This Smart Bathroom Exhaust Fan Is Great for Parties

My old fan was loud and grumpy, but the new fan makes a reasonable whirring noise at the highest fan setting. (It’s rated at 80 or 110 cubic feet per minute, or CFM.) It’s powered by Hubspace, Home Depot’s smart home platform, which I’ve never used before (I’ve never been able to add Challenge smart lock I’m testing a Hubspace app). Thankfully, the fan immediately connected to my phone via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks. Even better, 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 by using a steam iron to remove wrinkles from a shirt. It works and starts automatically! But my favorite feature (albeit passive) is the motion sensor. It still feels amazing to automatically light up a room without pressing any buttons, and I now want to put motion sensors around my house.

Motion sensing does have some drawbacks. First, you can’t customize the sensor’s sensitivity. I have a mirror in my bathroom that looks out into the hallway so whenever someone walks by past In the bathroom, the light came on. It’s not a big deal (my wife wouldn’t say so), but it’s something to keep in mind. The good news is that you can set how long the light stays on through the app, I set it to one minute.

Yeah, if you’re in the bathroom for that long without much movement (well, you know why), the lights will go off and you’ll have to wave your arms like crazy for a few seconds before it comes return. Although you can also turn off the motion sensor, it’s a small price to pay.

physical control

Wall switch control can be intimidating; I recommend Read 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. (Hold the fan button for three seconds to turn the Bluetooth speaker on and off, too.) You can press the plus and minus signs to change the brightness of the lights, or hold the color button to cycle through colors—I prefer to use the app for this .