Hello fellow HA’ers. There are a few older threads on single gang fan/light combo smart switches, but all of them require tweaking to make them work, with variable success as reported by others. After waiting patiently for years, I saw a new product on the market from Meross, and I decided to take the plunge and try it, despite not being officially documented as working with HA and being so new there were no reviews at the time on Amazon!
My house is driven by HA, so anything I add needs to work with both. I’m pleased to report that this does perfectly. I actually ordered three of them. I replaced each of the old single-gang, split-switch manual fan/light controls first. My house is 1950s era in the US, so some of the boxes are small, but this switch still fit inside with enough room for all the wiring, just. You will need 5 wires in your box for this switch: hot, fan load, light load, neutral, and ground. If you are replacing an old set of controls, you’ll probably have them, but if it is a switch that pre-dates 1985, you are likely missing the neutral wire. Don’t be tempted to use the ground for this - not code and a bad idea!
Once the hardware was installed, to have it speak to both HomeKit and HA I used the HomeKit Device and Bridge integrations. It connects via WiFi. It does not use Matter/Thread. I’ll give details for folks who are newer to HA and might not have done this before.
- Add it to HomeKit first with the “+” add device button and then select “Other Method” and enter the HomeKit code on the unit. I didn’t use the Meross app.
- Delete it in Apple Home. I know, you just added it, but delete it.
- In HA, add a HomeKit Device Integration. It should find the switch automatically. If you haven’t added and then deleted the device in Apple Home, this step will not work.
- Again in HA, add the new device to a HomeKit Bridge integration to share it back to Apple Home. It will be available in both HA and Home now.
- Now find the device in the Meross app to access advanced controls not available in HA or Home. I chose the option to remember the last state.
That’s it. I get voice control with Siri, controls in Home and HA, and access to automations etc. in both. All my automations are in HA.
The manual controls on this are okay. The fan and light are independently controlled with small inset buttons. One click turns on/off, and double clicks cycle through fan speed or light brightness. They are inset within a large paddle which toggles the state of the little switches between on/off. Finding the large toggle in the dark is easy, the little switches a bit harder. Double clicking to cycle is mildly tedious, but in such a compact switch probably the best possible option.
Overall, I’m extremely happy so far. The switch does exactly what I’ve been waiting for years to come on to the market. I’m not a Meross employee and I don’t get any kickbacks for this. 