Apache is Hunter Fan's Latest Ceiling Fan With HomeKit Support

[MacRumors]

Hunter Fan Company has introduced a new Wi-Fi-connected and HomeKit-enabled ceiling fan called Apache, available now for $429 on its website. The 54-inch ceiling fan features curved propeller-like plastic blades with a bronze and oak finish.

The fan has what Hunter Fan calls a WhisperWind motor, which it says provides powerful air movement with whisper-quiet performance. The motor is reversible, allowing homeowners to change the direction of the fan from downdraft mode during the summer to updraft mode during the winter.

Apache has an integrated LED light, covered with Clear Holophane glass, eliminating the need for bulb replacement. A remote control is included for controlling the fan and light, including dimming the bulbs.

Like its two other HomeKit-enabled fans, the Signal and Symphony, iPhone users can control Apache with voice commands or the Home app on iOS 10.

A three-position mounting system allows for standard, angled, or low ceiling mounting, and a 5-inch downrod is included to ensure proper distance from the ceiling and optimized air movement.

Hunter Fan said the Symphony, a cheaper version of its Signal with white blades, will launch in late November for $329. Signal is available now for $379.

Article Link: Apache is Hunter Fan's Latest Ceiling Fan With HomeKit Support

 

[mistafro]

Love these, but they seem to never be in-stock anywhere...

 

[macduke]

Seems like a good option—but the LED bulbs never go out? Amazing! What sort of magic is this?

It really needs more wood and color options. Housing decor can be difficult to match, which really limits their audience on this. Even three wood colors plus three base colors that can be mixed and matched would be great.

I really wish that we could get more switches for HomeKit. I've been waiting for Belkin's WeMo switch to get HomeKit compatibility. Or that iDevices or iHome would make a version of their switches that works as a light switch and not just an outlet switch.

 

[ikm19]

I dont understand why we need Siri controlled fan when you can have Siri control switch to turn fan on and off. Right now I have lutron switch which turn fan on and off via homkit.

Basically Now i say Hey Siri Turn on the Bedroom Fan and it turn on the Fan.
But If I install this fan then its gonna be a problem if i say Hey Siri Turn on the Bedroom Fan, It will get confuse should it turn on the bedroom fan switch or the fan ?

Only Solution I see is that you have dummy switch or hardwired the fan directly.

 

[adamjackson]

Just did a comparison of all 3 models available. The cheap coming soon option is plastic with the higher end ones being real-wood. There aren't a lot of differences between the 3 although this most expensive one appears to be the only one that's energy star certified.

 

[Recognition]

I dont understand why we need Siri controlled fan when you can have Siri control switch to turn fan on and off. Right now I have lutron switch which turn fan on and off via homkit.

Basically Now i say Hey Siri Turn on the Bedroom Fan and it turn on the Fan.
But If I install this fan then its gonna be a problem if i say Hey Siri Turn on the Bedroom Fan, It will get confuse should it turn on the bedroom fan switch or the fan ?

Only Solution I see is that you have dummy switch or hardwired the fan directly.

HomeKit won't let you have two devices with the same name for this exact reason.

 

[ikm19]

HomeKit won't let you have two devices with the same name for this exact reason.

Yep, So you have to decide in between do you need a smart switch or a smart fan. Or else you need to give two commands to just turn on the fan.

 

[nspindel]

Sure you can get a switch to have HomeKit turn the fan on and off, but it won't control speed and it can't differentiate between turning on the fan and turning on the light kit in the fan.

I wish someone would bring a quality fan controller to market that can be used to control any fan. Insteon has one, and on paper it's perfect. But I bought five of them and they didn't work out so well! When they connected to the insteon pro hub they worked great. But they kept losing connection to the hub, and the only way to re-connect was to factory reset the controllers, which are of course mounted inside the fans. I spent hours on the phone with Insteon technical support, but they couldn't find a resolution other than to keep factory resetting the controllers, obviously a complete showstopper. I ended up having to return them.

Too bad, because they were perfect when they actually worked.

