In 2013, shortly after shifting to South Florida, we determined to outfit our front room with a showpiece ceiling fan, a first-generation Large Ass Followers Haiku H collection with SenseMe, a WiFi-controlled gadget that built-in with good thermostats such because the Nest and had onboard movement sensors and clever scheduling.

It served us effectively for about ten years, and we preferred it sufficient that we put in a Haiku L collection in our bed room. 

We had a technical difficulty with our unique Haiku H just a few months in the past (it may need been associated to a lightning storm, we’re undecided why it failed) and contacted assist. The decision was that Large Ass Followers would exchange it (totally free) with a brand new Technology 4 Haiku gadget, a testomony to the corporate’s superior guarantee and assist providers; for those who’re questioning why you need to spend upwards of $1600 on one in every of these items.

However as I needed to get an electrician in to re-install it, I additionally took the chance to interchange my previous (dumb) Hunter fan in my kitchen/bar space with a Technology 4 and to interchange the older (and finicky) WiFi wall management switches with the newer Bluetooth Low Power-based ones. Along with the dome lighting on the unique fan, we additionally purchased the brand new chromatic uplight kits for each new followers to offer temper lighting.

New tech, new app

The Technology 4 expertise is now deployed throughout Large Ass Fan’s complete residential and client product line, together with their i6 and ES6 (six-blade) and their entry-level Haiku L units. This enables every part to be managed by the corporate’s newest smartphone app, together with their industrial/industrial units. 

This new app for iOS and Android launched with Technology 3 replaces the earlier “Haiku Followers” app, however if in case you have Technology 1 and Technology 2 units in your community, they’re caught on that older app. Sure Gen 1 and Gen 2 followers can get new fundamental logic boards to maneuver them over (a process I tried on our first 10-year-old fan to attempt to repair it when it turned unresponsive). Nonetheless, it isn’t a straightforward process because the complete housing of the unit must be disassembled to place it in. Except you might be tremendous useful with disassembling electronics, I might suggest getting an electrician to vary these.

After you have the followers put in, getting them linked to the app is simple. Every fan broadcasts a WiFi sign, so that you merely be part of that community with the cell gadget and add it to the app with a easy wizard. The brand new Gen4 tech absolutely helps fashionable WiFi 2.4Ghz 802.11n networks. It’s far more dependable than the older Technology 1/Technology 2 tech, which used a much less highly effective 2.4ghz 802.11g transceiver and would usually disconnect except you remoted it to a legacy WiFi community. This difficulty, we felt, was the Achilles heel in an in any other case glorious product.

The brand new wall controller, which installs in a typical mild swap receptacle flush mounted, can also be modernized utilizing contact controls for fan pace and lightweight dimming and robotically pairs with a fan utilizing Bluetooth Low Power, a major enchancment over the two.4ghz WiFi wall controllers, which additionally had periodic connectivity points with fashionable entry factors.  

Along with scheduling utilizing the app and movement sensing to set off fan operation and lighting, the followers may be built-in with Alexa and Google Assistant, permitting for voice management for use for setting fan pace and likewise dome mild brightness (however not heat/shade, which is toggled manually between comfortable white and vibrant white). 

When you’ve got an Ecobee thermostat, you may also combine with it to optimize HVAC and fan effectivity. The platform was additionally as soon as built-in with Nest, however sadly, Google discontinued its Works with Nest program in 2019.

When you’ve got a couple of Large Ass Fan product put in in your house, you may also mix them into management teams – that is useful if they’re situated close to one another, and also you wish to synchronize fan speeds and lighting ranges. It additionally simplifies wall management setup by having a couple of fan and lightweight operated by a single wall management.

Chromatic lighting might be higher

The chromatic uplighting improve ($400), additionally obtainable for the ES6, is an adjunct choice that, in idea, can be an incredible addition to the product if it was extra software-configurable. Along with a vibrant white uplight for ceiling illumination, it additionally implements a multi-color temper night time mild with seven totally different shade combos: pink, orange, yellow, inexperienced, blue, purple, and vibrant purple. On the ES6, the chromatic mild may also combine UV-C, for room sterilization.

Nonetheless, all of those night time mild colours should be manually chosen within the app – you’ll be able to’t management them with Alexa or Google like you’ll be able to the dome mild; they merely activate when the principle dome lights are turned off and are set to one of many seven colours, there isn’t any “celebration mode” or gradual shade transition move obtainable. The setting to vary the colour can also be buried three ranges down within the app UX, which is inconvenient.

As they’re hardcoded, pairing them with Hue and different producer lights in an Alexa routine is inconceivable if you wish to color-coordinate them. Hopefully, a few of these points may be addressed in a software program replace sooner or later.

The Haiku Fan, perfected ultimately?

I have been utilizing these followers for ten years, and whereas they have been nice air movers and look implausible, the reliability of the WiFi connectivity on the Technology 1 Haiku with SenseMe left rather a lot to be desired. The connectivity now works flawlessly with the up to date communications stack and Bluetooth wall controllers.

However is it price it? That is actually a magnificence within the eye of the beholder difficulty. If you would like primary IoT ceiling fan integration, you are able to do this for lots much less cash utilizing Lutron’s Wi-fi Caseta Fan Controller, and a Lutron Caseta Starter Equipment mixed with any 3-speed or 4-speed “dumb” ceiling fan just like the Hunter I had put in beforehand. 

That mentioned, the fan intelligence with its onboard sensors distinguishes the Haiku and the ES6 from different merchandise available on the market, significantly the scheduling, movement sensing, room temperature optimization, and the “whoosh” mode that simulates a pure breeze. And the truth that the corporate is keen to face behind its merchandise, even exchange them after ten years of service, implies that the funding is sound.