A main goal in smart homes is adding ease and comfort to your life. A good ceiling fan can offer home comfort and energy savings, but control usually involves either reaching up for those dangling pull chains, fumbling for a remote control, or at least getting up to flip a light switch.

The home control and automation market is awash with smart light bulbs, smart outlets, and smart switches, but most of those won’t help you much with your overhead fan. There are only a few solutions for automating ceiling fans and many of them have significant limitations. I’ll eventually be reviewing several of these solutions, but I’m starting with my favorite, the GE Z-Wave Smart Fan Control.

I’ve had a GE Z-Wave Smart Fan Control installed in my home for over 2 years now, so I feel that I can confidently recommend it for its purpose. I have a few rules for any of the smart devices I install in my home, and this smart switch satisfies them all neatly.

First of all, it just works. It works reliably and almost instantaneously. Secondly, it’s simple enough that any guest in my house can also control its basic functionality. Finally, it is fully controllable from a wide array of home automation hubs.

Here are a few of the features:

It’s an on-wall switch that looks like a standard Decora style switch. (There is also a toggle switch version.) It can be installed in single or multi-gang electrical boxes.

It supports on/off and speed control from the switch or your connected device.

It can be used with add-on switches for three, four, five and six-way wiring configurations.

The integrated blue LED indicator is solid when the fan is off, flashes slowly for low, faster for medium, and is off at high speed.

Practically every major home automation hub with Z-Wave support will work flawlessly with the GE Z-Wave fan control.

So here’s what you might like and or not like about this fan control.

Pros:

It works reliably.

It is compatible with Google Home and Alexa when paired with a compatible hub.

The list of compatible hubs is extensive, including, but not limited to SmartThings, Pulse, Trane, Wink, Nexia, Honeywell, HomeSeer, Smart Security, Harmony Home Hub Extender, Vera, Connect and Iris.

The response from the switch is immediate, and the response from any home automation hub is quick. In my experience, it always responds to a command in less than a second. This is mostly a function of your hub and your network.

There are no batteries to wear out or replace.

It works with virtually any ceiling fan.

The price is very competitive. Ultimately, the reason I recommend this is because you can’t beat it for the money. There may be switches that slightly outperform the GE Z-Wave Smart Fan Control, but they come at a financial premium.

Cons:

The switch does require hard wiring. If your fan isn’t already on a wall switch, you’ll need to run new wiring for it. This could be a deal breaker in many situations.

The wiring requires a neutral. This is a common requirement for many, but not all in-wall smart switches. Unfortunately, not all older homes have a neutral wire in each switch box. In most parts of the US, this is now required by electrical code for newer wiring.

It’s bulky. The switch and the required wires just barely fit in a standard junction box.

Installing in a three-way, four-way etc. configuration requires an additional $20 remote switch at each location.

The switch controls the fan only. If you want to control the light, you’ll need an additional switch.

There is poor visible and tactile feedback. You can more or less look at the LED and tell the current state of the fan, but when changing fan speeds, there’s just no clear indication that you’ve moved from one to the other.

Looking at a roundup of purchaser reviews online, the fan control gets about 4 out of 5 stars. The positive reviews highlight how well it works. The negative reviews are mostly related to the difficulty of installation for the reasons described above. Some specific comments are that it pairs easily with , most other Z-Wave hubs, and the Alexa app, but not as easily with Iris. One user mentioned there is a potential problem responding when connected to bathroom vent fans. (I didn’t know it worked with vent fans. I guess that’s a solid maybe.)

Ultimately, the decision of whether this is the right solution for you is probably going to come down to your existing wiring situation and whether you’re comfortable doing some minor electrical work. Assuming an in-wall switch is the right choice for you, this is a solid option. The affordable price and wide availability should cinch the deal.

The list price for the GE fan control is $49.99, but don’t expect to pay that much. It is regularly sold for $40 – $45, often as low as $35. (You can get it now for .) Since it is carried in many brick and mortar stores, there are plenty of opportunities to use store promotions or coupons to get that down even more.

There are two versions of the GE Z-Wave Fan Control–the older version that I have and the newer one with Z-Wave Plus. The two are essentially identical, with the exception that the Z-Wave Plus version will work over a longer distance when paired with a Z-Wave Plus hub. The retail price for both is the same, and you’ll find more discounts on the newer one, so go with the Z-Wave Plus version. There’s no downside to getting the newer version.