Hampton Bay Midili 44-inch Ceiling Fan Review

When I added a room to my home a few years ago, I made a couple of mistakes with the ceiling lighting. The room, which is now the dining room, doesn't have enough light and the lights that it has are a little too close to the ceiling fan. Because the lights are a bit too close, it causes some flickering in places where the light from the ceiling fixtures passes through the blades of the ceiling fan.

Another problem I created in this room was the way I wired the ceiling fan. I ran a single-circuit wire to the fan instead of a dual-circuit. This makes it much more difficult to have a fan with an integrated light fixture, as there is no easy way to control the light separately from the fan. One way to fix this is to get a ceiling fan/light combo that has a wireless remote control, so I found myself buying the Hampton Bay Midili 44-inch Ceiling Fan, which comes with a wireless remote control for both the fan speed and light. I paid $110 for the Midili at Home Depot.

What it is

The Hampton Bay Midili is a more-or-less standard ceiling fan with an integrated light fixture. The fan blades have an overall diameter of 44 inches, which Hampton Bay says is adequate for a "small" room. The blades are semi-gloss black on one side and simulated wood grain on the other side. Hanging below the fan is a simple contemporary-looking light fixture that uses a 14-Watt fluorescent screw-in bulb. The fan is trimmed with metal that looks like stainless steel.

The package came with all the necessary mounting hardware except for a couple of screws that came with the ceiling electrical box. The Hampton Bay Midili ceiling fan even came with a light bulb -- nice!

The box for the Hampton Bay Midili had the following number on it: 903 913. I don't know if that is a part number or an SKU, but it might be helpful if you're trying to track down this particular fan.

Installing it

Nothing about installing the Hampton Bay Midili was rocket science but a couple parts of it were tricky. At one point, with the fan assembled, I had to lift it up to the ceiling mount and correctly hang the support rod. This takes decent arm strength and it's all overhead. The parts were a tight fit but eventually went together with a bit of struggling. Of course, I was on top of an eight-foot ladder and had to do this by myself. A helper on a second ladder would have made the installation a lot easier.

One reason this was a tight fit was because of the remote control receiver that mounts inside the fan's ceiling trim. The remote control receiver is a yellow plastic box that just barely fit into its mounting space. And the instructions were not all that clear about exactly where the remote control receiver should go but there's really only one place to install it -- see my pictures (above right) to get an idea of the installation.

Using it

Once installed, the Hampton Bay Midili ceiling fan works like a charm. The fan speed is easily controlled from the wireless remote control, as is the light. On its low speed, I don't feel any air stirring from the fan, although the fan is dead quiet. However, I certainly feel air stirring with the fan on its medium speed. At medium, there is a very faint hum coming from the fan, quieter than the buzz I heard from the old fan at a similar speed. On its high speed, the Hampton Bay Midili moves too much air for my needs.

The light also turns on and off with a simple touch of a button on the remote. The remote has a little plastic mount that I attached to the wall next to the fan's control switch. The fan can be controlled from this spot or it will work with the wireless controller in my hand.

To change the direction of the fan's rotation, you have to get on a ladder and reach above the fan to a switch (see picture). This is awkward to say the least, particularly since experts recommend changing the fan direction depending on whether you are heating or cooling. That means sliding that awkwardly placed switch twice a year. The bottom line for me is that I have my ceiling fans blowing down and I never adjust the fan direction. Hampton Bay should have incorporated reversing the direction into the remote control for the Midili ceiling fan.

Summary

I like the crisp look of the Hampton Bay Midili ceiling fan. Too many fans have gaudy light fixtures but the Midili light fixture is plain and simple, just how I like it. I also like the quiet operation of the fan and the remote control works perfectly so far. Having the remote solved the problem where there was not a separate circuit to control a fan-mounted light.

I wish the Hampton Bay Midili would work with a brighter bulb than a 14-Watt fluorescent -- a 20-Watt bulb would be my choice. However, it does add light to the room and its position below the fan blades helps minimize the flickering from the other ceiling light fixtures.

I recommend the Hampton Bay Midili 44-inch ceiling fan. Although it was a little tricky to install, it looks nice and works beautifully.