In 2013, shortly after shifting to South Florida, we determined to outfit our front room with a showpiece ceiling fan, a first-generation Massive Ass Followers Haiku H collection with SenseMe, a WiFi-controlled system that built-in with sensible thermostats such because the Nest and had onboard movement sensors and clever scheduling.
It served us nicely for about ten years, and we favored it sufficient that we installed a Haiku L series in our bedroom.
We had a technical situation 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 Massive Ass Followers would exchange it (totally free) with a new Generation 4 Haiku device, a testomony to the corporate’s superior guarantee and assist companies; for those who’re questioning why it is best to spend upwards of $1600 on one among these models.
However as I needed to get an electrician in to re-install it, I additionally took the chance to exchange my previous (dumb) Hunter fan in my kitchen/bar space with a Era 4 and to exchange the older (and finicky) WiFi wall management switches with the newer Bluetooth Low Vitality-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 Era 4 know-how is now deployed throughout Massive 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 permits every part to be managed by the corporate’s newest smartphone app, together with their business/industrial units.
This new app for iOS and Android launched with Era 3 replaces the earlier “Haiku Followers” app, however if in case you have Era 1 and Era 2 units in your community, they’re caught on that older app. Sure Gen 1 and Gen 2 followers can get new predominant logic boards to maneuver them over (a process I tried on our first 10-year-old fan to attempt to repair it when it grew to become unresponsive). Nonetheless, it isn’t a straightforward process because the complete housing of the unit must be disassembled to place it in. Until you might be tremendous helpful with disassembling electronics, I might suggest getting an electrician to alter these.
After getting the followers put in, getting them linked to the app is straightforward. Every fan broadcasts a WiFi sign, so that you merely be part of that community with the cell system and add it to the app with a easy wizard. The brand new Gen4 tech totally helps fashionable WiFi 2.4Ghz 802.11n networks. It’s way more dependable than the older Era 1/Era 2 tech, which used a much less highly effective 2.4ghz 802.11g transceiver and would usually disconnect until you remoted it to a legacy WiFi community. This situation, we felt, was the Achilles heel in an in any other case wonderful product.
The brand new wall controller, which installs in a typical mild swap receptacle flush mounted, can be modernized utilizing contact controls for fan velocity and lightweight dimming and mechanically pairs with a fan utilizing Bluetooth Low Vitality, a big 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 will be built-in with Alexa and Google Assistant, permitting for voice management for use for setting fan velocity and likewise dome mild brightness (however not heat/shade, which is toggled manually between delicate white and shiny white).
When you have an Ecobee thermostat, you can even 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 have a couple of Massive Ass Fan product put in in your house, you can even mix them into management teams – that is useful if they’re positioned 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 may very well be higher
The chromatic uplighting upgrade ($400), additionally out there for the ES6, is an adjunct possibility that, in idea, could be an incredible addition to the product if it was extra software-configurable. Along with a shiny white uplight for ceiling illumination, it additionally implements a multi-color temper night time mild with seven totally different shade mixtures: pink, orange, yellow, inexperienced, blue, purple, and shiny purple. On the ES6, the chromatic mild also can combine UV-C, for room sterilization.
Nevertheless, all of those night time mild colours should be manually chosen within the app – you may’t management them with Alexa or Google like you may the dome mild; they merely activate when the principle dome lights are turned off and are set to one of many seven colours, there is no “occasion mode” or sluggish shade transition circulate out there. The setting to alter the colour can 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 unimaginable if you wish to color-coordinate them. Hopefully, a few of these points will be addressed in a software program replace sooner or later.
The Haiku Fan, perfected finally?
I have been utilizing these followers for ten years, and whereas they have been nice air movers and look improbable, the reliability of the WiFi connectivity on the Era 1 Haiku with SenseMe left lots to be desired. The connectivity now works flawlessly with the up to date communications stack and Bluetooth wall controllers.
However is it value it? That is actually a magnificence within the eye of the beholder situation. If you need fundamental IoT ceiling fan integration, you are able to do this for lots much less cash utilizing Lutron’s Wireless Caseta Fan Controller, and a Lutron Caseta Starter Kit mixed with any 3-speed or 4-speed “dumb” ceiling fan just like the Hunter I had put in beforehand.
That stated, the fan intelligence with its onboard sensors distinguishes the Haiku and the ES6 from different merchandise in the marketplace, significantly the scheduling, movement sensing, room temperature optimization, and the “whoosh” mode that simulates a pure breeze. And the truth that the corporate is prepared to face behind its merchandise, even exchange them after ten years of service, signifies that the funding is sound.
