New Bridge Device – Flair

Nickv2002

I noticed an iOS update mentioned adding support for the Flair Bridge and I found this product page that appears to be a new bridge device: https://flair.co/products/bridge but there's not many details on that page.

I've got one vent in my home that often reports that it can't contact my puck so I'm looking for a device to amplify/augment those connections. Would this new bridge do the trick? I'd love to see some details about it.

Comments

52 comments

Evan Adams

OH THIS IS EXCITING! If I could get rid of these stupid pucks all over the house I'd be ecstatic!

Todd Stotesberry

Can of worms: Is the new box capable of locally controlling Vents/Pucks?

Evan Adams

I got it.

Looks to take the roll of pucks! Will have to see what the range is.  Most of my rooms have Ecobee sensors and pucks... hmm... I don't know if I needed to impulse buy this.  But whatever.

Todd Stotesberry

Is the term hvacOS new? I don't remember seeing reference to that in older materials.

Nickv2002

Looks like the product page ( https://flair.co/products/bridge ) has been updated with a lot of product details. 👍

In particular, this is news to me an probably lots of you who already run central HVAC systems:

For central HVAC systems with ductwork: A Bridge is required.

(I do have a puck obviously, so maybe the language here is just saying you need a bridge instead of a puck)

Robert Drinovac

It seems to be just the language and could use some rewording/elaboration using some common scenarios to clear up confusion.

Potential examples of when you need a bridge.

Central HVAC systems:

  1. With Flair Puck/Pucks: If you are currently using a Puck/Pucks to control Flair vents and are seeking to improve connectivity to the vents.
  2. Only using supported 3rd party temperature sensors: To automate control of Flair vents when only using supported 3rd party temperature sensors.
  3. Not using Flair Puck(s) or supported 3rd party temperature sensors: To control Flair vents manually.

The wording used at the moment makes it seem like past customers are not going to be able to continue using their Flair setups unless they get a bridge, which clearly isn't the case.

Edit:

I just spoke to someone from the pre-sales support staff. According to them, you will still be able to use a puck as a gateway. Listing the bridge as "required" is an attempt to improve the user experience (for both initial setup and connection reliability) for new user - for existing users, if they are facing the problem of pucks and vents being too far away from each other to maintain a reliable connection, a bridge would also improve their experience. A new user planning their purchase won't know for sure if a puck placed on one side of the house will be able to maintain a consistent connection to vents placed on the other side of the house. If that user were to run into connectivity issues, it would sour their Flair ecosystem experience from the start. Using a bridge would decrease/eliminate the likelihood of this happening.

Although the bridge is a step in the right direction for improving the user experience, the wording should be revisited to eliminate confusion for existing customers.

Kruse Ludington

"...the wording should be revisited to eliminate confusion for existing customers." They are shooting themselves in the foot here, selling the new bridge as "better coverage" than the older puck when in fact then the new bridge doesn't have any temperature sensor built in - so tell the client they are getting more while taking something away... So a new client is encouraged to buy the new bridge but then they need to buy additional hardware... lol. Wow.

Steve Rossi

I don't suppose they thought to make the bridge have a POE option? It would be wonderful to put this on the ceiling in the center of the house and just run Ethernet to it.

Nickv2002

I picked up the bridge and it's filling a gap in my network well enough (no surprise as it's several rooms over from a puck). Glad I don't have to buy a puck for this since I didn't need its features, just more range on the wireless network.

I would like a PoE option also, but this version would require an external adapter for that. Probably not too difficult to do as it doesn't require much power: the brick it comes with outputs 5V at 1Amp to a USB-C input connector on the bridge.

Anthony Berkemeyer

I received my new bridge today and am very pleased with the results so far. I had two smart vents that would intermittently disconnect and one other vent that would regular disconnect. Setup of the bridge was easy and RSSI levels for all smart vents improved. So far, all are connected with no issues.

Given the cost of the puck, I just didn't want to invest in another puck and had mostly given up on the one vent that was the most finicky. There was just no point having another puck just to extend the network. When I saw the bridge become available it made a lot more sense. Now I may actually look at building out on more smart vents for other areas.

With regards to PoE, there are several PoE splitters available online that could get the job done. I may look into that as well.

JacobG

I just installed mine a couple days ago. For some odd reason the bridge randomly goes orange and goes offline and  have to reboot it. 2nd time this week its happened so far

Aleks

I also got the bridge and been running for about a week, It drops out frequently, although the switch doesn't show any issues with connectivity to the device.

Aleks

here we go again....