I'd like to get a Hubitat-friendly ceiling fan controller (preferably zigbee) that I can install in a ceiling fan canopy. After searching, I found a lot of discussion about a discontinued Hampton Bay fan but I can't find something similar that would be relevant (i.e. available) today. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
You can still buy the controller as a part from home depot or King of Fans. It works with any fan
If you want a wall switch + canopy setup, the Inovelli LZW36 is a great option (if you can find one)... the switch is zwave (+ RF canopy tied only to the one switch), but it works quite well. I expect that long-term they'll offer a Zigbee version, but from the forum chatter over at Inovelli this isn't top of the list.
Thanks for the link to that thread. I'll have to try calling Home Depot as suggested to see if they can still source the part. It's suggested that King of Fans might have it, but their website seems quite broken (saying it requires adobe flash, what year is this?).
Sounds like people love the Inovelli stuff. Unfortunately looks like they don't have those available.
It's absolutely insane that their isnt a single ZigBee Fan controller right now. The Hampton Bay one works alright. It's not great for me, but I am having some ZigBee mesh issues that I can't nail down.
I believe Bond can integrate into HE, so that's an option, though not ideal.
Thanks for the tip on Bond. Looks like I'd probably need to buy the Bond hub for that to work?
Btw, just called Home Depot. The rep will investigate if they can get the fan receiver still, but will take a week to get back to me.
For common RF remote controls, yes, a Bond bridge would be necessary. This is a good option if you want to be able to use just about any remote control fan.
Another option is a "Smart-by-Bond" fan that does not require a bridge. You can find partners that offer such fans here. I just noticed that Hubitat wasted no time getting listed as one the integrations.
The last 5 fans that I installed were Smart-by-Bond. Most recently, Minka Aire has been our go-to in terms of style, features, and functions. Not cheap - expect to start around $350.
They lie... tell them you need a replacement part for Gardinier 52” LED Brushed Nickel Ceiling Fan, model #43260. You want Part J. Don't tell them you just wanna buy it it will confuse them. Tell them it's out of warranty.
They lie... tell them you need a replacement part for Gardinier 52” LED Brushed Nickel Ceiling Fan, model #43260. You want Part J. Don't tell them you just wanna buy it it will confuse them. Tell them it's out of warranty.
I tried telling them that thanks to the other thread. The person I spoke with didn't know what to do with that information or model #. She did want to know when I bought the fan, I said I didn't know. The other thread had a link to the manual and she was able to look up the part from the item numbers in that (#722-493 for the remote/receiver and #1001 223 284 for the fan), but that was a different fan I think from the model #43260 fwiw.
For common RF remote controls, yes, a Bond bridge would be necessary. This is a good option if you want to be able to use just about any remote control fan.
Another option is a "Smart-by-Bond" fan that does not require a bridge. You can find partners that offer such fans here. I just noticed that Hubitat wasted no time getting listed as one the integrations.
The last 5 fans that I installed were Smart-by-Bond. Most recently, Minka Aire has been our go-to in terms of style, features, and functions. Not cheap - expect to start around $350.
Thanks for the helpful info!
I haven't done this, but if you could find a fan with IR you could control it with a Switchbot hub, which is supported by a community driver.
Additionally I would think a Broadlink RM Pro would do the same as a bond hub as long as it's IR and or 433mhz RF. It is a community made driver as well.
Can anybody with more knowledge on these 2 options chime in. I do know Switchbot will not be local, have no clue about the Broadlink.
I don't think the BroadLink community integration has been supported for a long time, and it may not be working at all anymore.
The Switchbot community integration is fantastic - @tomw has done (and continues to do) a great job with it.
I experimented with both an RM4 and a SB Hub Mini to control some IR window fans -- I found the SwitchBot Hub Mini to have better range and more forgiving placement (didn't have to be as straight line-of-sight as RM4).
The fact that SwitchBot has an active & robust community integration sealed the deal.
I didn't know that about Broadlink, but I agree how good Switchbot is. The bot alone allows for some very unique and interesting possibilities. Couple that with the curtains and the IR capabilities and it's clear how much Switchbot brings to the table for Hubitat. Just a shame it's not local, as like nearly every smart home company they're bound to go out of business eventually.
It used to be possible to order the in-canopy receiver module from King of Fans directly as a replacement part. Try calling them, they’re located in Florida IIRC. Might go better than Home Depot’s customer support.
I called King of Fans: 954-484-7500.
Followed the prompts for customer support, fans.
Said I needed a replacement for Model #99432 (that's what I saw here).
She asked what happened to the old remote. I clarified I needed the receiver, not the remote. She asked if it was broken, I said yes.
She came back and told me yes, they have them. Costs $28 for the receiver, $16 to ship to me. She also said that a newer version is available at Home Depot (Model #76278). I expect that "newer version" is not Zigbee of course.
I didn't place the order yet as I'm not certain this is the way I'll end up going. Need to pick some fans first. I might end up with Bond stuff in the end. But perhaps the above will be helpful for someone.
Bond works great on my system. It supports all 6 of my fans that have remotes.
Another decent alternative right now (Not Z* mind you) is Sonoff iFAN04-L which can be flashed with tasmota or ESPHome to get excellent wifi performance. It is also pretty cheap at ~$30 and includes a magnetic remote. I personally got them to tide me over until a ZigBee variant of the Inovelli ZW36 and I have been pleasantly surprised.
One note, buying from their website is slower and more expensive than just buying from Amazon and if I had to guess these will go on sale for prime day.
I use the iFan4 with Tasmota and it works well and gets a strong signal despite being enclosed in a metal housing. I don’t like the cheap RF remote that comes with the iFan so I use these instead. Amazon.com
Start Edit: 3/31/24 I see a lot of people have clicked on this link and the product is still available on Amazon. I also see quite a few 1 star reviews and they all complain about a really short battery life.
I'm using the @kkossev driver for the Tuya Scene Switch TS004F as shown below and the battery life has been great. I've got three of these and I'm at a year and counting on the batteries. However, the battery drain can happen if you have the wrong driver assigned to it.
End Edit
You get click, double click actions that work well plus long press (5 seconds) that is not very useful. I use it in conjunction with the Advanced button controller SW.
Button 1 click cycles through bulb scenes including off. Double click is off.
Button 2 click cycles through fan speeds including off. Double click is off.
Button 3 for a lamp, button 4 for outside lights.
Wife and I both have one bedside.
Very flexible configuration and have been reliable. If you are patient you can get 2 of these on Aliexpess for about the same as 1 on Amazon.
Download the Hubitat app
