Lane began working with Dwyer in 2016. She interned for them while working on her mechanical engineering degree. After graduation, she joined Dwyer full-time.
She says Dwyer works hard to incorporate Bluetooth, IoT (Internet of Things), and other technologies to help make products more technician-friendly, easier to use, and take advantage of cloud-based data storage.
‘It’s important to note that we’ve always designed and manufactured products in the U.S., and our designs come directly from our Michigan City headquarters,’ adds Orlowski. ‘We’ve doubled down on that and are committed to innovation as one of our core values. We have over 650 patents. It’s part of who we are.’
He adds that in addition to technical prowess, Dwyer has always worked hard to understand customers better. Today, more than ever, product design is based a lot on customer input. And today, he says customers are looking for wireless technology.
‘We trust the voice of the customer,’ he says. ‘We try to understand better what the market needs.’
These efforts led to creating tools and products with the highest quality and ease of use, as well as a ‘cool’ factor, especially in the HVAC industry.
The Cloud, Apps, and Market Changes
Lane says another objective for Dwyer is to create tools that attract a younger crowd.
‘There’s an age gap. We see contractors who have 20 to 40 years of experience. We see millennials who are coming into the field and just learning the HVAC trade,’ she says.
‘Millennials are full-on with this technology and they’re running the latest and greatest, most innovative tools. So that is one of our market focuses.
‘In that light, we are working more with cloud-based software. Specifically, we’re redesigning what we call the mobile meter app (ncilink.com/MobileMeterA for Google, ncilink.com/MobileMeterB for Apple).
This app communicates with many of our wireless handheld devices, including our hot wire anemometer, vane probe, hygrometers, and more. They all communicate via Bluetooth to our mobile app,’ she says.
Lane explains that Dwyer designed the app so contractors can log data in a folder that represents a job. For example, if you are working on airflow at XYZ Hospital in room 12, you can save your traverse result data for that duct in the app, which connects to the Internet or Wi-Fi and uploads it to the cloud. That data remains backed up in the cloud, and technicians always have access to it.
Dwyer and Performance-Based Contractors
Both Orlowski and Lane say that High-Performance HVAC contractors trained and certified by NCI are vital users of the Dwyer product lines.
‘We want to make sure that our tools are optimized for High-Performance HVAC contractors to use,’ says Orlowski. ‘These are tools they use every day, so the instruments must be reliable, rugged, and cost-effective. If the tools don’t work, the technicians can’t work.’
Lane concurs. ‘Some of the sharpest contractor minds are members of NCI,’ she adds. ‘Their input, through the products they buy and the feedback they share, is instrumental to the changes we’ve made. So being able to partner with NCI members is amazing and valuable.’
That kind of feedback was one of the drivers for Dwyer to partner with NCI and its membership. Lane says that the feedback they receive from the Performance-Based Contracting community is very valuable.
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