LEVOLOR Blackout Roller Shades at SelectBlinds Review: Whose Warranty, How Dark, and the Inside-Mount Light Gap

LEVOLOR Blackout Roller Shades on SelectBlinds.com are an unusual listing: a national brand's shade, in the brand's own fabrics, sold through a retailer that carries its own remake guarantee and its own warranty. Whose warranty applies? How dark is "blackout" on this page? And what does an inside mount do to the light seal? Everything below is desk-verified from SelectBlinds' published product page, measuring guide and policy pages on 2026-09-28, with Levolor's and Bali's warranty and returns terms taken from our capture of their pages on 2026-09-13. Nothing comes from first-hand use; any specification the pages do not state is marked "not published." SelectBlinds is this site's affiliate merchant: we may earn a commission if you buy through our links.

What it is and who it is for

This is a custom roller shade in Levolor blackout fabrics, configured on SelectBlinds' page with SelectBlinds' option set: inside or outside mount; four lifts (continuous cord loop, cordless, motorized wand, and remote motorization); standard or reverse roll; an exposed roll or a cassette valance; optional hold-down brackets; and two upgrades, the LEVOLOR InMotion Hub and Click2Fit no-drill brackets. The listing's brand field reads "Levolor," and the catalog carries 37 fabric variants under the one product.

The page's own pitch is more measured than the product name. The shades are "Ideal for bedrooms, media rooms, and other areas requiring minimal outside light," and they "effectively reduce glare while maintaining a sleek, streamlined look." So the buyer this page is written for has a bedroom or media-room window between 13 and 84 inches on each side, wants a flat and minimal shade rather than a cellular or a slat blind, and is willing to pay for a brand-name fabric whose price position runs from mid-pack to near the top of SelectBlinds' blackout rollers, depending on the fabric group.

Cordless is the safer choice around young children, and the page's lift selector says so in SelectBlinds' own words: "Corded lifts with accessible cords pose a strangulation hazard to young children and pets. Cordless products are the safest choice and recommended for homes where kids and pets are present." On this product the cordless lift has its own size table, covered below.

Blackout versus room-darkening: what the page claims

The word "blackout" is in the product name, and the description is careful never to over-promise it. The page publishes no opacity figure, no "total blackout" claim, and no light-transmission rating. Its strongest phrases are "minimal outside light," "reduce glare," and "Advanced Light Control." That is honest wording, and it is worth matching your expectations to it: a blackout fabric blocks the light that hits the fabric and does nothing about the light that goes around it.

SelectBlinds' own catalog draws the grades for you. It lists a LEVOLOR Light Filtering Roller Shade, a LEVOLOR x Select Room Darkening Roller Shade, and this LEVOLOR Blackout Roller Shade as three separate products, and it keeps a separate "Total Blackout" group in its navigation for a different set of products that this roller is not part of. Read "blackout" here as the darkest of the three roller opacity grades SelectBlinds sells under the LEVOLOR name, not as a promise about the room. The Good to Know box adds that "The back of the shade will be white or neutral depending on the fabric selected," which is standard for a blackout roller and matters for how the window reads from the street.

How a blackout roller compares with a blackout cellular is in the best blackout shades of 2026; the case for a solar or light-filtering roller instead is in solar vs roller shades.

Light gaps on an inside mount

Any inside-mounted roller shade is narrower than its opening: the factory deducts from the width you enter so the brackets and the roll clear the frame, and the fabric is typically narrower still than the roll. The result is a strip of daylight down each side, and it is not a defect; it is how the product fits. SelectBlinds says as much in two places on this page. The Fit & Factory Deductions box: "For more light coverage, choose an outside mount." And the mount-type selector's description of an outside mount: it is "ideal for shallow windowsills or for more complete light blockage by reducing the halo effect."

"Halo effect" is the seller's own name for the edge glow, and its cure is the one the seller names: mount outside the frame, with the recommended four inches added to width and height, so the fabric overlaps the opening. The size of the factory deduction for this collection is not printed on the product page, which links to a deductions chart instead, so the exact width taken off is, for our purposes, not published. The page's only stated tolerance is "Deductions may vary +/- 1/8"."

Two configuration choices change the picture without changing the mount. A cassette valance hides the tube and covers the space above it where an exposed roll lets light in, at the cost of more depth: 2 1/8 inches minimum inside and 3 5/8 inches to sit flush, against 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 for an exposed roll. Roll position is the other: standard roll drops the fabric off the back of the tube, nearest the glass, while reverse roll drops it off the front, which the page offers "to showcase more of the shade's fabric at the front." Inside vs outside mount works through the whole decision.

Whose warranty applies: Levolor's or SelectBlinds'?

This takes three documents to state properly.

