My old fan was loud and obnoxious, but the new fan makes a moderate amount of whirring noise when set to its highest fan setting. (It’s rated at 80 or 110 cubic feet per minute, or CFM.) It’s powered by Home Depot’s smart home platform, Hubspace, which I haven’t had a good experience with (defiant smart It was not possible to add locks). I was testing the Hubspace app). Thankfully, this fan immediately connected to my phone via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks. Even better, it also works with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
I didn’t install this fan in my bathroom with a shower, but I did test the humidity sensor by using a clothes steamer to get wrinkles out of my shirts. It works and starts automatically. But my favorite feature, albeit a passive one, is the motion sensor. Having a room automatically light up without pressing a single button still feels like magic, and I want to install motion sensors all over my house.
Motion sensing has some drawbacks. First, you cannot customize the sensitivity of this sensor. My bathroom has a mirror that looks out into the hallway outside, so every time someone walks past the bathroom, the light comes on. It’s not a big deal (my wife says otherwise) but keep it in mind. The good news is that you can set the time for the lights to turn on via the app. I set it to 1 minute.
Well, if you’re in the bathroom for that amount of time and don’t move much (well, you know why), the light goes out and you have to frantically wave your arms for a few seconds before it comes back on. Go back. You can also turn off the motion sensor, albeit at a small cost.
physical control
Photo: Julian Cioccatu
Wall switch controls can be scary. We recommend reading the manual first. The power button turns the fans and lights on and off, but you can also turn them off by pressing the individual fan and light buttons. (Press and hold the fan button for 3 seconds to turn the Bluetooth speaker on and off as well.) Press the plus and minus signs to change the brightness of the lights, or press and hold the color button to cycle through colors . I prefer to use an app for this.
