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Friday, August 11, 2017

Culligan uses Ayla network for smart home WiFi water monitoring

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk


US water treatment company Culligan is using the Internet of Things (IoT) platform from Ayla Networks for its first smart home product.

The Culligan Connect for HE sensors can monitor and control Culligan High-Efficiency (HE) water softeners remotely, from anywhere in the world—and Culligan dealers can monitor system status and provide more proactive service to homeowners.

“Ayla’s extensive expertise, breadth of IoT technology and experience with leading appliance brands made us confident their IoT infrastructure could manage uptime, security, scalability and all the other capabilities necessary for a successful smart home product,” said Zach Schroeck, director of retail and product management for Culligan International. “Now that we have our first connected product on the market, we look forward to expanding our connected capabilities throughout our product portfolio.”

Culligan Connect systems use Ayla embedded agents to connect via Wi-Fi to the Ayla cloud, and Culligan used Ayla’s Agile Mobile Application Platform (AMAP) to design its mobile app.

“Culligan has designed an elegant two-phase interface to leverage the IoT data generated by their connected water softeners: a mobile app for end customers and a web-based portal for dealers,” said David Friedman, CEO and co-founder of Ayla Networks. “The Culligan Connect product takes full advantage of the Ayla IoT platform to deliver a smart home appliance that will add real value for both homeowners and Culligan dealers.”

The Culligan Connect Wi-Fi accessory can conserve water and energy by tracking water usage, allowing users to bypass treated water for outdoor cleaning and watering applications. Users receive push notifications or alerts when salt supplies are low or if there’s unexpected water flow when residents are away from home.

Culligan dealers can use the IoT data generated through the Culligan Connect accessory to monitor the status and settings of connected water softeners easily, from their desks, receive diagnostic and system status reports and error alerts remotely, at any time and track usage data to make sure the system is sized correctly and to predict when it’s time to regenerate the salts. This allows them to contact customers when there’s a problem rather than waiting for customers to contact them and proactively schedule service visits based on individual customers’ needs. This saves time and cost by knowing the nature of system errors before sending a truck to the customer’s home.

The Culligan Connect accessory is currently compatible with Culligan high-efficiency (HE) water softeners in the United States and Canada. 

Ayla Networks' cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is a member of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network, so all connected products running on the Ayla IoT cloud gain the security and availability benefits of the AWS cloud infrastructure. 


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