it in the tube; the drive turns the tube; an adapter lets a smaller motor fit a larger tube; and the end-cap bracket holds the motor head. Crown and drive must match both the motor and the tube.Read the guide →
Parts and next step
Need a part or a hand?
Replacement motors, remotes, straps, slats and hardware ship from our Tempe, Arizona factory. Phoenix-area owners can book a service visit; everywhere else, our technicians help by phone. Call (480) 921-0200; the factory answers technical questions for any rolling shutter, not only ours.