[theshrike79]

The issue here is that these fancy tower fans don't have a mechanical on/off switch. So just switching the mains voltage does exactly crap.

...well not crap, mine beeps a few times when the power turns on =)

The ESP32 fiddling is required to fake button presses on the touch sensitive buttons to make it actually start.

[BugWatch]

Good Lorde how I hate capacitive touch buttons on appliances and such. I regularly brush by my icemaker (it's a tight corridor/passage), and cause the water dispenser to splash everywhere. I have a 3D-modelled overlay (basically a custom mesh) queued for 3D printing, to stop it from happening. The moment the warranty ends, I'm ripping into it, and putting physical switches.

Well, I already opened it to solder a beeper bypass switch [aka "mute button], 'cause the thing was (multi-)beeping constantly, on every action and every result! But that mod is reversible without any visible changes... which reminds me, have to do the same to the bread machine. To my detriment, appliance makers these day are extremely beeper-happy.