SelectBlinds' product page sells its own warranty on this Levolor shade. The checkout's warranty selector offers "3-Year Limited Warranty," "5-Year Limited Warranty," and "5-Year Unlimited Warranty," and the page's SelectBlinds Difference block promises a "Free 3 year limited warranty." SelectBlinds' warranty page defines the free tier: it "covers any defects ... in materials and workmanship for up to three (3) years, so long as the product is installed in accordance with the installation instructions," with "a flat $15 return shipping charge" as your only cost on a claim and "After 3 years: $5 charge for parts."

Levolor publishes a longer term on its own site, and defines it. Levolor's warranty page says its products carry "a limited lifetime warranty," and then defines the life of the product as ten years, with an asterisk that sets different terms for some product types, including five years for InMotion products and their accessories. InMotion is the motor family sold as an upgrade on this very page.

Nothing on the SelectBlinds page says whether Levolor's term applies to a Levolor shade bought here. The page never mentions Levolor's warranty, never links to Levolor's site, and never uses the word "lifetime." Before you order, ask SelectBlinds Customer Care in writing whether a Levolor product purchased through SelectBlinds carries Levolor's ten-year term in addition to SelectBlinds' three-year one, and keep the answer with the order confirmation. If the answer is no, you are buying a name-brand fabric with the retailer's standard three-year defect coverage, and the paid five-year tiers at checkout are the only way to extend it.

Bali and Levolor are Springs Window Fashions brands, and both use the phrase "limited lifetime warranty," but they define it differently: Bali's runs "for as long as the original purchaser owns the product," while Levolor's is the ten-year term above. Never read the phrase without the brand's own definition attached. The company-level read of the brand is in the Levolor review.

Where the retailer matters more than the brand: the remake. Levolor's own returns page says: "Because the products are built to your specifications, once the manufacturing process has started, orders cannot be cancelled, refunded, or returned." No fit or remake program appears on Levolor's pages. SelectBlinds, by contrast, attaches FIT Protection to this shade at checkout. The warranty travels with the product; the remake rights come from whoever sold it to you, and on this listing that is SelectBlinds.

Sizes, limits and options as published

The Dimensions by Configuration table is the most useful thing on the page, because the lift you choose changes the size you can order:

As published on the product page on 2026-09-28. The Specifications block summarizes the same range as 13" to 84" both ways, "varies by lift style."

A cordless shade cannot be narrower than 27 inches on this product. Below 27 inches you are choosing between a cord loop and a motor. Mounting requirements by headrail: an exposed roll needs 1 1/2 inches of inside depth (2 1/2 inches to sit flush) and 1 1/8 inches of flat space outside; a cassette valance needs 2 1/8 inches inside (3 5/8 inches flush) and 3 inches outside.

Lift notes from the page: a continuous cord loop "above 32" in height comes with a plastic bead chain and tensioner," while shorter shades "require a metal chain," and the page says the safety device "must be applied on chain loops." Remote motorization uses rechargeable lithium-ion batteries; the remote is not included in the motor upgrade ("At least one remote is needed per order"), the wall switch and solar charger are separate add-ons, and the page warns that "Motorized products installed in windows with metal casings may have a reduced radio frequency range, or may not operate at all."

Production: "Orders typically ship within 4-5 business days," plus "1 to 7 additional business days for shipping," free inside the contiguous United States. The page also flags a Closeout Collection of colors that "will not be restocked once sold out"; if your fabric is one of them, sample first, because a remake months later may not be possible in the same color.

Measuring for this shade

The page's instructions differ from SelectBlinds' slat-blind instructions in one telling way: for an inside-mount roller, width is measured once, at the top. "The width measurement is taken from the inside edge of the window frame at the top," rounded down to the nearest eighth if it lands on a sixteenth or thirty-second. Height is taken in three places, "top left, center, and top right down to the window sill," and you "Record the largest height," rounding up. Enter width first, then height. Do not deduct: "We will make all the necessary deductions based on the measurements you provide. Do not make your own deductions. Don't add to the width to make up for any deductions that we will take."

The single top width is a roller-shade convention, because the roll is straight and hangs from the top of the frame. It also means the fabric is cut to the head of the opening: an out-of-square window that is wider at the sill than at the head will show a wider light gap at the bottom than at the top, and one that is narrower at the sill can let the fabric brush the frame as it lowers. If your three widths differ by more than an eighth, that is an argument for an outside mount.

For an outside mount, measure width at the top of the frame and "add the recommended minimum of 4 inches," take the largest of three heights and add four inches as well, and remember that "no automatic additions are made" to what you enter. Plan for the flat space the headrail needs: 1 1/8 inches for an exposed roll, 3 inches for a cassette. Run the numbers through the Measure and Mount Fit Checker before you type them in; it shows the typical deduction and the inside-mount depth to confirm, and the checkout accepts eighths only.

