Moen Brings Showering Into IoT Age

Even more big things are on the horizon for fans of the IoT. Updates from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017, in progress now, are pouring in. Actually, “pouring” is a particularly apt word choice in this instance.

Soon, the days of two-setting (ice cold and scalding) showering experiences will be gone for good, thanks to Moen. The top faucet and fixture maker in North America, headquartered in North Olmsted, Ohio, revealed at CES its next-generation, Wi-Fi-enabled, cloud-based digital shower called U by Moen.

Andy Conroy, senior director of wholesale marketing at Moen, was quoted as saying: “As consumers, our desire to be connected is growing every day. Whether it’s connectivity with our home heating and cooling, sound or lighting systems, technology is making it easier than ever to wirelessly control. At Moen, we thought — why not connected water? … This idea led Moen to create U by Moen shower. The integration of a personal device allows users to control their shower preferences, customizing everything from time to temperature.”

The shower comes with a digital valve for precise temperature control. Users can attach up to four shower devices to the valve — showerheads, handshowers, body sprays, etc. A Wi-Fi-connected shower controller has a five-inch, non-touch, LCD screen with on-screen messaging, color-changing capabilities and notifications to let users know when the water is up to temp. The shower valve allows temperatures between 60 and 120 degrees, and the color of the screen can change from light blue through to red to indicate when the system is warming up or cooling down.

The shower comes with room for 12 personalized presets, including name, greeting, outlets, temperature, shower timer and notifications. Users can also control the U by Moen from a smartphone app available on Android and iOS. Users can control all of the shower’s features in-app, along with customizing system-wide settings, such as the Wi-Fi network the system is connected to, language and time zone.