I bought this on Amazon for $178 CDN to try and get it working in Home Assistant (HA). It’s a really nice fan, it’s relatively quiet and it pushes out great air. It can be installed through HACS using the “Dreo Smart Device Integration”. You can find integration information and updates on Git (give them a Thumbs-UP) at GitHub - JeffSteinbok/hass-dreo: Dreo Smart Device Integration for Home Assistant.
Installation requires you install the Dreo App first on your phone, or in my case an IPad (I don’t have a phone). Yet another User name, Password, OR scan to where (I dunno?), which allows the application access to your home router. Once you do that and install the Dreo Integration through HACS you can WiFi control the Fan. It can also be controlled through Amazon Alexa, but you then have to install the Dreo “skill” app to make it voice enabled.
O.K. I did all of this and it worked really well but, here’s my problems…
The installation of integrating the Fan into HA is simple enough “IF” you’re familiar with HA. Myself? 10+yrs integrating devices and setting them up in HA. So I was alright initially with all of this.
Once I installed the App into HA I then installed access to Amazons Alexa “Dreo Skill” and could control the fan settings such as speed, vertical and horizontal “oscillations”. Plus pretty much all of the functionality of the actual Fan such as on-off and the RGB Lights. Yeah the Fan has cool light effects.
Using the HACS integration you can only access the oscillations. There seems to be no settings that I could see which allows you to actually turn the fan off or on, which is pretty much mostly what I wanted to do. Maybe this will change as a feature request in the future?
Overall it is a great fan but all of the signing in and “gatekeepers” you have to integrate into HA is just not worth it. I just wanted a fan to turn on or off in HA. I try and keep everything “local” rather than “server” (Cloud) based applications and getting another User name, Pass code and giving access to my home network is just not for me. I had the same difficulty with Tuya light bulb integration but got Tuya “local” working, until I found that the “TRADFRI” bulbs from IKEA work seamlessly with my Zig-Bee and a CONBEE controller. That’s another story.
So, for a floor fan I just bought a “WooZoo” table fan from Costco for under $40 and returned the $178 Dreo. No WiFi (or fun RGB lights) but the remote works the same functionality and it puts out enough power to cool my studio or bedroom at night (I’d recommend it)! Amazon took the DREO fan return and under a day I got my money back, why I like Amazon. I don’t need all of the functionality or the headaches of “Alexa” on off, fan rotate, fan speed, lights etc. I just wanna “chill” and hang out in my house, without another interrupted conversation trying to access the house when I have my pals, rolling their eyes, and I try and covertly show people how smart my house is. Hope some of my experience helps someone looking to try the Dreo Fans?
