Ceiling Fan 44In Matte White 3000K Led Light Kit Remote Control Works Alexa Google Assistant

7 reviews for Ceiling Fan 44In Matte White 3000K Led Light Kit Remote Control Works Alexa Google Assistant

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   David Dressler – February 20, 2023

   As the first person to write a review of this fan, I will make it highly detailed.First, some background: I am very tech-savvy. Our house has an Amazon Echo in every room, most of our light switches are Wemo automated, controlled by app or voice, and we have something like 50 devices on our WiFi at any given moment. Also, I have worked professionally as an electrician, so I am pretty handy with tools.1) First ImpressionsThe first thing that I noticed about the box, when it arrived, was how incredibly light the box was. It weighed perhaps half what I expect a ceiling fan to weigh. When I opened the box, I discovered why. The housing is very thin aluminum, and the blades are plastic. I’ve never seen a fan with such lightweight materials before. It arrived about three weeks ago, and I still go back and forth in my mind as to whether or not this is problematic. On the one hand, ceiling fans are generally out of the way of traffic. Nothing is likely to bump or smash into it during normal usage. On the other hand, fans are subject to unusual stress: the blades are in continuous motion for hours or even days at a time, and there is vibration from the motor. So far, I’ve seen no evidence of a problem with wear and tear, but it’s only been three weeks. At the very least, be VERY careful during installation, since the slightest bump could leave a dent… or worse.2) Installation.A nightmare.Firstly, the instructions were terrible. Steps were missing, and parts of the fan were given different names in the list of parts than in the main instructions.Secondly, This is clearly not a smart fan built from the ground up. It is a standard fan that was retrofitted with a snazzy hi-tech receiver. The evidence for this is there is no easy way to put the receiver in the housing. It’s huge and rectangular, and the housing is small and round. If they had designed the fan with the receiver in mind, they could easily have placed an alcove for the receiver that would fit it snugly. As it is, wires were constantly popping out as I was trying to get the fan to snap onto the mounting plate. Even without such an alcove, the whole process would have been far easier if the space inside the housing were perhaps an inch deeper. Instead, it was quite an ordeal.3) FunctionThe fan works fine. It’s a little slower at top speed than the fan it replaced, but otherwise it’s smooth and quiet.4) WallplateThe wall plate is fine. It’s also clearly a retrofit. I know this for sure because I found an identical wall plate for sale at Home Depot yesterday. I wish it had a backlight, to make it easier to select the right button in the dark, but otherwise I have no complaints.5) The AppOK, this is where is gets ugly. After nearly three weeks, I still can’t get it to work. At first, the app was instantly crashing upon startup on my Samsung Galaxy 8+. After a few days, the app was updated, and it stopped crashing, but I couldn’t successfully register my fan on the app. Tech support has been very friendly and proactive in trying to help, but to no avail. Currently, I am waiting for a new wall plate and receiver to arrive from the company. The problem, of course, is this means I will need to re-install the fan, and that will be absolutely no fun at all. I will update once I have tried that. In the meantime, I have a smart fan that isn’t at all smart.UPDATE: After getting a new receiver and wall plate from the company, the fan finally worked with my app. Sort of. While setting it up, the app crashed again, but when I reloaded the app, I found that the fan had, in fact been added. However, I had to send an invite to my wife to get it to work with her phone, and the invite didn’t work properly.Then, two days later, the app stopped working on my phone. It kept insisting I was entering my password wrong. I wasn’t, and furthermore, why on earth would I need a password for an app that only operates my ceiling fan???I reset my password, and then it worked for a day. Then the same thing happened: it insisted the password was wrong (trust me: it wasn’t). I reset the password a second time, but this time it didn’t take. As of this moment, my fan is still not controllable via my phone, or via my wife’s phone.We wanted a smart fan for a very silly but understandable reason: our Master Bedroom has two entrance, and only one switch. Running power to the other entrance wasn’t practical, so we often had to cross the room in the dark in order to turn on the light.We bought this particular fan because it was substantially cheaper than the other smart fans out there. Clearly, we got what we paid for. I suspect that in another year or two, there will be a number of mainstream smart fans that are below the price point we paid here. As early adopters, we’ve been doubly cursed to pay far more than we should, and get a product with far too many kinks that need to be Ironed out. Hopefully, some of of you will learn from our experience end up with better options than this.UPDATE #2: A few days after writing the update, the app updated yet again, and all the problems went away. It works on my Android phone, it works on my wife’s iPhone.Also, we managed to connect the fan to our echos. It’s a little twitchy: you can’t simply ask Alexa to turn on the fan. After enabling a skill for Modern Forms, you say “Alexa, open Modern Forms.” Then she will ask what you want, and you tell it things like “turn off bedroom light,” and it will. Important tip: you refer to your fan by the name you gave it in the Modern Forms app. DON’T NAME YOUR FAN “FAN,” LIKE WE DID. Alexa doesn’t recognize the word “fan” as the name of the fan, but rather as a term denoting the fan function (as opposed to the light).It took a month, but everything now works, and we are reasonably happy with it. My only lingering criticism of it is that the fan spins a little slowly, and the modern forms skill on Alexa is not as solid as it could be.The customer support was friendly, proactive, and responsive. Every time I encountered a problem, they clearly would ask the software developers to address it. That isn’t a small deal: the initial offering was very buggy, but they clearly wanted it to get better. It was also obvious that the updates they were making to the app were in direct response to my feedback. It took a day or two each time, but they weren’t just dumping my complaints into the circular file.All things being equal, it probably deserves 4 stars, but the installation and ongoing issues are going to cost the fan a star. It simply shouldn’t have taken a month to fix all the issues. Some day, the memory of the last month will fade, and I will be very happy with my purchase.UPDATE #3: It is now January. I purchased this fan in November. As I mentioned earlier, they have been responsive to feedback. Thing have changed. You no longer have to tell Alexa to “Open Modern Forms” before giving the command to turn on or off the fan. It functions like all my other devices. I just say “Alexa, turn on the bedroom light,” or (Alexa, bedroom light at 30%,” and it works. There was still a password on the app, but I can bypass it with my fingerprint, which helps. Also, because of the smoothness of the Alexa functionality, I don’t really use the app very often.My concerns about durability seem to have been overstated. I have seen no issues with the fan’s hardware, despite being mostly light aluminum and plastic.Unless something radically changes, this will be my final update on the fan. To summarize my current view of it after a few months, I am still bitter about the installation and early glitches, but those are behind us now. The fan works, it now coordinates well with voice commands through Alexa, and very simply does its job. The Customer Care team is excellent and responsive.After the ordeal was finally over, a higher-up in the company sent me a detailed email, thanking me for my patience, and also responding to my criticisms in this Amazon review. I was impressed that someone in the company had put two and two together, and figured out that the guy who had spent several weeks in consult with the support team was the same guy who left the review on Amazon.I hope this review helps you inform your decision on whether this is the right fan.FINAL UPDATEA little over a year after purchase, we have given up. We are taking the fan down and putting in a new one. Two issues led to this.First, every time I get a new phone, the app stops working. This isn’t a matter of needing to re-install, it’s that the app needs a new update to accommodate the new phone (I generally pre-order the newest Samsung phone). This often takes several weeks. During that time, the app won’t let me log in, and the Alexa functionality stops.The latest time this happened was with my new Galaxy Note 10. The update was taking even longer than usual, so I foolishly checked to see if maybe something else was wrong. I did a factory reset of the fan’s settings, which involves pushing a sequence of buttons on the wall plate. The factory reset caused the receiver to freeze. In order to fix it, I would need to open the fan housing, access the receiver, and press a button to reboot it.That was the last straw. I didn’t want to go through the agony of opening the housing again. I have mentioned earlier that getting the housing closed is extremely difficult, and I just didn’t want to go through it again.On the whole, I simply can’t recommend this fan.
   

