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Author Topic: Another costly lesson learned  (Read 565 times)

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hughver

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Another costly lesson learned
« on: July 21, 2023, 12:28:36 PM »

This may not be the correct heading for this, but here goes. We went to Laughlin NV last Tuesday to visit my son. When we returned home on Thursday, my refrigerator/freezer was belly up.   :'( I lost a full garbage can full of meat etc. It may have failed before I left and did not know it. I am now going to now put a loud alarm in both freezers to detect any significant temperature variation. At first, I'll use my smoke or signal if they will go that low. I'll do some research to find a better solution, hopefully one that is Wi-Fi enabled, or if anyone has a good recommendation, I'd sure appreciate it.
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02ebz06

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2023, 12:54:02 PM »

Ouch!  Sorry to hear that happened.
I have one temperature alarm that has a sensor/transmitter in each of the two freezers.
Also have one that plugs into the outlet and gives off an alert loud enough to make you deaf if the circuit goes dead.
Now that I think of it, I need to get another one for the other freezer (each are on their own circuit).

Don't know about any WIFI ones.
I guess it you weren't too far away that would be good, but if you were in another state or on cruise or something, don't know how it would help.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2023, 12:58:38 PM by 02ebz06 »
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Canadian John

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2023, 01:18:56 PM »


 You may want to discuss with Thermoworks..   I have found them to be helpful & honest.
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Bentley

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2023, 03:25:25 PM »

I am sure there are Smart Refrigerator's that are Wi-Fi enabled that will tell you exactly what is going on.  If you look at the Samsung models, make sure it has the "Bespoke" technology and it will have wi-fi that you can monitor temps with cell phone.  I would venture to guess and larger manufacture will have similar technology!
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hughver

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2023, 04:00:35 PM »

I am sure there are Smart Refrigerator's that are Wi-Fi enabled that will tell you exactly what is going on.  If you look at the Samsung models, make sure it has the "Bespoke" technology and it will have wi-fi that you can monitor temps with cell phone.  I would venture to guess and larger manufacture will have similar technology!

I also want to monitor my garage freezer which is larger than the refrigerator freezer and is much older.
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BigDave83

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2023, 07:02:38 PM »

I had thought about getting a few, I had an issue the other week and my 2 small freezers were off for a day or two. I found the issue and fixed  it I believe.

A quick Amazon search for wifi freezer alarms. I have not gotten one yet, I need to do some research, I would need 3 or 4 of them and hae them work together  on the same app if possible.


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wifi+freezer+alarm&crid=2FD9337SGN9ZZ&sprefix=wifi+free%2Caps%2C234&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_9
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Hank D Thoreau

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2023, 11:52:22 PM »

Thermoworks has an alarm now that will alert you on your phone. I have their original freezer alarms. I have considered going to the new one.
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Fire708

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2023, 12:18:01 AM »

I have an ink bird temp controller on my freezer. I can monitor the temp with it via Wi-Fi and the cloud. It doesn’t have alerts I can find. It will notify you of it goes offline for more then 30 min but that’s it.
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glitchy

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2023, 03:31:14 PM »

There’s a product called TempStick that I have used since I encountered a similar situation. Except mine wasn’t a hardware failure, it was kiddos.
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02ebz06

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #9 on: July 22, 2023, 03:40:44 PM »

Your incident Hugh, got me to thinking about our cruise.
So, will be dividing up the contents of the meat freezer, in to the other freezer and refrigerator freezers.
Try to minimize loss it that were to happen while we were gone.
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Hank D Thoreau

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #10 on: July 22, 2023, 04:25:37 PM »

It's good to have a freezer thermometer that will provide information on the highest temperature recorded, allow alerts to be set and the amount of time that the temperature was above the alert level.

This is because you can lose power and your freezer can warm without you knowing it, other than to see physical signs that food had melted.

Thermoworks makes a basic thermometer that does this.

I had a new refrigerator that I bought that had an issue with its temperature controls. I notice ice cream had melted inside the freezer. The temperature was normal at the time.

I ended up putting a thermocouple in a cantaloupe in the refrigerator. The temperature was raising up to the 70's, inside the center of the cantaloupe, and then returning to normal refrigerator temperatures.

Imagine all the spoiled food I could have eaten.

I had to return the refrigerator because the service folks could not fix it.
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ICIdaho

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2023, 10:31:17 AM »

I am always afraid of that as my garage freezer where most meat is kept is probably 50 years old.  I lost a freezer full of meat once when the power went out while I was gone.  Fortunately I came home and it was still off and I found the things were thawing.  We cooked all the meat that was in it since it was all still cold, but partially thawed, and froze it to put in meals.  Was not the best way to do things, but at least it was not wasted.  We were at the tail end of our half of beef, so luckily it was not too much.
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Bentley

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2023, 11:35:07 AM »

Before we go on a trip.  We freeze a glass of water, put a quarter on top, and if it is still on top when we get home, we no we are OK!
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Bar-B-Lew

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Re: Another costly lesson learned
« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2023, 12:47:03 PM »

Thermoworks has this new product that may be helpful.  You may need to contact them to see if you get an alert if the signal is lost and when the signal returns.  If it does that, you will know how long the freezer was out.

https://www.thermoworks.com/node/
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