Solution for wireless monitoring of freezer and/or refrigerator temps

[apostolakisl]

I see they have this model

http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/tx60d/index.php

It puts it on the internet directly. Some part of it is subscription service, but I think you still get basic service for free. You would have to read in more detail.

 

[sic0048]

I bet if you look close enough, you can find a method for getting a wire through the casing of the refrigerator. After all, think about all the freezers out there that have ice makers in them. They run the water line into the freezer, so it is likely that you could also get a wire into it as well. I realize not every unit is going to be designed for an ice maker, but inspect the units closely and you might be surprised at what you find.

 

[ecborgoyn]

Yes, I probably could get small cable into the freezer/frig compartments on our side-by-side unit. It has 'penetrations' for both ice maker and chilled water lines. I can probably used wired sensors (perhaps 1-wire) for it. Also the bar refrigerator has a 'penetration' for refrigerant lines.

However the chest freezer compartment has no such access. It's a more-or-less sealed container. Perhaps I can run a tiny cable over or through the door/lid gasket. Or perhaps it's worth adding a small sealed 'penetration'.. It needs more investigation. The wireless sensor solution looked attractive. BUT, on general principles I DO NOT wish to add additional devices that require battery maintenance..... But I might be willing to add the wireless temp sensor if it makes the best sense.

 

[apostolakisl]

Yes, I probably could get small cable into the freezer/frig compartments on our side-by-side unit. It has 'penetrations' for both ice maker and chilled water lines. I can probably used wired sensors (perhaps 1-wire) for it. Also the bar refrigerator has a 'penetration' for refrigerant lines.

However the chest freezer compartment has no such access. It's a more-or-less sealed container. Perhaps I can run a tiny cable over or through the door/lid gasket. Or perhaps it's worth adding a small sealed 'penetration'.. It needs more investigation. The wireless sensor solution looked attractive. BUT, on general principles I DO NOT wish to add additional devices that require battery maintenance..... But I might be willing to add the wireless temp sensor if it makes the best sense.

If you want this system to work during a power failure, you would still need battery. You could home run the wires all the way back to Elk and run the temp sensors off of Elk's power supply to avoid that. However, homerunning all your fridges back to the Elk is likely to be a big challenge.

 

[ecborgoyn]

Absolutely. I would try to power the sensors from the Elk and/or other central (battery backed) 12V P/S. The chest freezer is a few feet from from LV wiring closet. The kitchen side-by-side would be a minor challenge. The small bar refrigerator would be be most difficult for cabling as it's within the 'peninsula' bar.. In hide-sight I should have run some UTP or a conduit inside of the bar before the woodwork. I put empty conduits in most every wall of the house.....

Again, I don't prefer to have additional battery maintenance, but can trade-off for an impossible wiring effort.

 

[Ira]

Isn't battery life in a constant 0* environment going to be severly shortened? Also, the Winland wireless temp sensors don't go below 32*, and the spec sheet says they are not to be used in freezers/coolers.

 

[apostolakisl]

Isn't battery life in a constant 0* environment going to be severly shortened? Also, the Winland wireless temp sensors don't go below 32*, and the spec sheet says they are not to be used in freezers/coolers.

Speaking from direct experience, the 2 AAA batteries in my remote sensors greatly exceed a year in life span. I have installed an outdoor unit on the north side of our northern MI home. I installed that unit 1.5 years ago and it still is working. It gets nasty cold up there. I suspect extreme fluctuation would probably be harder on a battery than the consistent cold of a freezer.

But, frankly, if you have the wires already right there, I would just hardwire it up. Things like chest freezers and more economically priced fridges can just have hole drilled in the side. This is common practice in the home brew community.

 

[ecborgoyn]

OK, I hear you... I'll Keep It Simple and use simple wired (and no replaceable battery) sensors. I was getting a bit carried away. I was curious if there was a better solution that someone stumbled upon. I'll go back to getting my Elk shopping list together and finally placing the order.

 

[apostolakisl]

If you wanted to go cheaper, you can hardwire 1-wire sensors up to a caiwebcontrol board. The webcontrol can be directly viewed via its web based gui and be programmed to send emails or turn outputs on/off based on criteria of your choice. The outputs can be programmed turn a relay on/off that Elk then sees as an open/closed zone which could be set as a "refrigeration alarm" The CAI can live on the same aux power as the Elk stuff. Price would be a lot less than Elk temp sensors.

CAI $40 shipped (amazon)
one-wire sensors, pack of 5 ~ $9 shipped (ebay)
TTL level relay board of 8, ~ $18 shipped (ebay)

If you were only monitoring 1 thing, the price difference would be minimal, but with CAI you can add 7 more temp sensors for essentially free. You can use a zone on the Elk as a refrigerator alarm for all units, or you could separate them so the Elk knows which one is out of range.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Something like this?

 

[apostolakisl]

Something like this?

Just looking at the picture, I am 99% sure that this is the Lacrosse technology unit re-branded.

 

[pete_c]

Many years ago I tried a DIY (repair) with one of two refrigerators in the home. I was able to get access to the inside (insulated) from the back of the refrigerator. That said you can probably wire from the outside in for the sensor and keep the measuring device / whatever you decide to utilize on the outside of the refrigerator.

 

[Steve]

I don't have any experience or value to add to this conversation regarding these sensors but I was just thinking it may be possible to use Flatwire if you need to go under the door gasket. Never tried it but you can get wire thats barely a tenth of a mm and may not impact the gasket at all?