Price at analysis

Prices change with size, fabric and SelectBlinds' rolling promotions; the Where to buy box below shows the price we last recorded, and the seller's configurator is the only price that counts. What the catalog does show is where each fabric sits: the 37 fabrics fall into seven price groups at the smallest size, and the headline "from" price belongs only to the first. Mist and Storm Cloud, the two fabrics this site links, sit in the upper fabric tiers, well above the headline "from" price (checked 2026-09-28).

Each group shares one list price at the smallest size in SelectBlinds' catalog feed. Plain Taupe and Mink (group 6) differ from Designer Textures Taupe and Mink (group 3).

At the entry fabrics, the Levolor shade ranked seventh of SelectBlinds' twelve blackout roller lines by list price at the smallest size: six lines listed lower, including both vinyl lines and the Architect, and five listed higher, including Seaside, the Click2Fit Total Blackout lines and the motorized Architect. Mist and Storm Cloud listed above the top fabric price of every non-motorized blackout roller line in the catalog.

The Levolor blackout roller in Mist is the configuration this site links first, and the same shade in Storm Cloud is the darker neutral. If the motor is the point rather than the fabric, SelectBlinds' motorized Architect blackout roller is the house alternative, with the same SelectBlinds warranty and FIT terms and no brand-warranty ambiguity.

FIT Protection, returns and warranty

SelectBlinds' terms govern an order placed on its site; confirm the wording on the day you buy.

FIT Protection. The page's checkout widget reads "If your blind doesn't fit, you can order a replacement of the same blind for no additional charge, unless your new measurements are larger," and marks it FREE. The terms set the limits: claims "must be submitted within ninety (90) days of the original order's date of purchase"; corrected measurements "must be within two (2) inches per side of the originally ordered dimensions"; "one (1) remake per covered product" and "a maximum of four (4) total remakes per household over the customer's lifetime"; shipping charges apply to remakes; and "no cash refunds are available." Exclusions include bulk orders of twenty-five or more products and any trade, business, or reseller account. It is a measuring guarantee: it addresses a fit problem caused by your measurements, not a fabric you dislike once it is on the window.

Returns. The terms state it plainly: "As all of our blinds and shades are custom-made, we cannot offer a refund or exchange unless a product is defective." Custom shades are made to your numbers and are generally not returnable; the difference here is that SelectBlinds attaches a written remake guarantee that Levolor direct does not. There is a four-hour review period after a standard order is placed before it is sent to production.

Warranty. SelectBlinds' free three-year limited warranty as described above, with the paid five-year tiers at checkout; Levolor's ten-year term on its own site, with five years on InMotion motorization; and no published statement on this page about whether the brand term applies to a SelectBlinds purchase. The fuller read of SelectBlinds' policies, including where its returns and terms pages disagree with each other, is in the SelectBlinds review.

The honest cons

The warranty question is unanswered on the page. Paying upper-tier Levolor fabric prices without knowing whether Levolor's ten-year term travels with the shade is buying on hope.

"Blackout" is a fabric grade here, not a darkness promise. The page's own words are "minimal outside light" and "reduce glare," and an inside mount adds a halo the seller acknowledges by name.

Cordless starts at 27 inches wide. Narrow windows must take a cord loop or a motor.

The fabric tiers are steep. The headline "from" price applies to three fabrics; Mist and Storm Cloud, the two this site links, sit in the upper fabric tiers, well above it (checked 2026-09-28).

Motorization is à la carte. The remote, wall switch, and solar charger are separate line items, and metal window casings may block the signal.

No per-collection deduction figure on the page, so the width of the inside-mount light gap is not knowable before the shade arrives.

Who should pass

Pass if you need a genuinely dark bedroom on an inside mount, because no inside-mounted roller delivers that and SelectBlinds' own copy points you outside the frame; a blackout cellular with side channels or an outside-mounted shade is the better tool. Pass if your window is narrower than 27 inches and you will not accept a cord loop or a motor. Pass if the Levolor warranty is the reason you would pay for a Levolor fabric and Customer Care cannot confirm it in writing. And pass if you are buying for a business or in bulk, which FIT Protection excludes. The wider field, including house-brand rollers at a lower fabric price, is in the site's roller and solar shade rankings.

Verdict

A well-specified roller in name-brand blackout fabrics whose two selling points, the Levolor name and the word "blackout," are each worth less than they look until you pin them down in writing and mount the shade outside the frame. What SelectBlinds publishes is clear and useful: a per-lift size table, depth requirements for both headrails, factory-applied deductions, a free measuring guarantee with real terms, and its own three-year warranty. What it does not publish is whether Levolor's ten-year term applies to a shade bought here, and that is the question to settle before paying for the brand. Buy it for a bedroom or media room where an outside mount is acceptable, sample the fabric first, add FIT Protection, and get the warranty answer in an email. See the Levolor blackout roller in Mist on SelectBlinds with the 27-inch cordless minimum and the tiered fabric pricing in view.