 

[2457282]

I want to get fans for my new home. right now I have the philips hue lights (6), and the ring video doorbell. I am thinking of getting motion sensor cameras, 2 thermostat (one for the AC and the other for the boiler - each currently live on different floors), I am getting a door lock for the basement airbnb apartment that links to airbnb and I am planning on upgrading a lot of other things when I redo the kitchen and bathrooms. So far homekit looks like a bit of a bust. I have been looking at wink as something that I can use to communicate to multiple vendors and standards (including homekit), but haven't pulled the trigger just yet. For the fan, what I need is something for the upper floors to help keep it cool since there is up to a 5 degree difference between the 3 floor and the ground floor of the house. At 6800 CFM this is an okay fan, but the 80 CFM per watt rating is a bit on the low end. There are better options out there. The symphony fan they have actually delivers 84 CFM per watt as an example. Another vendor produces 98 CFM per watt.

 

[Recognition]

Yep, So you have to decide in between do you need a smart switch or a smart fan. Or else you need to give two commands to just turn on the fan.

What?
Get rid of the smart switch and just leave the smart fan plugged in?

 

[nspindel]

I want to get fans for my new home. right now I have the philips hue lights (6), and the ring video doorbell. I am thinking of getting motion sensor cameras, 2 thermostat (one for the AC and the other for the boiler - each currently live on different floors), I am getting a door lock for the basement airbnb apartment that links to airbnb and I am planning on upgrading a lot of other things when I redo the kitchen and bathrooms. So far homekit looks like a bit of a bust. I have been looking at wink as something that I can use to communicate to multiple vendors and standards (including homekit), but haven't pulled the trigger just yet. For the fan, what I need is something for the upper floors to help keep it cool since there is up to a 5 degree difference between the 3 floor and the ground floor of the house. At 6800 CFM this is an okay fan, but the 80 CFM per watt rating is a bit on the low end. There are better options out there. The symphony fan they have actually delivers 84 CFM per watt as an example. Another vendor produces 98 CFM per watt.

I can recommend the Ecobbee 3 thermostat and the August lock, both work great with homekit

 

[ikm19]

Sure you can get a switch to have HomeKit turn the fan on and off, but it won't control speed and it can't differentiate between turning on the fan and turning on the light kit in the fan..

I have a separate switch for fan and its fan light. Fan light is on Lutron dimmer.

Regarding to control speed they ship you a wireless remote which you adjust the speed of fan if needed. Most of the time i keep my fan speed is set to medium and don't change it at night.

 

[Nefilim]

I like it. It's funny how quick I've gotten used to our Nest thermostat, Hue lamps in the bedroom and a Schlage Sense Front door lock . It's convenient and some may argue it is unnecessary but I find nothing wrong about having as much convenience as possible .

 

[thisisnotmyname]

I dont understand why we need Siri controlled fan when you can have Siri control switch to turn fan on and off. Right now I have lutron switch which turn fan on and off via homkit.

Basically Now i say Hey Siri Turn on the Bedroom Fan and it turn on the Fan.
But If I install this fan then its gonna be a problem if i say Hey Siri Turn on the Bedroom Fan, It will get confuse should it turn on the bedroom fan switch or the fan ?

Only Solution I see is that you have dummy switch or hardwired the fan directly.

Turning on the Lutron switch will not control fan speed or the built in lights that many have on a single circuit.
[doublepost=1476816486][/doublepost]

I can recommend the Ecobbee 3 thermostat and the August lock, both work great with homekit

I have both of these as well. The Ecobee I like a lot. The August I really want to like but there are definitely some issues. Some of the things I've run into:

