Refrigerator or freezer temps? Our freezer went out and we threw out about $1200 worth of food. Is there a monitor available that would send an IM to my cell or an email if temps are out of acceptable range?

Question

Accepted Answer

Absolutely! I actually used a SmartThings motion sensor for this purpose (just because I had an extra - but the multi sensor should work the same for temp). In my case it would detect both motion and temp. I setup an alert to trigger whenever the temp went above or below a certain temp. You can configure in the app to either send a text or do a push notification from the app itself.
NOTE: I learned it is perfectly normal that a fridge temp will go up and down quite a bit b/c it actually will warm to a certain temp, then the cooling will kick in and drop it back down. If I remember correct mine varied by about 5 degrees even during "normal" operation.
SmartThings has a great community forum if you want to ask specific questions about how to configure exactly what you are looking for.

Atrain · Answer

This may do that. You'd have to set a rule to contact you but it will tell you the temperature.

Answer

To clarify the previous answer - the sensors likely work fine in refrigerator, but I would imagine in the freezer the temperature would be a little too extreme.

JimNat · Answer

Technically you could use one of the Multi-sensors inside the Freezer and it when the temp goes above say 32 degrees you could get a message, however the Freezer is probably made of aluminum or some form of metal that would interfere with the Z-wave or Zigbee signal and it would not be reliable. I would consider other ways of monitoring.

Answered by JimNat 8 years ago

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Peter · Answer

it also monitors temps so I assume it should serve your purpose (may want to check the manufacturers operating temperatures, but I am guessing a temp around 32-40F would fall in that range). You may want to test it's accuracy though with something you trust since your working with food. You can place an "off set" for the temperature if you need to adjust it. I'm also assuming you have a smartthings hub. It's the smarthub that would actually send out the notification (based on readings from the sensor). This would not send notifications on its own.

Answered by Peter 9 years ago

“Refrigerator or freezer temps? Our freezer went out and we threw out about $1200 worth of food. Is there a monitor available that would send an IM to my cell or an email if temps are out of acceptable range?”

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