Is it the battery wand, or something else?

A Hunter Douglas shade that has stopped moving has about six likely causes, and only three of them are the wand. Here is how to tell them apart before you spend anything.

Three symptoms that mean the wand

Nothing at all on fresh batteries. No hum, no movement, no sign of life. That is the fuse in the end cap, and it is almost always blown by a single cell going in backwards. The fuse is not serviceable and the wand is not repairable. This is the most common failure we see.

White or green crust inside the tube, or batteries that will not slide out. Alkaline cells have leaked and the residue has eaten the contacts. Cleaning it buys a few weeks at best - the corrosion keeps spreading through the spring and the end cap, and it will take the next set of batteries with it.

It works when you tap or reseat the wand, then quits a day later. An internal contact has lost its spring. Intermittent now, dead shortly.

Three symptoms that are not the wand

The shade starts, then stops partway and backs off. That is the travel limits, or something physically in the headrail. The motor is doing exactly what it was told. A new wand changes nothing - reset the limits instead.

The remote drives your other shades but ignores this one. Almost always a lost pairing. Re-pair the shade to the remote before you buy anything, because that fix costs nothing.

It ran fine for months, then faded - and the last batteries were a bargain multipack. PowerView wires all the cells in series, so the weakest single battery drags the entire string down. Twelve cheap cells behave like the worst one of them. Try a fresh name-brand set first.

A note on batteries

Use twelve identical, new, name-brand cells. Not eleven old and one new. The series wiring is unforgiving, and mixing is the fastest way to shorten the life of a wand you just bought.

The orientation diagram is printed on the tube, and it is worth reading - getting one cell backwards is what blows the fuse in the first place.

If none of this matches

Call us on (609) 474-4242, weekdays 9am-5pm Eastern, or email support@batterywand.com with a photo of the headrail sticker. We would rather talk you out of a part you do not need than process the return.

Once you know it is the wand

Find your shade line on the compatibility list - it tells you which of the two wands you need. Both ship free the same day if you order by 3pm Eastern, and you have thirty days to send one back if it turns out to be the wrong part.