Arlec DCF4002WHA

Fan is great - Grid connect not so much – Firstly I will say that the fan is great. It's quiet, heaps of power and very easy to use via the remote. The grid-connect app is okay, but let's face it, if you are buying a "smart" fan or light etc, you are going to want to use it with your voice. And that means Alexa or Google. Who really opens an app to change the speed of the fan. You'd… Read more

just use the remote. OTOH it's great to say "Alexa light on" in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately Alexa integration is not good. Grid connect reports it as a fan and hence you can't control the light without a lot of mucking about (more later). Also, you can't change the speed of the fan via Alexa without more "hacks".

You can turn the fan on/off with the command "Alexa bedroom fan on/off" (assuming you named it bedroom fan).

To turn the light on/off you need to create a scene within the grid connect app that will turn on/off the light. Then within Alexa you can create a routine that links to the scene. This will work. So in my case if I now say "turn bedroom light on" it will do so.

Note that you still can't control the dimming via voice.

And you also can't link the light to your group. Normally if you have a light linked to an Alexa device in a group (e.g. master bedroom group) Alexa is smart enough to realise that saying "Alexa light off" will turn off the light(s) in that group. Means you don't have to remember exactly what you called the light, and also means you can turn off all lights in one go.

So I'm disappointed. I should have saved some coin and purchased the lower end model without the "smarts".

And unless your a serious geek (as I am) I wouldn't buy this fan for use with Alexa.

I also rang Arlec and despite being nice on the phone were basically useless. I'm not sure if they knew it wouldn't work or just don't know. Either way, exactly zero help.

Note I have read it works better with Google but I can't comment one way or the other about this.