CES can feel like a parade of reinventions — but every so often a familiar household object gets a genuinely clever rethink. At CES 2026 Hunter Fan Company unveiled HunterSMART, a suite of Matter-friendly accessories aimed at making existing homes smarter without demanding a full teardown of your wiring — and alongside it launched ZenTech, a sleeker, quieter line of smart fans.
What Hunter announced
HunterSMART is built around the Matter standard and promises plug-and-play upgrades for common home pieces: a smart plug, a dimmer switch, a touchscreen Smart Wall Panel and a retrofit Smart Fan Upgrade Kit for most AC ceiling fans. There’s also a full ZenTech fan family that showcases the company’s latest design and efficiency work.
Highlights:
- The Smart Fan Upgrade Kit converts many AC-motor ceiling fans into voice- and app-controlled devices compatible with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa and Google Home — without tearing into fan internals or heavy rewiring. (Note: it doesn’t support DC-motor fans.)
- The Smart Wall Panel is a compact touchscreen replacement for old wall switches with direct control of lights and fans, scheduling and built-in Alexa voice support.
- The dimmer switch offers smart control without forcing you into smart bulbs, and the compact plug supports scheduling and automatic state restoration after power loss.
- ZenTech fans use a much slimmer DC motor (about 43% thinner than older designs), come in three- and five-blade as well as bladeless and chandelier-like styles, and include integrated LED lighting with adjustable color temps and dimming.
Hunter says the ZenTech range delivered 33% more air velocity than competitors in 2023 company testing, carries ENERGY STAR certification, and can save a substantial amount of energy versus older AC fans.
Why this matters (and where it might not)
There are two ways to make a home smart: rip-and-replace, or retrofit. Hunter is leaning into the latter, which is huge for folks who like their current fixtures or rent and don’t want major electrical work. Making ceiling fans — an often-overlooked comfort appliance — part of the Matter ecosystem is a practical step toward a less fragmented smart home.
HunterSMART opts for Matter over Wi‑Fi (optimized for 2.4 GHz), which should improve broad compatibility across ecosystems but also means these devices lean on your home Wi‑Fi rather than Thread mesh for local, low-power connectivity. That design choice favors range in larger homes but raises the usual caveats about network congestion and reliance on a central router.
Also worth noting: the retrofit kit’s AC-only limitation means buyers with newer DC-motor fans will either need to replace their fan (ZenTech, for instance) or skip the upgrade kit. ZenTech itself uses a DC motor, so it sits on the replacement side of the equation: sleeker motor, quieter operation, and claimed energy wins.
A step forward for Matter adoption
Hunter’s move nudges yet another long-standing appliance category into the Matter fold, joining efforts from other big players to make smart homes less of a compatibility headache. If you want a reference point for how manufacturers are leaning into Matter to simplify setups and affordability, look at IKEA’s big Matter push — it’s part of the same industry trend toward fewer silos and more unified control.
That said, any expansion of connected devices invites questions about data and control. As homes become more networked and AI systems probe deeper into personal data for convenience features, broader debates about privacy and how those services use your information become relevant; recent chatter about privacy questions raised by AI deep-searching personal data is an example of the kinds of concerns that will follow connected-device rollouts.
What we still don’t know
Hunter’s demos felt mature, but the company hasn’t published pricing or exact availability yet. That’s the practical question most buyers will want answered: how much will retrofitting cost compared with just swapping in a ZenTech fan? Early impressions suggest Hunter is aiming to give homeowners flexible paths — a kit to keep what you have, or a modern fan if you want a cleaner look and a DC motor — but the math will come down to price and installation ease.
If you care about compatibility, energy savings and keeping existing fixtures, Hunter’s approach is compelling. If you’re chasing the absolute quietest motor or already have a DC fan, you’ll want to wait for more details and timing before deciding which route to take.