Why choose a Somfy io motor for your roller shutter

Motorising a roller shutter is rarely a question about the motor. It is a question about the cable, the wall and what you want the shutter to be able to tell you. The Somfy io range answers all three, and it is the range we fit most often — but not in every case, and it is worth knowing why.

Two-way radio, which is the real difference

io-homecontrol is a radio protocol shared by several manufacturers working in home automation. Its defining property is feedback: the shutter does not only receive orders, it answers. It can report its exact position, the temperature at its control point, and the battery charge if it is solar-powered.

In practice that changes what the installation can do. A one-way system sends an order and hopes. A two-way system knows whether the shutter actually moved — which is what makes reliable scheduling, grouping and remote checking possible.

868 MHz rather than 433

io motors work at 868.95 MHz. That band is far less crowded than the 433 MHz used by many cheaper systems, so it is less exposed to interference from other devices. On top of that, the protocol sends several command pulses per button press, so a single missed pulse does not mean a shutter that ignores you.

Fitting without opening the walls

The obstacle to motorising an existing shutter has never been the motor — it is running a supply to a wall switch. That means cutting a channel, sleeving it, filling it and repainting a strip that never quite matches.

A radio motor removes half the problem: the control point becomes wireless and can go where it suits you. A solar io motor removes the cable entirely — a small panel feeds a battery housed with the motor, and orders arrive by radio. That is the option we suggest for an isolated opening, an outbuilding with no supply, or a flat where drilling the façade would need a vote at the owners’ meeting.

Solar has one real limit and we would rather state it: the panel needs decent exposure. On a north elevation closed in by a neighbouring building, we will steer you back to a mains-fed motor.

The protections that pay for themselves

More than half of all call-outs on roller shutters are caused by something left underneath the curtain, and very often the curtain is what gets replaced.

• Obstacle detection stops the motor before the hardware breaks.
• Frost protection puts the motor into a safe mode rather than forcing a frozen curtain.
• Reinforced braking stops the motor being back-driven by someone lifting the curtain from outside. With anti-lift locks, that is a genuine additional barrier.

A step towards home automation, if you want it

Because io is shared across brands, an io shutter is not a dead end. It can later join a Somfy TaHoma box alongside gates, lighting and heating, and be grouped or scheduled. If you never want that, io still works perfectly well as a plain handset-operated shutter — you simply will not use the feedback.

When we suggest something else

If you want a straightforward radio link, no feedback and a lower price, Somfy RTS or a CAME radio motor does the job. The comparison of the four families is set out in our radio motor comparison.

To have a motor specified for your own opening, send the dimensions and a photo through the quote form, or read how we build our made-to-measure roller shutters.