Are there any in-wall zwave fan controllers that are not decora switches?

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The only one I have been able to find is the Inovelli Project Hurricane but I'm not a huge fan of it because it has a canopy module that communicates with the switch over RF. I understand that this allows for people that have a single switch to now control the fan and light separately, but the two fans I am replacing are both already wired with 2 switches.

I feel like a dimmer switch is just not an ideal way to control a fan. First, it's not intuitive to someone that doesn't know to press and hold the paddle. My wife does not like that idea. Second, all the ones I've seen offer no indication of what fan speed the fan is set to. Right now, when we pull the chain, we can tell when we reach off because the vibrations from the motor cease. Then we can pull the chain the appropriate number of times to get to the speed we want. If we're adjusting the speed from the wall, we need to know what it's being set to.

Ideally… there are two ways I’d prefer a fan controller to be.

  1. A button that toggles the fan on/off with an up button and a down button somewhere and some led indicator lights
  2. Separate numbered buttons 1 - 3 with an led indicator light to show which speed it’s on, and then a larger button that toggles the fan on/off.

But nothing like that seems to exist.

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um ..fan switches are made specifically for fans. The common misconception is that they are dimmer switches, but they are not. So I "think" that you're just referring to them as such for the Look of the switch, but just wanted to make sure that you know that there is a clear line.
Hampton bay makes a canopy module that does not use a switch at all, but does use a remote. The antenna has challenges, but there are work arounds here. Also I think shelly modules can control fans. But I'm not 100% on that. I'm sure someone will weigh in on it. Then you could pair it with a pico or something for control. Just a thought.
[EDIT]
Checked with my friends that know Shelly :wink: and she will only turn a fan off and on right now. But I hear that there may be plans for a fan switch with speed. Meh - it was a thought.

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Yes, I know. I probably should have been more clear about that in my post. I am just talking about in the way they look and function. All the zwave fan controllers that I've seen operate the same as dimmer controllers. Hold the up paddle to go up a speed and hold the down paddle to go down a speed.

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I have the Hampton Bay in a room and a Pico mounted as a switch. I press the center round button and via button controller it turns it on to medium. I have the up arrow assigned to high and down arrow assigned to low. Medium is what I most often use which is why I programmed it this way so you could do what you want. Just an idea but this does require you to join the Lutron addicts club and have a Lutron Pro bridge too.

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I don't think that this one meets all the criteria you mentioned, but it is a Z-Wave fan control.

https://byjasco.com/products/ge-z-wave-plus-wall-smart-fan-control

I have a Lutron Bridge Pro and Lutron lighting throughout the house. With this, I'm using the Lutron fan control. Personally, this comes much closer to meeting your requirements. You would definitely want to add the appropriate bridge though. All my Lutron products have been fantastic. Wouldn't even think about turning back.

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Also, for any noob here, might get not get the reference, so also to clarify a bit. Always thinking about the next person to read your post. I'm sure that there are plenty of people that hate the look of the switches for fans.

Of course I have a paddle, but rarely even touch it. My fans all adjust according to temperature in the room. So the only thing that paddle does is flash when my fan changes speed. And looks pretty.
:grin:

Always happy to share my rules if this becomes an option for you.

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If you can wait an indeterminate amount of time, Inovelli has project Windy City that will be a fan speed switch that is self-contained. Originally it was to come out in summer of this year, but looks like it will be very late this year before it comes out. Currently I'm using a smart on/off switch and controlling fan speed at the fan. I'll switch to Windy Citys once they're out. (I've got Inovellis for my other switches, so it will match.)

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If I understand, that's what the OP is NOT looking for. I think they are saying they don't want a "paddle switch." Something more like a traditional non-smart fan switch with 3 buttons for high/medium/low.

To my knowledge no such devices exist (I tried searching too because I want one!) They're all things that are like a dimmer. The only thing I came up with (but haven't done) is use a dimmer relay that I put inside the wall and then use something like a Pico or scene controller then use HE rules to link the two up.

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The only one not mentioned here that I am aware of is the Zooz https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/collections/zooz/products/zooz-z-wave-plus-s2-double-switch-zen30-white-for-light-fan-combo

This one is a bit different, and I don't think it really meets your needs. The bottom switch is for the fan, and is simply an on/off relay. The upper switch is a dimmer for the lights. However the LED is programmable for 4 colors and 3 brightness levels, so you could set the led for differentt colors to mean different speeds.

Its also a scene controller and supports multitasking, so conceivably at least, you could set fan speed with multitap. 1 for off, 2 for low, 3 for medium, 4 for takeoff, etc.

Scott

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The Zooz isn't a fan controller and can't change the fan speed. I have considered getting it for a bathroom exhaust fan though.

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Thats absolutely right. Brain fart! Please disregard my last post! Thanks @waterboysh!

S.

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I've used more smart than "dumb" dimmers in my life, so the "press and hold, then release" to dim thing is intuitive to me to such an extent that I find it hard to imagine how else a smart dimmer could work. :laughing: But I understand the point. But if you/they know how a paddle/Decora switch works, that part is the same: just tap up or down to turn on or off. "Dimming"/speed control may be different but train-able, though again I understand if you don't want that. However:

The HomeSeer fan switch has an LED bar, and Inovelli's Fan and Light (Windy City) and Fan (Hurricane) switch are also both slated to do something similar (like their LZW31/LZW31-SN dimmers). Lutron's in-wall fan controller for Caséta also has an LED indicator for speed. GE/Jasco is one of few I know of that don't do this (I would say that it's surprising, but when it comes to GE, I normally expect HomeSeer prices without the features to match). I'm not sure how many others are out there, but I'd say most do this.

