Hunter, a popular brand of ceiling fans is now offering an iPhone controllable thermostat for your home. This thermostat boasts a 5 minute installation and is universally compatible with most HVAC systems. It can be used with 4 AA batteries for up to one year or a common wire. A lack of a common wire is where I ran into some problems with the Venstar ColorTouch thermostat I reviewed a few weeks ago… Once installed this thermostat features 7 day individual programming which can be adjusted via an iOS app or a web browser on a tablet or laptop. The Hunter Universal Internet Thermostat retails for only $99.99.
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Neat thermostat, but just iPhone? As someone who can’t (and never will) stand that little, underpowered, walled-garden exercise in control and exclusion, hopefully it’s an over-site by the writer -rather than by Hunter Inc- regarding the 500 Million Android devices already in use .. and the 40 Million more of them activated every single month? That’s a Billion Android devices during 2013. Companies can’t be so dense as to ignore a billion-device market segment. For long. 🙂
@Alicia- Didyou even bother to read the article or click on the link to the manufacturer’s web site? Maybe spend a little less time cheerleading for Android and more time actually reading content.
Alicia, why so narrow-minded, this is a very cool device, as Marc point out read up!
Fanbois say “what”? Why should I have to go fact-check an article? Why read here at all if I have to also go read elsewhere to get the real info? There’s a perfectly good word called “smartphone” which refers to -all- smartphones. iPhone, OTOH, refers to iPhones. See the problem? Did U even read my comment, I -said- it was Neat. Now, show me anywhere in the article (Here) that is says ‘smartphones’ or ‘also Android’. … Waiting…
Alicia,
There may have been a slight over sight on leaving out the fact that the U.I.T has been design to work with most Smartphones and web enabled devices. We have developed multiple portals to be able to work with these devices and more. All you would need to do is log on to my.hunterfan.com with your web enabled device.
I think my news post was pretty clear… “via an iOS app or a web browser on a tablet or laptop.” Sometimes people skim read and miss important details though.
This ^^^
Aside from being a totally useless “news post?” Alicia completely hit the nail on the head here and if it wasn’t for her comment I would have come away from this “news post” with the only “news worthy” pertinent new feature for a thermostat being wrong.
“via an iOS app or a web browser on a tablet or laptop.”
Since the only operating system you mention is iOS your statement reads ‘via an iOS app or safari on an iPad or iOS laptop’
Total screw-up Julie..
Thanks Alicia..
@Alan I don’t see the “screw-up” as you call it. I stated that you can adjust the settings with an iOS app -or- a web browser on a tablet or laptop. Since when has there been an iOS laptop on the market?
I have to agree with Alicia. After all, she is just complaining about how some companies do not (and sometimes read ‘will not’) create android apps for their products. And for the record, how many of use really prefer using a website over an app on our phones. (And as she said, there are a lot of android users.) Alicia also points out that the article does not state smartphones, but instead states, “… a web browser on a tablet or laptop.” This omission leads me believe that Hunter’s mobile website (as far as android is concerned) either sucks or is nonfunctional. Something else that I find conveniently omitted is that you have to pay to use the my.hunter website or app. Although, it’s not Julie’s fault; because Hunter conveniently hides this (and the price) in its terms and conditions. (And who ever really reads those). Hunter should be up front about the added cost so people don’t have to find out about it 3 months after they have installed their product.
I would caution non-iOS users, particularly if they’re outside of the US. The literature may say that it supports any web connected computer, tablet or smartphone, you may have some issues getting it set up, at which point you will have a rather expensive and very limited thermostat. Most of the features are only accessible via the iOS app and/or website, but to use them, you first need to set up an account, log in and add your device. This requires a zipcode or postal code. After several hours, several different computers, several different browsers and two different android based smart phones, none of which was able to successfully get past the zip/postal code entry, we decided to enter a five-digit US postal code. It went a bit further, but still didn’t add the device. Other problems were that the website seems to be missing save buttons on the Account settings pages for selecting Celsius display and 24 hour time, so you can select these things, but there’s no way to actually save those settings to your account so selecting them here doesn’t achieve anything. Fortunately, we had an old iPhone 3GS lying about that we resurrected and were able to install the app, add the device and set the desired settings there. After about 20 minutes, those same settings also started showing up via the website and on the unit and things started to work better. It looks like the website will work for us ok now that we’re set up, but we never could have gotten there without an iOS device to do the initial setup. Hunter need to fix that website. For Android users, there is a mobile version of the website which looks quite decent and so far seems to work ok aside from the initial setup problems already mentioned. Maybe an actuall app would be better, but it’s hard to say. If the website actually worked, I think it would be fine. Note however, that we’re still to put it through it’s paces and try to program some schedules, yet.
Also worth mentioning is that the device seems to be entirely dependant on the Hunter website for all the advanced features and while your first 3 months access are free, after that you either need to pay 9.99 per year, or a one-time 49.99 fee for lifetime access. You can also opt out and pay nothing, but the terms and conditions have wording to the effect that you may lose all of your schedules and other settings if your account is terminated. I’m also curious as to what would happen if Hunter were to disappear or for some reason decide to discontinue the service. I’d be a lot more comfortable with a device that still allowed you to program it locally as well. I also feel that the overall architecture of the solution is a bit much. I can kinda understand the motivation – aiming for non-technical users to be able to just install and use it without any thinking or lengthy setup process, but really “entering a pesky SSID” is not that hard and it’s a one-time setup thing. I’d happily pay $150 or more for a thermostat with it’s own internal web server that allows me remote access on my devices directly via my network without needing to rely on some company half-way across the continent to configure my thermostat every time I am feeling cold. Whatever, it was a Christmas gift for us, but I don’t think the technology is quite where it needs to be, yet. I think there are relatively easy non-technical setup options which need not rely on some external server half-way around the world and such a solution would be much better.
I bought the hunter thermostat with the box that stated worked with all smartphones.( I have android)after I got it home and installed, I discovered no app was available for android. Yeah I can access it on the web on my phone but that takes forever and might as well wait to get home to turn it on. Needless to say, I returned it the same day and Purchased a Honeywell wifi thermostat for $150. This thermostat has learning abilities to control itself, tells you how much you’ve saved so far so you know you didn’t waste your money, Plus it has a Android app. I love it . worth the extra 50 bucks. Oh yeah no 9.99 a year for wireless remote service. I pay enough for my wireless internet! Hunter usually makes good product but this thermostat leaves a bad thought in my head about Hunter brand.
Don’t buy it! I bought it – installed C wire etc and go to register it with the ipod app. It didn’t work.. Called Hunter. They have discontinued support for the ipod app and online app ALREADY. So you have a wifi thermostat that only functions as a normal thermostat. Hunter advised me to return mine, they are refunding other customers that have had theirs longer.
Lowes fortunately gave me a deal on the $150 Honeywell since it was their screw up for selling discontinued items…..
Honeywell isn’t as nice looking but more functional in the end…