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Cielo Breez Plus Smart Air Conditioner Controller review (at 1 week)

The Cielo Breez Plus Smart Air Conditioner Controller turns a standard IR controlled AC into something quite a bit smarter. It works with an app, Google Assistant/Home, Alexa, Siri, IFTTT, and Smarthings as well.

Cielo Breez Plus Smart Air Conditioner Controller
I’m using stock pictures because I’m lazy today

I mentioned some problems I had with temperature control at my house and the incredibly rigged solutions that finally failed when my wife started working from home a significant portion of the time. I had to plunk down quite a bit of money for an upstairs AC that was not window mounted even though my rigging and Midea unit did the job, they couldn’t any more unless I wanted to either freeze her out, or make any call she had to make sound like she was in a wind tunnel.

I ended up getting a Blue Ridge 20.5 Seer split system that is decidedly un-smart. There’s a USB port if I wanted to plug in an app controller, but if I wanted to do much I needed something like the Breez. I’d seriously hoped to do this in the Nest ecosystem, but that was not happening according to the people I was speaking to. Oh well.

My AC installer handed me the box and said “you figure this out.” while he was installing the split. It took about two minutes to set up and then about 12 seconds to pair. Enter pairing mode, point existing remote at it, press power, Cielo Breez recognized all the commands available on the controller (I think,) and suddenly they’re in the app. I don’t as of yet know how to say a couple of them to Google Home to get them to work. Commands such as making the vent change direction automatically are in the app, I just don’t know how to ask for that yet.

Went to Google Home, added the service, and now I can say things like “Hey Google, set the upstairs thermostat to 68 degrees” and a second later I hear the beep from the AC that it got a command and my upstairs starts its journey to arctic temperatures.

The Breez can be powered by hard wiring 12/24volt, or any USB port within a few feet. I’ve got mine via USB at the moment because frankly I’m broke at the moment and running wiring and installing a transformer is too rich for my blood. Yeah, the install was about $1200 more than I expected after that kitchen remodel. So pity my freezing ass.

The app has triggers to apply scenarios based on humidity, temperature, or location. I’m currently in the learning phase of how to make the whole house the right temperature as this has destroyed my Nest programming scheme (had to get the house cooler at certain times or the upstairs would bake.) I’m expecting to set the scenario up that I want is going to require Tasker or IFTTT (turn on fan during certain downstairs temperature conditions to use the upstairs return.

I’m not sure exactly where I want the controller to end up, but the USB power source makes it both easy and difficult to pick a right location. The smart assistant incorporation means I don’t have to touch it, but the IR light means it needs to be line of site to the base unit.

Overall, satisfied at the moment. It’s priced about $15 higher than I think it should be everywhere I can locate, but then again I’m cheap.

If you’ve got a dual 2.4/5ghz router be aware this only works on the 2.4 band. I did not have trouble with it recognizing the 2.4, which has the same name as my 5, so I suspect you will not either. Set up was well done.

The only thing that this has not done correctly in the week I have had it was update firmware. It updated, claimed it failed to update, wanted me to reboot the device which I couldn’t at the time, and about 20 minutes later it said the firmware was up to date and the thing was fine. I was able to control it the entire time. Not sure if that was an app glitch, actual issue, or not but that is the only thing to note thus far.

I’ll follow up and link below as time goes on.

You can grab a Cielo Breez Plus Smart Air Conditioner Controller at Amazon, or anywhere. It was the same price through the AC supply.

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Paul E King

Paul King started with GoodAndEVO in 2011, which merged with Pocketables, and as of 2018 he's evidently the owner. He lives in Nashville, works at a film production company, is married with two kids. Facebook | Twitter | Donate | More posts by Paul | Subscribe to Paul's posts

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