- When you lock/unlock via the smart keypad the lock then logs that action which requires it to bluetooth connect to the doorbell (which acts as the hub). Since it only supports a single bluetooth connection at a time this disconnects the keypad. The reason all this matters is if the lock was unlocked (and you didn't check) so you slam in your code and hit the red august button, this locks the door, now you are unable to unlock it for about 45 seconds or so (seems a lot longer when you are standing there). Of course this only applies to people you give the keypad code to rather than the app (or those couple times I left without my phone and was out longer than the auto-lock timeout).
- I'm not 100% sure yet but I think their recent update to have the doorbell do motion capture is having a similar effect, highly annoying when the motion capture happens by definition whenever you'd want to use the keypad but then locks the keypad out for a bit.
- If the lock encounters resistance while locking/unlocking (i.e. the deadbolt wasn't FULLY aligned with the slot) the motor will freeze itself in place. This then requires a great deal of force (relative to normal unlock force) to disengage the lock. Smaller people may not be able to do it. Via the traditional key you may not be able to exert enough force to move it at all. This is a rare occurrence but did happen to my housekeeper, she had to call me and have me remotely unlock it via the app.
- This isn't unique to August but stucco exteriors act like a Faraday cage for the wifi signal. If you use the doorbell (works as the hub for the lock) it will have a very hard time establishing consistent wifi. I had to put an extender directly on the other side of the wall to get consistent wifi. I'd like to see these companies offer a wired solution or at least an antennae that could be threaded back through the wall to the interior side.
- Battery consumption has been pretty poor all around. I probably go through keypad batteries every six weeks, lock batteries every couple months or so, and the doorbell cam chews through the rechargeable much faster than the doorbell transformer can supply a recharge. I'd like to hardwire power to both the doorbell and keypad, obviously the lock would be difficult without ugly wires from door to wall but it's a very large unit, you'd think they could have found room for more battery (or something with more capacity).

I do still like it, I just hope they address these issues. Maybe the next generation will be better yet.

Also, August has said its coming but they don't yet work in the Home app.
[doublepost=1476816623][/doublepost]

I want to get fans for my new home. right now I have the philips hue lights (6), and the ring video doorbell. I am thinking of getting motion sensor cameras, 2 thermostat (one for the AC and the other for the boiler - each currently live on different floors), I am getting a door lock for the basement airbnb apartment that links to airbnb and I am planning on upgrading a lot of other things when I redo the kitchen and bathrooms. So far homekit looks like a bit of a bust. I have been looking at wink as something that I can use to communicate to multiple vendors and standards (including homekit), but haven't pulled the trigger just yet. For the fan, what I need is something for the upper floors to help keep it cool since there is up to a 5 degree difference between the 3 floor and the ground floor of the house. At 6800 CFM this is an okay fan, but the 80 CFM per watt rating is a bit on the low end. There are better options out there. The symphony fan they have actually delivers 84 CFM per watt as an example. Another vendor produces 98 CFM per watt.

Someone else in another thread linked a project for Home Kit vents. That seems like a good approach to controlling airflow across larger homes with temperature differentials. I have that same problem.

I think it was a kickstarter type project, I've been heartbroken too many times by that model so I'll be waiting for a full product to ship but you may want to check it out.

edit: smart vents... https://keenhome.io/smart-vent

 

[JimmyJimmyYam]

Only $429! In that case I'll get two!

 

[jmack007]

I admit its just easier to buy something like this, have it installed and be done with it, but for the price there are cheaper ways of getting a fan connected to homekit.

If you are good with a soldering iron, computers and want a challenge, you can get ceiling fans with those RF remotes at Home Depot for like $80.

From there, you grab a Raspberry Pi Zero ($5), a USB RJ45 / Ethernet adapter ($1.25), a 433Mhz RF Transmitter / Receiver Module ($4).

The idea is to sniff out the RF codes (numbers) sent from the remote itself on key-press, once you have the codes you can transmit them from the Raspberry Pi using the RF Transmitter Module. From that point, you simply install Homebridge on the Raspberry Pi, install one of the many free fan plugins and configure it to send the RF codes.

Once that is done, the Home App will see your Raspberry Pi as a Homekit Bridge and will see the fan.

If you are already that far in, grab a 5 pack of Etekcity RF Wireless Power Outlets ($20), sniff out the RF codes and install another plugin. Now you have a homekit fan and 5 outlets.

But why not take it a step farther, buy a 5v relay module ($5) and connect to to your Raspberry Pi and your garage opener. Grab another plugin from Homebridge and your done.

So thats:

Fan - $80
Raspberry Pi - $5
USB RJ45 / Ethernet adapter - $1.25
433Mhz RF R/T Module - $4
Etekcity RF Wireless Power Outlets - $20
5v relay module - $5
------------------
Total $115

For that price (plus time and some other misc stuff) you get a fan, 5 outlets and a connected garage all in your Homekit app.

Here is some information for the adventurous:

https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge
https://timleland.com/wireless-power-outlets/
https://medium.com/arvin-singla/apple-homekit-hacking-3d2902e7a1df#.i5wcgetda

 

[ke-iron]

I dont understand why we need Siri controlled fan when you can have Siri control switch to turn fan on and off. Right now I have lutron switch which turn fan on and off via homkit.

