Phyn JV ready to make splash with smart water device

The first product of the Phyn LLC joint venture between pipe producer Uponor Corp. and consumer electronics company Belkin International Inc. will hit the market this spring along with a network of plumbers trained to install the $850 smart home devices.

Called Phyn Plus, the water monitoring system analyzes data from pressure, flow and temperature sensors 240 times a second using Belkin's patented algorithms to determine if water use is normal or if there's a leak.

Phyn Plus will be exclusively sold, installed and serviced by a national network of plumbers dubbed the Uponor Pro Squad as part of its go-to-market strategy. The small device — roughly 8½ inches long, 5½ inches wide and 3 inches thick — takes one to two hours to install on the main water line, where it learns the household's normal water use and recognizes changes caused by everything from a faucet left running to minor pinhole leaks and catastrophic pipe bursts.

Phyn's mobile app alerts homeowners to problems in real time and allows them to remotely turn off the water. Or, if the leak is major, the system automatically turns off the water with a built-in shutoff valve. There's also a manual override in case of a power outage.

"It's really the perfect marriage between IP [intellectual property], plumbing and [internet of things]," said Cassie Schmid, Uponor's intelligent water marketing manager. "Phyn also solidifies our position within the intelligent water category, allowing us to interact with water in a more meaningful way and allowing homeowners to protect their homes, save money and ultimately conserve water."

Based in Vantaa, Finland, Uponor Oy has invested $25 million into the Phyn JV, including $10 million in February to help get the initial product to market in late spring. The investment gives Uponor and Belkin, which is based in Playa Vista, Calif., each 50 percent ownership in Phyn.

"We know technology. We don't know a ton about plumbing, and that's where Uponor comes in," Brian Colby, a Phyn product designer, told Plastics News.

Founded in 1918, Uponor manufacturers cross-linked polyethylene pipes for residential and commercial plumbing, fire sprinklers, and radiant heating and cooling systems. Net sales were up 6.5 percent in 2017 over the prior year and totaled 1.17 billion euros ($1.43 billion).

As part of the Phyn JV, Uponor officials have said the company's roles are to provide plumbing expertise, professional insights from the trades and a global wholesale distribution channel. Uponor has operations in 30 countries and plans to introduce Phyn Plus to European markets in 2019.

The $850 U.S. price tag doesn't include installation costs, which will vary by region. The product rollout will begin in 30 markets in the U.S. and Canada. The selected cities, which have high rates of water usage or a prevalence of leaks, include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, Washington, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Minneapolis and Toronto.

Phyn's water sensing technology was conceived at the University of Washington and acquired by Belkin about 10 years ago. Belkin then spent millions of dollars developing and testing the technology, which turns advanced algorithms and ultrasonic flow sensors into a reliable way to detect leaks.

From a single point of exposure to a plumbing system, Phyn Plus monitors water flowing from faucets, appliances and irrigation systems and uses those 240 measurements per second "to fingerprint" the unique signatures of each fixture and detect any problems, said Dena Mayne, Uponor's vice president of marketing and customer experience.

The system was tested during a yearlong pilot program at 300 homes in the U.S. and Toronto, where Phyn collected more than 10 billion data points across 10 million water events, including toilet flushes, showers, sink flows and leaks. These water events trained the Phyn platform to identify normal and abnormal activity, which makes the Phyn Plus device ready to go as soon as it is installed.

"We would have never gotten here on our own," Mayne said. "We needed Belkin and the intelligence they bring around machine learning, data science and the constant evolution of learning."

The product launch will mark another big step in the learning process, according to Colby.

"The more users that interact with our system, the smarter we're going to get," he said. "Ten billion data points from 10 million events, that's what we know about now. Each progressive set of deployments helps us get smarter, and in your house, we develop an algorithm that knows your plumbing specifically and everything we do around your water usage is based on you and not some global group."

When Phyn detects a change in routine water usage, the mobile app notifies homeowners. If it's a major leak, like a burst pipe, the system shuts off the water itself.

"We know what's going on in your system in real time, all the time, 24/7, we're on it," Colby said. "Whether or not you're interacting with our app, we're monitoring. If you get a leak and don't interact with the system, we will shut your water off if that's necessary."

Phyn Plus made simultaneous debuts in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it was named a CES 2018 Innovation Award honoree in both the Smart Home and Tech for a Better World product categories, as well as at the International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla.

The current focus is on the residential market and four sets of subgroups, including about 1.4 million U.S. homeowners who have experienced a plumbing issue in the past, according to Uponor.

"They understand the expense and headache and never want to go through it again," Schmid said.

Residential water damage claims cost $8,800 on average to remediate, Uponor says, citing insurance industry figures.

The product is also being marketed to new-home builders, owners of luxury homes worth more than $1 million — there are 1.5 million in just the Top 10 markets — and owners of vacation or second homes, which numbers 3.6 million in the U.S. alone.