Fans

This is a small and awkward category, so here is the useful answer first: for most people the right HomeKit fan is an ordinary fan plugged into a smart plug.

A fan is one of the few appliances where that works properly. It has a mechanical switch, it does one thing, and it resumes doing it when power comes back. Set the fan to the speed you want, leave it switched on, and the plug becomes the accessory: on at 11pm, off at 3am, on when the bedroom temperature sensor says it is over 24°C. That is nearly everything people want from a smart fan, for about twenty pounds.

The exception is a fan whose speed you genuinely want to vary from an automation, or a ceiling fan wired into the ceiling with no plug to intercept. That is what the products below are for.

What is actually in this category

Five fans, and we could not verify an Amazon UK listing for any of them. Searches for each by name return DREO and Levoit machines that are not HomeKit accessories at all. Every one of these is a direct or specialist purchase.

Ceiling fan and light in one fitting: Lipro Smart Fan Lamp

The Lipro Smart Fan Lamp combines a ceiling fan and a ceiling light in a single fitting, which in a room with one ceiling rose is often the only way to have both — rather than a fan on the ceiling and a lamp in the corner. Lipro is the smart home brand associated with Meizu, and the fan lamp is certified under Matter, so it joins Apple Home without a manufacturer bridge.

The one people search for: Hunter SIMPLEconnect

Hunter SIMPLEconnect is a range of smart ceiling fans rather than a single product, and it is the name this category gets asked about most. Hunter is an American ceiling fan brand and these are American ceiling fans — sold through US lighting retailers, wired for 120 V, and not a straightforward purchase in Britain.

Free-standing: Smartmi Air Circulator Fan

The Smartmi Air Circulator Fan is the floor-standing option, and an air circulator rather than a conventional fan — designed to move the air in the whole room rather than to blow at a person. Smartmi sells other fans on Amazon UK; this specific model is not among them, and the names are close enough to be worth reading carefully.

Commercial ventilation: VORTICE BRA.VO

The VORTICE BRA.VO M and BRA.VO Qe are Italian, and VORTICE is a ventilation manufacturer rather than a consumer brand. These are specified by installers, not bought online.

Why the category is like this

Ceiling fans are an American and Australian product. British houses mostly do not have them, mostly do not have the ceiling height for them, and mostly want a fan for six weeks a year — so nobody has built a mass-market HomeKit ceiling fan for this market, and the smart plug fills the gap perfectly well.

What to check before you buy

Whether a smart plug does the job. Genuinely ask this before spending more. If the fan has a physical speed dial you are happy to set once, the plug is the better product.

Voltage and frequency, for anything American. A 120 V ceiling fan is not an option on a UK ceiling, and a transformer is not a solution for a motor.

What the fan exposes to Apple Home. A fan accessory can offer on/off, speed as a percentage, oscillation and direction. Cheaper implementations offer on/off and nothing else, which is exactly what the smart plug already gave you.

Reverse, for a ceiling fan. Running a ceiling fan slowly in reverse in winter pushes warm air back down off the ceiling, and it is the feature that makes a ceiling fan worth having outside summer. Check it is exposed to the Home app and not buried in a remote control.

An electrician for anything on a ceiling. As with switches, mains work in a ceiling is notifiable in parts of the UK and is not a job for a confident afternoon.

A home hub. Schedules and temperature-triggered automations need a HomePod or an Apple TV at home — including the smart plug route.

The full list of HomeKit-compatible fans in the directory is below.