Wireless 2-sensor fridge thermometer?

[Almot]

Does anybody have recommendations? Amazon mostly have one design that everybody is cloning shamelessly. Prices start from $17 and I am not sure whether $25 one would be any better. Huge 4x4 inch monitor box with 3 displays, 2 for fridge and freezer and 1 for ambient (don't need the latter, already have a perfectly functional indoor thermometer). Takes 7 (!) batteries: 2*2AA for sensors and 3AAA for main unit.

Not being picky, but - from my experience with wired kitchen thermometer these things do malfunction. When I put wired probe in the fridge, it would sometimes turn off or reset when fridge started (or stopped) the cycle, - electric noise/interference maybe. Or it would change readings to gibberish upon reset, and I had to turn it off and on - then it worked for a while until malfunctioned again.

[Gdetrailer]

Almot wrote:

Maybe my Ebay wired thermometer was too cheap at $8.

Umm, yeah, cheap + ebay = cheap junk..

For silly things like thermometers, why subject yourself to the whims of ebay junksters?

You can easily find lots of better quality digital thermometers at your local retail stores for the same price or a few dollars more..

I have some Accurite, some older Radio Shack ones and perhaps a few other brands (all hard wired) laying around between house, RV and a few other projects and have never had one issue with them working or not working.. Have one that does have a touchy switch which likes to revert to C readings instead of the F readings if you touch it..

The one wireless unit I have which is a all in one LaCross weather station with windspeed, direction, temp, humidity is the least reliable.. Disconnects and reconnects randomly, batteries in the outdoor unit tend to fail during the winter and takes a lot of batteries.. Wished I would have popped for the good old Heathkit wired weather station many yrs ago.. They were stupidily priced back then but I guarantee they would be far more reliable than the cheap wireless junk on the market..

I am sure you could find lots of wired Accurites for $12 US which will be much more reliable than a $8 CAN Ebay special.

[Dave_H_M]

I am going Bobs123 route. 😉

[Gdetrailer]

pianotuna wrote:
Gdetrailor,

My experience is that Alkaline batteries perform rather better than Li at low temperatures. It is anecdotal evidence.

Never tried the non rechargeable Lithium batteries as they are more expensive than standard alkaline dry cells.

However, according to THIS website, Energizer Lithiums ARE rated down to -40C (yes, negative 40 degrees Celsius).

My experience using alkaline drycells in my garage T stat pretty much proves to me that uses where temps are consistently below below 40F for several weeks isn't 100% reliable. They will of coarse come back to life once they warm up for a while..

According to THIS website, Alkalines work best at 60F-80F

According to THIS website, Alkalines lose 60% of their useful life if used at temps below zero F..

For the very reason of lack of extreme low temp performance of Alkaline drycells, I keep flash lights loaded with NIMH batteries in my vehicles with the downside of having to periodically remember to recharge them.

[YC_1]

Wereless Thermometers

This is a three set pack that uses wi-fi and/or blue tooth.

I use this to monitor the critical range of temperatures required to store vials of medicine. The medicine comes with a logging thermometer but I want to know if there is a problem occurring do to a door being left open or a refer failure. It sends me a text if the temps go out of my programmable range. It comes with three sensors so can monitor other areas of concern.

The other advantage is if we leave our fur baby alone we can keep an eye on the temps and if there is a failure in the RV we will get an alert if the temps go too high.

[fj12ryder]

We have one of the cheapies from Amazon and it works well. The batteries, plain old alkaline, have been in constant use for over 3 months and are still going strong. For less than $20, I'm happy.

[wa8yxm]

I have used lacross technologies. they make an up to 3 sensor unit (hang a 3rd sensor out of the sun outside exposed to outside air.. I hung one in my battery compartment.. or in the front of the RV protected from engine heat)

NOTE one caution applies mostly to the freezer.. Standard Batteries (Carbon zinc or alkaline) may fail below freezing..... Lithium types seem to do better at PRODUCING power when cold... There is more to this but I'm not talking about rechargables.

Matters not who made the device. only what kind of battery.

[johnhicks]

I pour the beer over the ice cubes. Slows me down.

[Dutch_12078]

I'll add another vote for the Accurite twin sensor unit linked above. We've used them in two different motorhomes since 2008 with no complaints. I just changed the freezer sensor alkaline batteries that have been in daily use for about 18 months a couple of weeks ago. The fridge sensor batteries last even longer.

[dieseltruckdriv]

I am not trying to be glib about this, but I use beer and ice cubes (not at the same time). If the beer is cold the fridge is working correctly, and if the water turns to ice cubes, the freezer is working.

I was going to order one of the AcuRite ones with the fridge and freezer sensors until I thought about that. It is still in my list, but so far my plan B is working. 😉

[Almot]

Gdetrailer wrote:

For fridge/freezer applications, I prefer the wired route, much more reliable, cheap and effective and keeps the battery outside of the cold of the fridge.. Very easy to slip the wire between the door gasket..

Keep in mind, you will be reading the AIR temps inside the fridge,

Maybe my Ebay wired thermometer was too cheap at $8. Like I wrote earlier, it was sensitive to - well, anything. Just sitting in cold temperature (wired sensor only), it was causing main unit to shut down after a few hours - this is the best scenario. Worst and more common scenario - fridge cycles on or off, the device beeps as if some set temperature was reached, and set temp resets to default 70 - but you can't see this because readings reset to gibberish 888 or shut down completely and won't turn On until you press the Off/On button for a few seconds. Very annoying. Oddly, when sitting in the cupboard between uses, it is quite happy.

I usually tuck that sharp wired sensor under some massive cold item, to avoid erroneous air readings.

[pianotuna]

Gdetrailor,

My experience is that Alkaline batteries perform rather better than Li at low temperatures. It is anecdotal evidence.

[Gdetrailer]

Any remote sensor which uses a battery, wireless AND is in a COLD place can be problematic.

Standard "dry cells" hate low temperatures and with temps of 45F or less they will live very short lives.

Found that out with a Digital T-stat for my garage furnace. Only heat the garage when I am planning to work in it, gets below 32F often during the winter.. More than once had to replace the batteries in that T-stat within a month during the winter before I got smart and ditched the batteries for a separate power supply..

You could try Lithium non rechargeable batteries for low temp use, may work better..

Also have a wireless remote "weather station" with wind speed, direction outdoor humidity.. Yeah, batteries often fail faster during extreme low winter time temps and changing the batteries requires standing on your head to resync the remote to inside unit.. Not to mention, the wireless portion is flaky at best, typically loses connection when there is a weather event and if lost too long a resync is in order again..

For fridge/freezer applications, I prefer the wired route, much more reliable, cheap and effective and keeps the battery outside of the cold of the fridge.. Very easy to slip the wire between the door gasket..

Keep in mind, you will be reading the AIR temps inside the fridge, may not reflect the actual overall FOOD temps as they slowly vary in temps compared to the change in air temps.

[Krusty]

I have been using the AcuRite from Amazon for 7-8 years and it's been great

[bob213]

This one might be $10 more than the knock-offs but we have had it for 7 years and it still works.
thermometer