iCOMM™ is the latest technology in commercial water heating that allows you to interact with, proactively manage, and monitor your A. O. Smith water heaters from anywhere in the world via the Internet. It’s designed to alert you—via text message or e-mail—about any potential problems related to your facility’s hot water operation, helping you avoid lengthy and costly interruptions in service.

Restaurants and hotels are the top two application targets; after all, hot water is critical to keeping their businesses in operation. Other applications such as hospital networks and colleges/universities are excellent candidates for iCOMM service, as they typically have facility managers who are responsible for multiple buildings and would benefit from being able to manage their fleet of water heaters from their office.

The response to our field test program has been very positive. Several key customers have test iCOMM systems installed, and they are all excited about the technology and see the tremendous value this system provides.

There are five easy steps you need to follow in order to begin taking advantage of the benefits iCOMM offers:

Step 1 – Verify the facility or location has Internet access (either wired or wireless).

Step 2 – Confirm you have an iCOMM compatible product.

Step 3 – Go to www.aosmithconnect.com and purchase the communications module.

Step 4 – Purchase the optional installation service offered by AT&T ConnecTech.

Step 5 – Once the hardware is installed, call to register and create a user name.

The iCOMM system is truly unique in our industry. While there are aftermarket energy management systems that exist, they are very complex and cost thousands of dollars. iCOMM, on the other hand, is simple to use and the hardware sells for only $399. In addition to the hardware, there is an annual subscription required to access the service; annual fees will range from $299 down to $200 depending on the quantity of iCOMM systems an individual customer has.

Yes, the only means of communication for the CM to the website is with the CM acting like a browser client. All outbound traffic to the iCOMM host site uses HTTP protocols and there is no traffic sourcing from the iCOMM host site to the CM.

No, web pages are not sent back to the CM, only data with very specific proprietary format. Anything not corresponding to this format will be ignored.

No, the data has a very specific proprietary format. Anything not corresponding to this format will be ignored including VB scripts or javascripts. The CM does not even have the ability to interpret scripts.

All communications use port 80 HTTP type requests (GET & POST) with HTTP reply.

No, this address is for the A. O. Smith Proprietary protocol network (CM to Heater), which is an RS485 type Master-Slave arrangement. The CM only uses DHCP to acquire an IP address for itself.

The fallback IP address is 0.0.0.0, which is not valid. This is to avoid some problems we had with a previous fallback IP address (192.168.1.10), which may be a legitimate IP address already assigned on a network. Therefore, in order for the CM to communicate it must be assigned an IP address by the DHCP server. A typical router purchased from an electronics store contains a DHCP server.

Not at this time. Most (if not all) networks today have a DHCP router for PCs and other devices allowing them to plug in and get connected with minimal hassle. This is the approach we have taken with the CM.