I have two Minka fans, in two different residences. The first one, a couple of years old, has both the wall switch and the remote. I use mostly the wall switch and rarely the remote; the remote lives in the nightstand.

Last week or so, I had a second fan put in in a condo in Florida. The electrician talked me into just having the remote, even though there had been a fan in that place before (broken now) that was controlled by a wall switch. I was annoyed with myself for not insisting that he hook up the wall switch (when I changed the switchplate myself later on, I found a disconnected small box inside the outlet..sorry do not know the real names of these things)

In any case, I've been using only the remote since I put in the fan and it is fine...great that you do not have to get out of bed to turn it on or turn it down. It is a nice looking remote so I would not hesitate to hang it on the wall although I did not.

I know you need more solid answers but that is all I can tell you....the fans themselves are terrific..quiet and great looking. I think I mentioned on the other thread that I am going to buy a third one eventually, to replace an ugly brass-color and black fan in the condo den.

What do you mean about the remote requiring full power to be on to the fan and its light?

I'm not sure I know what I mean! :) But I think if a traditional wall switch has the fan set to medium, and the light half way dimmed, that this would cause major problems if you then tried to use the remote to do something. For example, I don't think the remote could then make the light any brighter, or the fan any higher, than what the traditional wall switch has them set to. With the $30 Minka Aire wall switch, I don't think there would be any conflict, since it basically acts as a second remote.

Continuing our earlier discussion, the pic was for a fan that I don't use the light, the switch next to it was for the rooms can lights. Here is a switch we used in a room where we did use the fan light. Just so you don't think you need two switches for it.

I like #3

we have #1 at our lake house and the remote control is always lost or misplaced.

we did #3 with the fans in our house ( not Minka, another brand), and I would do it again.

keywest...nice job of explaining everything with choices, options etc.

We have #1 in our master bedroom and #2 in our living room. Yes, #1 looks tacky. And I can already tell you, it will be lost or misplaced. Go for #2 or #3.

I'm not in FL right this minute. Will be back next week, but in one bedroom I believe we have slider switches for all the lights and the fan. There's a slider switch for the hall light, for the fan and a separate one for the light on the fan. Similar to this

Once I get back I can take a quick picture of the one I have. I agree with the others, don't do just the remote.

Virgil: How difficult is it to wire the fan now that it is already installed and uses only the remote? I wish I had asked about this before the electrician's visit. Should have figured his advice was based on him having to do less work! (He also installed an outlet for a Toto Washlet and told me NOT to affix the remote holder to the wall! Imagine a toilet remote just floating around in a bathroom? How many times would it fall into the bowl??

Getting back to the fan, as I mentioned, there was a small box with wires in the space behind the wall fan controls; this was from an ugly old fan. I threw it out when I put a blank in the space on the wall. If I wanted electrician to wire the Minka fan so I could use the wall switch, what would I have to buy in order for him to do that? Does whatever that is have to be Minka, for that specific fan? Many thanks and sorry for the intrusion!

ekscrunchy: did the old fan have a single switch (one wire running from the switch to the fan), or two switches (two separate wires controlling the light and fan separately)? It should only take an electrician 30 minutes to put a new switch where there used to be one. Now, if there is only one wire running from the switch to the fan, then when you turn on the switch on/off, both the fan and light will go on/off together. Old-school fans would have that metal string hanging down to change light brightness and fan speed. But I'm guessing the Minka doesn't have that, so you'd need the remote to dim the light, or change the fan speed.

eta: Or, you can get that $30 Minka switch that I posted about above. It doesn't require any wire connecting it to the fan. Electrician can also install in 30 mins. Just make sure the specs say it is compatible with your model Minka.

I have the Minka fans (Java) and the remote sucks. Virtually useless. I don't lose the remote...not that hard to keep it in the same place all the time. My issue is it just doesn't control the fan. I've tried everything. I do have an on/off switch on the wall, so I set them manually to circulate down at medium speed. But really..

We have both switch and remote for living room and master bedroom. The remote is great for bedroom because I can adjust the speed of the fan from my bed. Of course from the switch, it is always on and set to high. If for some reason, the remote gets lost I still have the wall control. If you have a fan in a room that has entrance from two different rooms/location - or the switch is two way, then it is best not to do remote.

We went with Option #2. I think it is the most functional option and eliminates the possibility of losing the remote. If your plan for #3 is to use a Lutron fan control or something similar, you should note that many standard fan controls don't operate properly with Minka Aire fans. We tried a Lutron RadioRA 2 4-speed fan control with our Minka Aire fan and it didn't work.

Eh, I think it's all much ado about nothing. As a lifelong Southerner, I adore ceiling fans and have them in every main room of my house, but I see no point in remotes and fancy additions. What does matter:

- Unless your room is quite small, choose a large fan: 50-something inch total. I'd also suggest you choose a model with five blades; more blades = more air circulation.

- You probably want a fan with a light; sometimes fans come with lights, other times they're sold separately
- You want to choose something that will suit your home; some of the styles are quite different. Note that some fans come with two different "looks" to the blades, depending upon which side you mount "showing".

- You want two switches on the wall: One to control the light and one to control the fan. Forget the variable speed stuff; ceiling fans aren't something that you adjust ... ever ... except for on and off. Realistically, you run it on slow in the winter, when you want to push down the warm air from the ceiling ... and you run it on high the rest of the year. Twice a year you can pull the chain.

- Forget the remote; again, ceiling fans aren't really something that you're going to want to turn on and off.- You want to go with a heavy-duty junction box in the ceiling to support it well. Ceiling fans are heavy. If your fan isn't well mounted, it will be noisy and eventually shake itself loose and fall down on you.

ekscrunchy wrote, "...How difficult is it to wire the fan now that it is already installed and uses only the remote?..."

Well, I suspect there may be two important issues in adding hard wiring: 1) What types and manufacturers of controls will the Minka fan accept, and 2) What's involved in getting control wiring from the fan location to the preferred wall location(s)?

If the space is still under construction and open, then it's a simple matter to wire the control or controls (if you want/need more than one). If the space is closed off and finished (or at least all the walls and ceiling is closed off), it's still doable, but it's more time and labor intensive because the wiring has to be fished or the drywall cut so that the wiring can be added and then redrywalled. What's you situation?

The walls are closed off, but there was a fan on the ceiling before. The electrician took that one out and put the Minka in. The previous fan had stopped working after the painters left a few months ago, but I am not even sure why that happened and they had no idea. (I made the mistake of having work done when I was not present..never do that again).

The wall controls were so dirty that I bought a new outlet plate and a blank and when I took the dirty old fan control off, I saw that rectangular space in the wall where there was sitting a box with some wires which I guess must have been the box for the previous fan. But it was not hooked up. I am thankful for the help here and sorry I do not know enough to put it in the correct working...trying to learn, though!!