Basically Now i say Hey Siri Turn on the Bedroom Fan and it turn on the Fan.
But If I install this fan then its gonna be a problem if i say Hey Siri Turn on the Bedroom Fan, It will get confuse should it turn on the bedroom fan switch or the fan ?

Only Solution I see is that you have dummy switch or hardwired the fan directly.

Home kit will not allow more than one device with the same name. In addition to that, you can name your devices whatever you feel like. Like fan, floor fan, ceiling fan and so on.

 

[Recognition]

I admit its just easier to buy something like this, have it installed and be done with it, but for the price there are cheaper ways of getting a fan connected to homekit.

If you are good with a soldering iron, computers and want a challenge, you can get ceiling fans with those RF remotes at Home Depot for like $80.

From there, you grab a Raspberry Pi Zero ($5), a USB RJ45 / Ethernet adapter ($1.25), a 433Mhz RF Transmitter / Receiver Module ($4).

The idea is to sniff out the RF codes (numbers) sent from the remote itself on key-press, once you have the codes you can transmit them from the Raspberry Pi using the RF Transmitter Module. From that point, you simply install Homebridge on the Raspberry Pi, install one of the many free fan plugins and configure it to send the RF codes.

Once that is done, the Home App will see your Raspberry Pi as a Homekit Bridge and will see the fan.

If you are already that far in, grab a 5 pack of Etekcity RF Wireless Power Outlets ($20), sniff out the RF codes and install another plugin. Now you have a homekit fan and 5 outlets.

But why not take it a step farther, buy a 5v relay module ($5) and connect to to your Raspberry Pi and your garage opener. Grab another plugin from Homebridge and your done.

So thats:

Fan - $80
Raspberry Pi - $5
USB RJ45 / Ethernet adapter - $1.25
433Mhz RF R/T Module - $4
Etekcity RF Wireless Power Outlets - $20
5v relay module - $5
------------------
Total $115

For that price (plus time and some other misc stuff) you get a fan, 5 outlets and a connected garage all in your Homekit app.

Here is some information for the adventurous:

https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge
https://timleland.com/wireless-power-outlets/
https://medium.com/arvin-singla/apple-homekit-hacking-3d2902e7a1df#.i5wcgetda

Agree with the 433MHz RF plug sockets and homebridge.
I don't have it set up for a ceiling fan but do have about 6 RF sockets connected to homebridge on my Rpi and controlled through HomeKit.
So much cheaper than any official HomeKit compatible sockets and the cheap 433MHz transmitter (£2 from eBay) that's wired into the Rpi has enough range to span my whole house!

 

[dilbert99]

Seems like a good option—but the LED bulbs never go out? Amazing! What sort of magic is this?

It really needs more wood and color options. Housing decor can be difficult to match, which really limits their audience on this. Even three wood colors plus three base colors that can be mixed and matched would be great.

I really wish that we could get more switches for HomeKit. I've been waiting for Belkin's WeMo switch to get HomeKit compatibility. Or that iDevices or iHome would make a version of their switches that works as a light switch and not just an outlet switch.

I get where you are coming from because not all LEDs are made well, but they are capable of lasting a very long time if made well and driven at the correct current and temperature. A badly made led and vibration from the fan would not be a good mix.

 

[kingtj]

My thoughts as well. I'm actually really interested in a Siri controllable fan because the 100+ year old house I live in now really benefits from the ceiling fans we've got, except it's a pain trying to reach the pull-chain to adjust the fan speed or turn the light on/off, especially on the ones over the beds in the bedrooms.

Our ceiling fans are all wired to wall switches, but that's not all that useful - since that just lets you turn the whole thing on or off, in whatever state it was left in last via the pull chains on it.

But WHY these crazy high prices?! I bought perfectly good ceiling fans from Lowe's for around $40 each. (Yeah, they were just "builder grade" basic white fans, but they have kind of a modern look that's great for our bedrooms.)

I'd be fine with even a $50 premium for the HomeKit compatibility, but beyond that, they're just soaking you because they can.

Only $429! In that case I'll get two!