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   KTro – February 20, 2023

   Honestly, I wouldn’t buy this fan again. It’s been a pain. It stops when needing firmware updates and I just want a fan that I can push the button and it will work (like my other two ceiling fans). I called customer IT support, who were very helpful in guiding me to get the fan going again, helping to download the app and update the firmware. But at one point told me to “give the blade a push” as a way to get it going sometimes (which did work) because the blade moved like it wanted to go but then appeared stuck. But pushing the fan blade? How inconvenient is that? I have the 52 inch. It looks nice, provides good air movement, and is very quiet. Also, the wall control is of high quality. I’m giving it 4 stars because of its good features, but the wi-fi connection piece is really too inconvenient for me and maybe others and is really a disappointment.
   

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Silver Rush – February 20, 2023

   Bought 3 for my lanai they were easy to install (I bought the hugger models) so there was ample room for the controller. Hand held remote works great. App loaded easily and all three did firmware update. App and Alexa work good sometimes it takes 10 or so seconds for the app to see the fan and control to function. Alexa works flawlessly. These fans are perfectly balanced and silent. If they hold up to the Florida keys on the gulf weather we shall see
   

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Steven F. – February 20, 2023

   Unfortunately the ceiling fan kept malfunctioning and has to be reprogrammed multiple times a day. Once I contacted Customer Service I was given a refund minus a stocking fee. No replacement was offered. So now I ha e to use my refund minus the stocking fee to purchase a mew ceiling fan . I’m not thrilled with the outcome because I just wanted a replacement
   

5. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   SDG – February 20, 2023

   Likes: Beautiful fan. Smart app.Dislikes: Not easy to install. The module that goes in the base of the fan that connects the wires was a pain to line up when mounting to the ceiling. fitting the wall control was also a pain due to the size. The wall control buttons must be pressed hard in order to turn on/off or change levels. It’s been a bit annoying. I also wish the lights used were replaceable. I would have switched them out with a Phillips hue bulb.Overall the likes outweigh the dislikes.
   

6. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Andy Hileman – February 20, 2023

   I just purchased this fan with the intention to integrate to all of my smart home features. Works great with Amazon Echo devices. However I have struggle to get my Google Assistant with Google Home Hub to work correctly. This fan was also advertised that is integrates with NEST to work in conjunction with your thermostat saving on energy cost. That is not the case at this time. I contacted support and they said that Google has Halted NEST Integration at this time. It would have been nice to know this prior to installing the fan and getting it all the way set up. NOT Happy about that. Hopefully the NEST integration will come back but as of now no such luck.
   

7. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Onedrop – February 20, 2023

   It was a bit hard to install because the instructions were inconsistent with the picture diagram showed so it took my husband longer than anticipated… but it was worth it. I love it. It’s minimalistic, modern and quiet. Just perfect for our screened porch.