I have a Sonoff Temperature/humidity sensor in my refrigerator and freezer, and they both seem to be working without any problems.
1 Like
Thank you all for the replies! I am leaning towards a probe/transmitter solution. No battery life concerns or radio frequency issues of being inside a steel box. Will keep you all posted.
I like the Hue Motion sensors for Fridge and Freezers because they last 2 years and then they only need two AAA batteries.
I have ~20 never had one fail or screw up in several years of use, I do keep them in the Hue Hub and access them through the GREAT cocohue App.
What's the point? Monitor during a power outage for generator coordination?
My main reason is if power is on but the compressor or other component in the fridge/freezer fails. This is more important for my garage freezer as we dont use it daily, and it may be a week before we realize food is not frozen anymore.
I also use hubduino with esp8266 with temperature sensor, contact and water sensors so I get notifications on temperature > threshold, doors open too long or if water is at the base of my fridge/freezers.
2 Likes
The storage fridge is not in the kitchen and in a remote part of the house. Don't want to have a spoilage surprise.
1 Like
This is a neat solution. I do not have any Zigbee devices and my hub is a bit far from the fridge. I am concerned about signal.
If your refrigerator/freezer is like mine, there isn't a lot of metal enclosingthe bottom of the cabinet. The RF signal should have no issues propagating through the plastic that forms the floor of the refrigerated compartments.
All my Fridges and Freezer are large upright ones that all lock together to make a HUGE one if so desire all encased in Stainless Steel
I have used the quibino to build a temp sensor that runs on AC power -
Qubino Temperature Sensor ZMNHEA1 for Qubino Z-Wave Modules - The Smartest House - temp sensor
Qubino Z-Wave Plus Universal Relay Module with Dry Contact Switch ZMNH - The Smartest House - zwave module
120 V AC 2 Prong Plug-in Power Cord - The Smartest House - power plug for zwave module
Just plugged it into the second outlet behind my freezer and ran it on the lower side to the bottom of the freezer and the probe wire right into the freezer and taped down the wire around the door seal and made sure the freezer still locked its seal and no need to worry about batteries.
I have an ST motion sensor with the battery leads coming out of the freezer lid to a small AA battery pack. Works just fine in the "steel box"
PS I do have it a sealed plastic bag so the moisture stays at bay.
i use the everspring st814 zwave temp sensors in all my wine fridges and freezers.. the only one i found that was actually temp rated for a freezer.. it works well , but i put a extender right outside the freezers..
3 aa batteries last 3-4 months.. the cold definately hampers it..
they are not made anymore but you can still find them occasionally
My Installation:
My freezer has a drain plug in the bottom of the cabinet for when I defrost it. I ran the wires in through this drain so I didn't have to worry about the door sealing around a wire.
1 Like
I have two refrigerators, one in the kitchen and the other in the garage. I have Zigbee Iris Motion Sensors v2 in both the refrigerator and freezer sections. The sensors report temperature.
They have been in place for about 1 1/2 years and the batteries have yet to be replaced.
Before the sensors, the garage refrigerator door was left open and the food inside spoiled. I no longer have to worry about that.
2 Likes
On my old freezer it had a "alarm" led that would come on when things were gong wrong. When I had my StarGate I just wired one of the digital inputs across the LED leads. Then when current flowed to light the LED it would trigger a event that allowed me to alarm and announce what the problem was.
It would be nice to have a digital input to Zwave and have been looking at this:
Relying on a idiot light is sometimes better than nothing.
This seems like a real market opportunity for an existing manufacturer of z-wave or zigbee products (a battery-powered, dedicated freezer/refrigerator temp monitor). Many of us want one of these, but are forced to rely on repurposing devices, many of which are now discontinued. The world doesn't really need another contact sensor or "multi-sensor", but it seems we could use this device.
1 Like
I know of at least three sensors (Iris, Hue, Xiaomi) that work fine inside of a typical residential refrigerator/freezer. Is it possible that just about any Zigbee or Z-wave sensor works inside of a typical refrigerator/freezer?
I completely agree that this is a great opportunity for a manufacture to come out with just a sensor for this specific purpose (ZigBee Preferably).
I have used IRIS contact sensors - they seem to work ok, but then transitioned over to Aqara Temp/humidty sensors as I wanted better reporting. They have been going strong for awhile now. With the departure of Markus, (His drivers were godsend) this has me looking for another straight forward option for a plug/play. The Aqara sensors are still going strong and will keep them going until I can't. I had to change my zigbee mesh over to ALL ikea repeaters, but these were pretty inexpensive. When I did that I also ordered Aqara water sensors (Installed a Econet Bulldog) and the Samsung Water Sensors are no longer until Aeotec starts producing. Ebay is really the only place to get them. My last Ebay order has 4-brand new samsung water leak sensors coming (got them at a great price). Ultimately I want to get away from Aqara as issues can come up with them in a heartbeat. If they were natively supported, this would be the way to go as the overall product is pretty solid and at a reasonable cost.
With all this refrigerator temp monitor talk, I put an extra Hue motion sensor in a plastic bag and popped it in the freezer (side-by-side). Works.
Don't see the need, for me, but maybe as an input along with house temperature to autonomously start up a standby generator. Of course, Hubitat would have to be up and running, and that's something else (have to look at a battery backup for HE at some point anyway).
edit: down to 3.28 now
Monitoring fridge/freezer temps has proved useful to me, at least a couple of times in the last year. A slow climb from the normal 36 up to 40F in the fridge over the period of a week (oscillations aren't unusual, but monotonic increases are) alerted me that the fridge's evaporator was icing up. The freezer has separate evap and was still near 0. Apparently evaporator icing up is a common Samsung issue, though mine hadn't had any issues since I got it in 2010. Was able to defrost it and get things back to normal without losing much.
More recently I happened to notice the fridge running a couple of degrees warmer than usual; this isn't unusual when things are busy in the kitchen but it was a normally quiet time. Turned out that the door was slightly ajar. Enough of an opening to cause a temperature rise, but not enough to trigger the built-in door alarm.
1 Like
