Plug and Play Smart Fan Controller

BOND is being called a game changer when it comes to automatic existing ceiling fans. This new smart home device gives you control and automation without having to do any wiring. Additionally, a single BOND device lets you control up to six fans! Hitting the shelves at the end of November 2017, this controller fulfilled a lot of Christmas wishes.

The BOND is technically what’s known as a WiFi to RF or WiFi to IR bridge. This means it receives commands over WiFi and converts them to radio frequency (RF) or infrared (IR), mimicking your existing remote control. The company has focused on getting universal support for all major ceiling fan brands and aftermarket remote kits. There are still a few exceptions, but chances are you don’t have one of them.

If your fan has a remote, BOND can probably make it “smart.” If it doesn’t have a remote, and you’re not afraid of a little wiring, there are plenty of do it yourself remote kits. The makers of BOND recommend either the Harbor Breeze 43147 Ceiling Fan & Light Remote Control Kit or the Harbor Breeze FAN35T Replacement Remote + Wall Mount if you’ll be adding a remote kit.

Once you’ve paired the BOND with your ceiling fan or fans, you’ll be able to control the fan and lights from your smartphone. It is also integrated with Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home Assistant, so if you’ve got one of those voice assistants at home, you’ll be able to ask it to set your fan speed or toggle your light.

If you need to control a large number of fans, you can have any number of BONDs controlled from the smartphone app. There won’t be many users who exceed the limit of 6 fans per controller, though. The major limitation will be range. According to the specifications, a single BOND can cover an area of 2,500 square feet, but this assumes that it’s centrally located with a minimum of obstructions. If your remotes are RF based, it will easily cover fans in several adjoining rooms. IR remotes are more problematic because the BOND will need line of sight to the fan, so covering multiple rooms may not be possible.

Physical Specifications

The BOND weighs 1 pound and is roughly the size of an English muffin. It is powered by a micro-USB cable (with adapter included). It’s essentially a shiny, featureless black circle with the exception of a round blue LED light on its top which flashes when the smart device is doing its thing. After some user feedback, an updated firmware was released that lets you set the brightness of that LED or turn it off.

Setup

Setting up BOND was a pretty painless process for me. You plug it in and download the app to your smartphone. The first time you start the app, you’ll need to create an account for accessing your BONDs. Once you’ve done that, it will search for your new controller and you’ll enter some basic information to get it connected to your wireless network.

To add a new fan, you put the app into pairing mode, then press one of the buttons on your existing remote control until the BOND’s LED turns green. After a few seconds, you should get a message indicating the remote has been identified. Then you’ll be presented with a set of software buttons to press in order to verify that you can control your fan and lights. The surprising thing to me was that I didn’t have to go through each button on the remote to pair it. BOND’s smarts are good enough that it can usually detect your remote type from a single button and add in the others that you’ll need. It will often add buttons for features your fan doesn’t support, but you can easily remove these.

At this point, you can throw your fan’s old remote in a drawer because you’ll be able to control all the functions from your phone now. Adding the BOND to Google Assistant was a piece of cake and should be for your Echo or other Alexa device as well. Currently BOND does not support any home automation hubs directly, but it does have IFTTT applets. With IFTTT, there are a number of options for automation, but I personally consider the need for IFTTT on a local device to be overly complex.

Cost

You can find BOND for or Home Depot. This makes it a bit of a pricey solution for a single fan unless you put a high value on its ease and simplicity. Being able to keep using your existing remote in addition to the smartphone app and your voice assistant is definitely worth a premium. If you have 3 or more fans in close enough proximity to use a single BOND controller, this is a no-brainer. Being able to automate 3-6 ceiling fans by simply plugging in a device and pressing a few buttons is a steal, especially where control options for ceiling fans in the smart home have been so limited.

Pros

There’s incredible value in being able to control up to 6 devices from a single BOND.

BOND works with virtually any ceiling fan.

Installing BOND is quick and easy.

Cons

It lacks native support for popular home automation hubs.

It requires setting up an online account.

Currently, the BOND does not accept special characters in WiFi passwords. Their website says they are working on it and should be fixed by mid-January. It appears to still be an issue in mid-February.

It doesn’t keep track of state. From the app, voice assistants, or IFTTT, it’s impossible to query the existing state of the fan and light.

I need to expand on that last bullet point because it’s a really big one. Because BOND essentially becomes a second remote, there’s no way for it to know if another remote has issued a command to your fan. If you turn it on with BOND and off with your remote, BOND would have no way of knowing it’s now off. Almost all ceiling fan remotes have a single button for toggling the light on and off. Since BOND isn’t aware of state, BOND offers the same “light” button that toggles the state. That’s fine for the app, but when you command your voice assistant “Turn all the lights off,” that light is going to toggle from whatever state it is currently in, possibly turning on instead.

What Are Others are Saying About BOND?

BOND has 4.5 stars out of over 500 reviews on Amazon. Here’s a summary of the top and most repeated comments.

Most say setup is really easy, but some say it can be cumbersome and frustrating. Several customers were annoyed that there’s no way to manually specify a remote type. If BOND doesn’t identify your remote right away, you’ll have to try pairing again with a different button while BOND takes several minutes to search its database each time.

It is a major annoyance that it doesn’t keep track of the state, causing confusion on Alexa or Google Home. This is something users will have to live with, as there are technical reasons BOND can’t know the current state.

Some buyers found incomplete support. BOND was unable to dim lights, set certain speeds, or reverse with their remote interface. Many of these are limitations only with voice assistants but work fine on the BOND app.

Other buyers reported that when they did have a problem, they received excellent customer service.

Future Possibilities with BOND

If you visit BOND’s website, you’ll see mention of support for everything from garage doors to smoke detectors. This is all speculative at this point though, as the device currently only works with ceiling fans and a very limited number of air conditioners. In theory, it has the capability of controlling virtually all consumer electronics that use an RF or IR remote. If you purchase one today, future firmware updates will likely add support for other devices, but I wouldn’t count on any specific functionality until it’s actually announced.

Additionally, BOND has stated that they’re working on integration with various hubs and will be releasing a public API. Promises like this cannot always be relied on. However, based on BOND’s development pace, I’m inclined to believe support for at least a few of the big-name hubs will be coming soon.

BOND’s engineers are currently working to support as many remote controls in the 433.9 and 434MHz frequency bands as they can. The device does not currently support any 2.4GHz remotes, but it does have a built-in 2.4GHz radio. Based on that fact, BOND has already committed to funding the necessary hardware, it’s just a matter of time before the software support for these remotes comes online.

BOND is currently available in the US only. The target date for release in Canada is early 2019.

Game Changer?

There’s no doubt that BOND is a disruptive technology. It does what nothing else on the smart home market has been able to do, and because one unit can control multiple fans, it’s an incredible value. I stop short of calling it a game changer though, because for all it does do, it will never overcome the problem of maintaining state. Other solutions, such as smart switches and fans with integrated WiFi don’t have this problem. On the other hand, those solutions are expensive and require rewiring and significant labor. BOND’s value, ease of setup, and promise of future upgrades make it one incredibly exciting product.