I used to use the Hampton Bay Fan Controller mentioned above. It's only a canopy module, so no wall switch--but it has the advantage that you could use any remote or wall switch (with the "relay" disabled if it's actually controlling the fan) for this purpose. The Lutron Fan Pico is close but doesn't have an LED bar like their in-wall fan controller. A four- or five-button remote of your choice with dedicated buttons for each speed plus on/off might work (Lutron's Fan Pico is so close except it's labeled for speed adjustment, not specific speeds, but if you're not opposed to labelmakers...).

Inovelli's fan/light combo, to go back to that idea, is also pretty close to what you want, except it needs a canopy module and solves a problem you don't have (you appear to have separate switches for fan and light). It has a big button for on/off of the fan, and the rocker buttons on left side of that button are for speed adjustment. Similar for the light component. It has an LED bar indicator for fan speed (and light level, two separate bars). Seems so close, yet their fan-only switch coming out later sounds like it would be a better fit for your wiring but farther away from what you actually want. :confused:

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Turns out I do have this problem. Our 2 bedrooms are wired exactly the same, but had 2 different fans in it. In one bedroom, it's wired so that one switch turns the lights on and off and the other switch turns the fan on and off.

In the other bedroom, both the light and the fan are wired to the same switch. It's a very cheap, not very good fan (which is why we replaced it) and I had assumed it just didn't have separate wires in the canopy. When I removed the fan, there were separate wires in the canopy, but they were both wired to the red wire and the black wire coming from the ceiling was capped off.

That's weird I thought. So I got my multimeter out, turned the breaker back on, and had my wife turn on the switches. First switch (red wire) I get 120V like expected. Second switch (black wire) I get nothing. So then I turned the power off and took the switch out of the wall. The black load wire wasn't connected to the second switch, it had been cut from the back.

That's strange I think, so I re-stripped the black wire that seemed to go to the fan (it was the only wire not connected to anything and it wasn't stripped) and put it in the plug. Turn the power on. Got ready with my multimeter to test the black wire in the ceiling, but as soon as my wife turned the switch on we heard a click and sure enough, the circuit breaker tripped.

What's going on I wonder, so I got some spare ground wire and connected it to the black wire coming out of the ceiling. Then I stood by the switch and put my meter in continuity mode. Put on lead on the ground wire, other lead on the black wire I had wired to the switch. It beeped, so all good there. I put the second lead on the ground wire. Beeeeep. Okay, that's not good.

TLDR; Second switch load wire is shorted to ground and can't be used.

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At the very least you probably should put this circuit on an arc-fault breaker. In reality, this wire should be replaced. They probably put a drywall screw through the wire someplace, that is a fire just waiting to happen.

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Yeah, we have a plug in the master bathroom that stopped worked like a month after we bought the house as well. So I'm thinking I'll be talking to an electrician soon about both.

I just hope it's not to expensive. I've never had to deal with an electrician before so I'm not sure what to expect.

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Hi! My apologies if I resurrected a necro thread, but has anyone here heard of the Leviton ZW4SF? It matches the OP's requirements almost exactly -- it has a big paddle switch for on/off, and a small paddle switch to control the fan speed.

Fan speed indicator on the left side of the big paddle. If you want to go from "High" to "Medium low", tap the small paddle switch down twice, and watch the little LED change to confirm.

The manual does not specify this 100%, but if it's anything like the last two generations of Leviton dimmers/fan controllers (I own a bunch of 1st gen Vizia RF dimmers and switches, and two 2nd gen Vizia RF Plus fan controllers, the VRF-01), the fan speed indicator lights are always on, so you can check what speed the fan will come on at, and even adjust it with the fan speed rocker while the fan is off.

Or you can actually program it to always come on at a specific preset speed, so you can be sure it will always come on at, say, Low or Medium Low, and you won't be blown away because the last person to use it set it to High. Either way, no more relying on haptic feedback from the fan chain. :slight_smile:

So, no holding anything down, ever, and the controls aren't "overloaded" so that one paddle acts as both a power and a speed/dimming control. That would drive me nuts. In fact, it's virtually like a regular dumb dimmer -- big on/off switch, and a little slider on the right for light level.

And, obviously, no mounting anything in the canopy, and no RF communication between the switch and the fan motor. :slight_smile:

OP -- assuming you get that wiring fixed, I think this will make your wife pretty happy, at least with the fan control situation.

And possibly little-known fact -- any old-style "AC" 3- or 4- speed fans can work with a home automation fan controller. You simply toss the canopy module and the remote in the trash, install your fan controller, then hot from the ceiling connects directly to fan hot, neutral to to fan neutral, and ground to... say it with me, ground. It's an AC motor, the capacitors that control the voltage drop to the motor are simply in the fan controller instead of in the canopy module. This does not work on 6-speed DC motor fans, however, which makes my ceiling fan purchasing difficult

I write too much when I can't sleep. I hope this ends up useful for somebody. :slight_smile:

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