Refrigerator Temp Monitor

You didn't sit and open and close the fridge really quick 20-30 times and try to see if the light was off?

:grin:

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Or get a small child to.... No, no, don't do that....

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When I was a kid, we had a refrigerator that had a rocker handle in the middle of the door. Push down on left, door opened on the left. Push down on right, door opened on the right. As well as wanting to know if the light went out when the door closed, I really wanted to open the door on both sides at once.

If I could had a penny for every time my mother said, "quit playing with the refrigerator door," I could afford all of the toys I want to buy.

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Somehow I expect all your money would be spent buying one of those fridges :slight_smile:

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Wrong.

TWO of those fridges. :wink:

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I bought one of these to try out and ended up buying 2 more. They’re fairly big and heavy which seems to keep them from rapidly changing temperature, but temperature reporting only works well if they’re usb powered. That’s how I am powering them and they report temp every 1 to 4 minutes (selectable in driver).


I don’t have the light sensor plugged in, but might be able to use it for sensing when the refrigerator light is on, not sure.

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You have them plugged in, inside your fridge and freezer? Running a cord into them from outside?

Where there’s a drill there’s a way. And silicone caulk of course. This is the garage fridge/freezer and chest freezer.

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This is the only Z-wave or Zigbee temp sensor I've found to be really, really good, but only when plugged unto AC power. Does a nice job of detecting leaks with the plugin "rope" sensor, but that thing takes forever and a day to dry out when it gets wet.

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I use hue outdoor motion sensors in steel clad fridges and freezers connected to either a Hue or directly and they run for a couple of years reporting temperature every 5 minutes like clockwork.

They also have Motion and light sensors so can detect if the door is open as a bonus.

I use 25+ hue motion sensors indoor and outdoor as they are the most robust, reliable temp sensor and have extremely good battery level reporting and only need new batteries every 2 years.

I keep a camel camel camel alert on both the indoor and outdoor ones. I bought 8 external ones for £17 each when they suddenly dropped price for a couple of day.

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I love 'em too.

It's unreal that it keeps working so long at -1F temps.

I hear you about stocking up: you never know when something's going to be discontinued.

What's a camel camel camel alert?

Find an item on Amazon you are interested in.

Find the BSID code on the product page

Go to https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/ for Uk

Paste the BSID

Select the price you want to be alerted for if it drops in price, enter an email address and you will be alerted if the price drops.

Basically I have a list of stuff I am interested in but not in a rush for and add them to Camel alerts :slight_smile:

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Excellent

Unfortunately they/hue outdoor are a little large for me and i am still using the ancient zwave (non plus) st814s as through my myriad of testing devices nothing has come out that has the same configuration of reporting and multiple batteries for long battery life in cold climates.

https://www.everspring.com/portfolio-item/st814-temperature-humidity-detector/

I just put an Iris v2 contact sensor inside a ziplock bag and put it on the shelf. I'm not using it to see if the door is opened; I just use it for the temperature.

I last replaced the CR2 battery in Feb 2022; it's currently reporting 62%. Prior to that, I had replaced it in Mar 2019.

I would suggest not using a sensor with a button cell battery.

There is no question that a CR2 battery (rated at around 850 mah) will last a lot longer than a coin cel CR 2450 (rated at around 250-350 mah).
However, in my humble personal opinion, what does these devices in, is the condensation of warm air on the internal parts (and battery contacts) of the sensor.
So, while there are many ways to ensure that there is no condensation on internal parts of the sensor, keeping out the air is the key to all of them.

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