App Profile: Flair - Climate Control

ibderPlau

Rating: 2/5

The puck (hardware) does what it’s supposed to do, though the build quality feels cheap. It’s missing the ability to control several features of my mini/split, though some were added in the recent firmware update. While I understand the need to avoid rapid on/off cycles, they need to introduce a way that the system turns off completely when the actual temp is way above/below the set point in scheduled mode. The software is a mess. It feels like a minimally functional version of software to sell the hardware. Several of the adjustment widgets appear to be embedded in selectable text fields so that when you try to slide to adjust temperature you get a blue text selection indicator. The main “dial”-style adjuster to set temperature is oversensitive, making it near impossible to easily adjust temperature by a couple of degrees. The “hold” function (to temporarily override a scheduled temp) defaults to “permanent”, with no obvious way to change it to a shorter period when setting; and the facility that looks like it should allow you to set a duration just doesn’t work. Overall it’s a worthwhile product, if only to be able to adjust my mini split remotely. But overall the software needs major work.

mikemy

Rating: 2/5

This is a great idea. I have an east facing room that needs full air in the morning to keep cool but gets too cold in the afternoon/evening when the west side is getting full sun snd being cooled, even with multiple room sensors. This seemed to be the ideal solution to be able to better control the air flow to rooms when I need it. The software is not easy to use and there is no easy way to just set a schedule to turn the vent on and off. After digging through the help information, there were instructions to game the system temperature settings to get the vent to do what I wanted. I noticed though that integrating it with my smart thermostat, I got weird temperature holds and my schedule to cool the house for sleep based on other room sensors didn’t work, even though reading the support material, this shouldn’t happen. Eventually, I deleted everything, set up the Flair vent separately as if I had a dumb thermostat, and then followed the instructions to game the temperature settings to open/close the vent and it seems to work as I intended. A big pain to get there though. Still, great promise with this product if they can make improvements with the software.

evojacks

Rating: 2/5

The flair vents work great. Pucks once calibrated are working fine as well. The app on the other hand is often frustrating to use. I find myself having to adjust temps multiple times because if I hold my finger too long on any given spot the app will act as if I’m trying to copy and paste something. Like the area I’m placing my finger on actually gets selected. It’s weird and I’ve never experienced that in an app before. Maybe simple up and down arrows would work better? Temp often jumps a few degrees from the temperature I’m trying to select. There’s a refresh icon in the top right corner but I can’t tell if it does anything because there’s no status bar for the refresh. I suppose I can alleviate my frustration by just setting schedules and not having to deal with the app, but I’m constantly adjusting things to keep my family comfortable, so that’s not really an option. I hope this app evolves into the great app it could potentially be.