
The Customer
Our customer designs, develops and manufactures domestic water filtering technologies. Driven by a belief in the benefits and properties of filtered water, their products have provided best in class whole house filtration of domestic water supplies for more than twenty years.
One of the customer’s leading products is a whole house water filter system that removes 97% of chlorine as well as heavy metals and other chemicals like pesticides, industrial solvents and more.
The Challenge
One of the customer’s leading products is a whole house water filter system that removes 97% of chlorine as well as all the heavy metals and other chemicals like pesticides and industrial solvents. Their product provides water filtration at the inlet to the house, so that all water (drinking and otherwise) is ‘soft’ and free of contaminants. The result is safer, better tasting tap water and a more reliable uncontaminated piping system in the house. Key to achieving this is having filters that always work at their optimum performance, being replaced when required.
To make sure the system worked perfectly it was crucial that the end user knew when the filter needed replacing. To achieve this, the customer needed an indicator that not only measured the flow through the filter, but also predicted when a filter would need changing, and how many gallons were left before the filter was due for replacement. Crucially any solution needed to be both economical and accurately measure water flow without an electrical connection and be able to communicate that to the end user and/or our customer.
The customer approached several design companies, but their solutions proved either too expensive or impractical. They selected Trumeter because of our previous experience in filter life indication, our expertise in electronic meters and our passion for developing custom solutions that truly differentiate our customers products.
The Solution
As these systems are typically placed out of daily view (either outside of the house or in the garage) communication was a crucial feature required. An important success factor was the ability to
communicate the status of the filter via a mobile app notifying when replacement is required.
Utilising our in-house engineering team’s electronic design capabilities, a single piece solution was designed incorporating a bespoke display with the customers chosen features and functions, some innovative sensing technology and ultra-low power consumption, a specialism of Trumeter. The specification also included an algorithm to measure and predict filter life based on total flow and time parameters.
The final design was required to measure and monitor two independent filters and communicate filter status via Bluetooth into a app.