Developer Cuts Air Purifier From Cloud, Runs It Locally
A developer bypassed cloud-dependent controls on a discontinued Wi-Fi air purifier and connected it directly to Home Assistant.
Updated on Nov. 15, 2026 in Appliances
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A developer disconnected a discontinued Coway Airmega IconS air purifier from Coway's cloud and linked it to Home Assistant, which lacks official support for the device. The change follows Coway's rebranding of its app and cloud from IoCare to IoCare+.
Why it matters
Cloud-dependent smart appliances can stop working when manufacturers change or retire their services, leaving owners of discontinued devices with limited options. Local control offers a way to keep a device functional without relying on the manufacturer's servers.
The developer-reported local setup requires Home Assistant Core 2026.10.2 or newer and a Bluetooth setup link that expires after 15 minutes. The earlier cloud-based integration broke one to two times per year, and it is unclear whether Coway will end cloud support.
The players
Coway
Coway is a South Korean appliance manufacturer known for its air purifiers and water filters, which operates the IoCare+ cloud service for its connected devices.
Home Assistant
Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform that lets users control smart devices locally without relying on manufacturer clouds.
The details
The developer intercepted the purifier's plain HTTP certificate request using a proxy tool, then used the coway-local project to connect the fan directly to Home Assistant. The project runs its own MQTT broker over TLS on port 8883, and the developer's account with Coway was banned after running an older integration version.
Timeline
Last month: eMudhra certificate authority private keys were reported to be trivially weak, a separate security issue.
Culture Shift
The move toward local control reflects growing owner resistance to smart appliances that stop working when manufacturers retire their cloud services. Home Assistant has become a common route for keeping such devices functional outside vendor ecosystems.
Owners of discontinued Coway purifiers may be able to keep them running through local integration, though the setup requires Home Assistant Core 2026.10.2 or newer. The local approach avoids dependence on cloud services that could be discontinued or begin charging fees.
The takeaway
Smart appliances that depend on manufacturer clouds can lose functionality when those services change, so owners of connected devices may want to check whether local control options exist before buying. Keeping a device's controls on a home network can extend its useful life.
Further reading
Browse more on Appliances to see how smart home devices are evolving.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Tom's Hardware.
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