This new new Switchbot battery-powered rechargeable floor-standing fan is for the most part GREAT. It’s quiet, neat-looking and works just fine stand-alone, in the Switchbot app, wit the Switchbot Hub 3 desk unit and to an extent – within Home Assistant.
The fan turned up unexpectedly this morning – I wondered what my wife was doing buying a new fan… I just happened to be popping into the local “Ferreteria” or hardware store in town and there it was waiting for me – not as much as a plain wrapping… I suppose if your branded boxing is decent enough, no point in adding more layers.
Anyway, there it is, construction was as easy as adding the top, the two halves of the vertical pipe – and the bottom – no tools required.. took me all of 2 minutes.
The fan arrived half-charged and it has both USB-C and mains charging available – and comes complete with a separate mains lead.
#Featuresd include “battery-powered”, “Smart Voice Control”, “Ultra-quiet 23db Brushless DC Motor”, “Whole-Room Airflow”, “Works with Switchbot Smart Ecosystem” and “3-level Height Adjustment” – which means you can take off part or all the two part support.
It’s very nice and has a really nice switchable backlight (bright or dim white), though why they can’t just have simple WiFi control straight into Home Assistant defeats me. It can run directly by Bluetooth (which never quite works for me) or via one of their “hubs” – I have both Hub2 and Hub3 and from there it will make itself available to home Assistant, Google Home etc.
I have it running in Home Assistant (easier than showing my non-technical wife how to use apps from various manufacturers) but right now the Home Assistant integration seems a little basic – there are in total two entities and the backlight isn’t one of them. There’s an on-off-mode entity and a battery sensor – I can find no way (yet) in HA to take control over fan movement which is otherwise quite comprehensive. Response time of the on-off control is also a little slow in HA.
To be fair this is a new product and judging by previous experience with Switchbot, I’m guessing they’ll soon sort that out. Of course if you’re not an HA fanatic, this won’t matter to you.
The battery capability is ideal for sitting outside on a hot, windless day. My wife loves this fan already.
Solid construction.
Hi Peter. I have scrolled back through your blog hoping to see a review of your new heater in the pic? I presume seeing the powerful hoover alongside, its a pellet burner?
ps, Happy new cueva.
Hi – well I can answer that easily Garry – the pellet burner is an Estufa Italia brand (Italian obviously) Marmalada (model) 14KW and after we discovered that our wonderful new open fire was a complete waste of space due to suffocating backdraft when the wind gets up. We managed to get the pellet burner up and running a new weeks ago – it lasted maybe a week or so before breaking down – motherboard. It turns out that pellet burners tend to be sensitive to power spikes – and we’re on emergency power – battery backed up by petrol generator and for the last week, sunshine.
The manufacturer offered a new motherboard without question and mentioned that we should use a mains suppressor which we do now (I question why they don’t put such a suppressor in the burner itself – but hey)… anyway since getting the replacement motherboard it has been perfect – heating up the (large) living room in no time… there’s a warm up period of maybe 10-15 minutes and a cool-off period somewhat longer – no smell, very little noise except when it’s in cool-off mode) but it’s all very simple and controlled by WiFi – the app is called “stufe a pellet Italia” – and as I use a VPN I can turn it on while walking back uphill from the local pub (10-15 minute walk). Such pellet burners use a bag a day depending on heat level you need and bags here in Spain cost between 4 to 5 euros.