TREATLIFE Smart Ceiling Fan Control and Dimmer Light Switch, 2.4GHz WiFi Only, Neutral Wire Required, Single Pole Fan & Light Switch Combo, Works with Alexa, Google Home & SmartThings, Remote Control

Works great–once you get through the installation…
I have a number of Hunter fan/light wall controls in our home, which have generally worked well–so when it came time to add another fan as we finished our basement, I tried to get another. Unfortunately for them, they’re out of them during COVID–and after waiting months for them to get new stock, I finally gave up and tried this model instead. And I’m very glad I did! My family loves being able to control the fan and light via our Alexa.However, all that praise comes AFTER I got past installation…When I was first ordering this control, I noticed that its Amazon page mentions multiple times (including directly in the item title!) “neutral wire required”. Again, on the carton, boldly highlighted in yellow, “Neutral wire required….confirm whether there is a neutral wire inside the switchbox before opening the package.” Again multiple times in the instruction manual–“neutral wire required”. Am I misunderstanding something, or don’t ALL fans and lights–and for that matter, ALL household circuits–use a neutral wire? That’s an awful lot of emphasis for something that is standard.What ISN’T mentioned nearly as prominently is the fact that this control requires a SECOND LOAD wire between the control and the fan. MANY fans are wired with only one load wire–typically 14-2 wiring. (That is, one load wire-black, one neutral wire-white, and one ground wire-bare copper.) The light and fan are then controlled by pull chains at the fan. 14-2 wiring won’t work with this control–you need 14-3 wiring, which has an additional load wire (typically red). THIS IS THE WARNING WHICH SHOULD BE EMPHASIZED FOR CUSTOMERS, NOT THE NEUTRAL WIRE.The next step is figuring out which wires are which–at both the switch, and at the fan. At the switch, the manual schematic shows that the yellow wire from the switch should be connected to a yellow wire from the wall, the red wire from the control should be connected to the red wire from the wall, and black to black, white to white, and green to green. It further states that “The wire colors indicated in this manual are the usual colors…” NOT TRUE! Most 14-3 wiring has a black wire, a red wire, a white wire, and a bare copper wire leading to the fan. (They don’t use yellow because in certain fluorescent lighting, white and yellow can be hard to differentiate.) The power supply wire is typically 14-2–consisting of black, white, and bare. So the correct wiring is:–Black wire on control to the black wire in the 14-2 bundle in the wall–White wire on control to both white wires in the wall–Green wire on control to both bare copper wires in the wall–Red wire on control to the red wire* in the wall–Yellow wire on control to the black wire* in the 14-3 bundle in the wall* These two may need to be switched–it depends on how the wires are connected in your fanTreatLife really should update their wiring schematic to more clearly explain this wiring. Having done a number of fan and control installations, I can say that most other manufacturers explain this much better. Someone with electrical experience will have no problems–but without clearer instructions, many lay people will struggle.Once you get this done, the next fun step was getting the app installed and running. The controller only supports 2.4Ghz networks. My router is dual band–5Ghz/2.4Ghz, so it would seem there would be no problem there. However, my phone automatically chooses which one to be on–there’s no way to force it to the other–and it was choosing to be 5Ghz. So I couldn’t talk to the controller. Both the manual and the app provide instructions on how to get your router to be only 2.4Ghz, but my router couldn’t use those instructions. After some internet research, I ended up walking down the street for about a block until I was far enough away that my phone lost the 5Ghz signal, and thus connected to 2.4Ghz. A hassle–but, hopefully, only a one-time hassle.Once you connect, and then go through the process to connect the controller to your Alexa, the Alexa actually finds TWO devices–one of which is named something like “DS03 Ceiling Fan Controller”, and the other whose name is a series of Oriental characters. (I’m not familiar enough with languages of that part of the world to know if they’re Mandarin, Japanese, or something else.) The controller actually treats the fan and the light as two separate devices–the device with the non-alpha name is the light. Once you realize that and rename it to what you want, the rest was quite easy. Although I will mention that if you look for assistance on either their website or their app, you do get to some pages which are a little hard to understand, as they were written by someone who clearly isn’t a native English speaker. They made a valiant effort–but TechLife may want to invest in better translators and/or tech writers.So, with installation complete–both I and my family love this controller. The manual controls are easy, clear, and logical, and the Alexa controls work consistently well. A couple of the small chiclet buttons on the control feel like they may be a bit flimsy, so it’ll be interesting to see how they hold up–but that may just be me adjusting to the latest in modern technology. 🙂 I know I’ve probably dwelt a bit too much on the negatives in this review, so let me end by saying that it really is an impressive controller. I look forward to installing more of TechLife’s products in my home–perhaps even replacing some of my beloved Hunter fan controls!

During our renovations we bought a cheap Harbor Breeze ceiling fan from Lowes. It was wired by the contractor with pull chains on a single switch (yuck). I was skeptical this switch would be able to work with it — especially the ability to dim the light/fan speed. However, I read a couple other reviews and I had neutral wires running into the switch box, so thought I would give it a go.It works like a charm. The instructions were well laid out, and the wire labels were really helpful while I was trying to figure out how to rewire the fan (to avoid the pull chains). I hooked it up to our google home (there is a smart speaker in that room) and now we can control light dimmer and fan speed with our voice. Pretty cool party trick!The google home setup was a little awkward (it shows up as two separate devices, and the name of the light switch defaulted to some Chinese characters) – but once I noticed the two new devices, I was able to control everything easily.Go for it.

Very easy to control the fan and lights. The dimming is very easy to manipulate, tap the + or – to change brightness in increments or hold for a continuous change in brightness then release at the desired setting. No delay for controlling the brightness it remains the same at the point of releasing the button. Some devices have a delay where the brightness continues to change after releasing the buttons. The best feature of this device is the app. Control your fan and light from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, select your desired fan speed or vary the lamp brightness as your hearts content. Set up schedules and timers to run the fan at specific speeds and or lamp brightness. This is just awesome!Installation is not for the average joe you will be working with electricity and need to take the necessary precautions.UPDATE:So I’ve been using this for almost a year now and I found that the schedule doesn’t work very well. Whenever you create a scheduled task there is a slider that allows you to activate or deactivate (on/off) the task. I find that these keep on turning themselves off and as a result the schedule doesn’t work properly. 😒 I guess you can’t have everything. I use the android version of the app.

I installed this a few days ago to control an older-model ceiling fan and light at my cottage. The installation went well and the switch connected to my wifi without any significant problems.I needed this wifi-controlled switch because I plan to turn on my electric fan heaters remotely to warm the cottage up before I arrive, which usually takes at least a few hours or even longer if it’s cold. The fan is perched high in the vaulted ceiling and is necessary to mix the warm and cold air. The wifi thermostat for the forced air fan heaters (Sinope TH11124WF, reviewed separately on Amazon) also works quite well.I really like the app (called Treatlife). It’s pretty slick; as good as I’ve used with my many wifi devices. In fact, I liked the app enough that when I went to replace another light switch, I bought a Treatlife product so I can use the same app. I now have over a dozen proprietary wifi apps, which can get to be cumbersome, so I’m starting to buy products from manufacturers that I know and like for both their products and their apps.It seemed a little expensive for what it is, but it works well so I’m satisfied.Regards, Mark