In 2013, shortly after shifting to South Florida, we determined to outfit our lounge with a showpiece ceiling fan, a first-generation Massive Ass Followers Haiku H sequence 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 preferred it sufficient that we put in a Haiku L sequence in our bed room.
We had a technical concern with our unique Haiku H a couple of months in the past (it might need been associated to a lightning storm, we’re unsure why it failed) and contacted assist. The decision was that Massive Ass Followers would exchange it (without spending a dime) with a brand new Technology 4 Haiku system, a testomony to the corporate’s superior guarantee and assist companies; for those who’re questioning why you must 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However as I needed to get an electrician in to re-install it, I additionally took the chance to switch my outdated (dumb) Hunter fan in my kitchen/bar space with a Technology 4 and to switch the older (and finicky) WiFi wall management switches with the newer Bluetooth Low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 supply temper lighting.
New tech, new app
The Technology 4 expertise is now deployed throughout Massive Ass Fan’s total residential and shopper product line, together with their i6 and ES6 (six-blade) and their entry-level Haiku L units. This enables all the pieces to be managed by the corporate’s newest smartphone app, together with their industrial/industrial units.
Technology 4 wall controller from Massive Ass Followers
This new app for iOS and Android launched with Technology 3 replaces the earlier “Haiku Followers” app, however you probably 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 is not a simple process for the reason that total housing of the unit needs to be disassembled to place it in. Except you might be tremendous useful with disassembling electronics, I would advocate getting an electrician to vary these.
Upon 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 cellular system 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 way more dependable than the older Technology 1/Technology 2 tech, which used a much less highly effective 2.4ghz 802.11g transceiver and would typically disconnect except you remoted it to a legacy WiFi community. This concern, we felt, was the Achilles heel in an in any other case wonderful product.
The brand new wall controller, which installs in a normal mild swap receptacle flush mounted, can also be modernized utilizing contact controls for fan velocity and light-weight dimming and robotically pairs with a fan utilizing Bluetooth Low Vitality, 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 will be built-in with Alexa and Google Assistant, permitting for voice management for use for setting fan velocity and in addition dome mild brightness (however not heat/coloration, which is toggled manually between comfortable white and vivid white).
When you have 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 have a couple of Massive Ass Fan product put in in your house, you may also mix them into management teams – that is useful if they’re positioned close to one another, and also you need to synchronize fan speeds and lighting ranges. It additionally simplifies wall management setup by having a couple of fan and light-weight operated by a single wall management.
Chromatic lighting may very well be higher
The chromatic uplighting improve ($400), additionally out there for the ES6, is an adjunct possibility that, in principle, can be an ideal addition to the product if it was extra software-configurable. Along with a vivid white uplight for ceiling illumination, it additionally implements a multi-color temper night time mild with seven completely different coloration mixtures: purple, orange, yellow, inexperienced, blue, purple, and vivid purple. On the ES6, the chromatic mild may combine UV-C, for room sterilization.
Nonetheless, all of those night time mild colours have to 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 primary dome lights are turned off and are set to one of many seven colours, there isn’t any “occasion mode” or gradual coloration transition move out there. 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 unattainable 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 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 lots 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 concern. If you would like fundamental 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 Package 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 in the marketplace, notably 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, implies that the funding is sound.
