My old fan was loud and cranky, but the new one on its highest setting provides a reasonable hum. (It is 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 before (I was never able to add a Challenging smart lock I was testing the Hubspace app. Fortunately, this fan immediately connected to my phone via Bluetooth and my Wi-Fi network. Better yet, it also works with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
I didn’t install this fan in a bathroom with a shower, but I tested the humidity sensor using my clothes steamer to remove wrinkles from a shirt. It works and activates automatically! But my favorite feature, even if it’s passive, is the motion sensor. Having a room light up automatically without pressing a single button still seems magical, and now I want to install motion sensors throughout my house.
Motion detection has some drawbacks. First, you cannot customize the sensitivity of this sensor. In my bathroom I have a mirror that faces the hallway, so every time someone walks in past In the bathroom, the light turns on. It’s not a big deal (my wife says otherwise), but it’s something to keep in mind. The good news is that you can set how long you want the light to stay on through the app, and I set it to one minute.
Yes, if you are in the bathroom during that time and you don’t move much (uh, you know why), then the light will go off and you will have to frantically wave your arms for a few seconds before it comes on. again. A small price to pay, although you can also disable the motion sensor.
Physical controls
Photography: Julian Chokkattu
The wall switch controls can be intimidating; I recommend reading the manual first. The power button turns the fan and light on and off, but you can also press the individual fan and light buttons to turn them off. (Press and hold the fan button for three seconds to also turn the Bluetooth speaker on and off.) You can press the plus and minus signs to change the brightness of the light, or press and hold the color button to cycle through colors. I prefer to use the app for this.