INDUSTRY: HVAC
Raypak (a Rheem company) is a leading US-based company manufacturing boilers, water heaters, and pool heaters for over 70 years. Raypak partnered with Blynk to build a complete IoT solution, Raymote, to offer remote monitoring and control of their commercial product lines.
The first connected products running on Blynk went live in 2019, and Raypak is currently working on extending the solution to other product lines and expanding features and functionality.
Raypak is focused on innovative products, and in today's advanced technology environment, much of that innovation comes from their control platforms. It was a natural need to support their customers' ability to monitor and control their equipment remotely. Raypak was also aiming to optimize maintenance and customer support by giving the service teams access to real-time data on the operation of their connected systems.
Using Blynk, Raypak has built a web and mobile IoT app, giving users a full remote control over their boilers, water or pool heaters. The app enables remote control, diagnostics, and historical data analysis. It also enables remote configuration settings and prevents equipment damage with timely notifications and reminders when a unit needs attention.
Raypak now offers customers additional functionality and convenience through their apps that are running on Blynk. As Raypak equipment is often installed in remote locations, the ability to monitor systems remotely is a huge value add for their commercial clients. Internally, the IoT platform enriches the service and R&D efforts dramatically as they now have access to real-time and historical site data.
"Raypak chose to partner with Blynk for IoT based on their ability to offer fast development speed and their extended portfolio of product offerings. Blynk allowed us to take an idea and make it a real product offering quickly and efficiently."
Drag-n-drop mobile application builder was used to create an initial prototype, transform it into the final user experience, and become the final product. A special Raypak-branded theme was applied to the apps together with the app icon, company logo, fonts, and brand colors.
Raypak iOS and Android apps were published to the App Store and Google Play and transferred under Raypak ownership
A seamless device activation flow was one of Raypak's primary goals, as this is the first contact point between a user and the product. Blynk is the only platform that provides this feature out of the box within a Blynk.Edgent packaged solution, that allows enabling a seamless WiFi device activation flow without additional programming on the back end.
Firmware over-the-air updates are used to update units after they have been delivered to customers.
A dedicated Raypak Business Cloud Server was launched to keep "all the dots" connected, store data, and provide user management.
Blynk.Faces are designed for on-the-fly updates of app UI without re-publishing.
Jorge Gamboa
Manager, Controls & Electronics Engineering at Raypak
Blynk has a committed team of developers and UI design coaches. Deliverables were received on time and we had support and a development partner on all features we wanted to offer. Blynk supported Raypak all the way from prototyping to product launch, and beyond.