18 month old Grandson and the Freezer

So… we have the grandson… I go to get something out of my small upright freezer today and everything in the door is melted and it is FULL of frost…so, how would you monitor the freezer? I guess if I am going to do this, I would want to know that it is NOT freezing at all, or that it is running constantly, which be the case of the door open… how would you do this? Thanks

Here’s how I do it.

I have a contact sensor in my fridge that monitors the temperature.

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Same here. I have a contact sensor at the door to monitor not just open but temp as well. I have it notifies me if the door left opened for longer than 5 minutes or temp 4 degrees below room temp for more than 5 mins.

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We use a contact sensor on the refrigerator that has medications in it that need to be refrigerated. I just get a notification if that door is open for more than two minutes and it seems to work well for our household. :sunglasses:

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Are you putting the contact sensors on the outside or the inside??? If the inside, what one are you using? Thanks

We just stuck it on the outside, raised up off the metal of the refrigerator about 3/4 of an inch with wood block to prevent the refrigerator metal from getting magnetized. Ours is all the way down at the bottom because that seem to be where it was least likely to get knocked off.

That refrigerator is in a room that’s not wheelchair accessible, so I can’t get a picture of it for you, but it’s just really simple. The only issue was moving it away from the metal of the refrigerator. Same issue you have with a metal gate. :sunglasses:

I would put a power monitor on the plug end, and an automation that alerts you if the freezer is consuming X amount of kW for more than Y minutes…

https://www.amazon.com/Aeon-Labs-DSC06106-ZWUS-Z-Wave-Energy/dp/B007UZH7B8

Avoids putting a contact sensor in a metal box, and you don’t have to worry about batteries.

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I’m using a lowes Iris contact sensor inside.

I have a ST multi sensor in the fridge and one in the freezer (LOL - yeah, it works at below 0°F LOOOL). They’re right by the upper door hinge, next to the gasket (so the temperature they measure is slightly higher than a second pair of sensors I have which are located further away from the door - those show 35-37 degrees in the fridge and -3-0 in the freezer)

These logs are generated off the ST sensors:

And the power consumption for the two behemoths:

Going by power consumption is tricky and has a long delay, by the time you figure out the fridge has been working for too long, it’s too late :smiley: Same goes for the temperature sensor inside, though that should react faster. A contact sensor is the fastest way to know the fridge is open.

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I use Iris sensors on the inside of all my frig and freezer doors. Been doing that ever since Iris released the gen 2 devices. Works like a charm.

Oh, and I have an 18 and 21 year old that leave them open all the time, so I don’t think that bad habit ever goes away…

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Yeah, it’s my 27 year old housemate who is absolutely the worst in this regard. Way worse than my other housemate’s girlfriend’s 10-year-old kid. Some people just never get the pattern.

Our other housemate jokes we should bring in the service dog trainer to teach him how to close the door again. :wink:

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using a lowes Iris sensor on the out side and WebCORE sening me an alert if the door is open more than 10 min.

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I have an Eversprings Temp and Humidity sensor inside our freezer downstairs.

Batteries need changing more often, every 5 months or so but it works. Its about 12 feet to the nearest repeater. ST will hopefully notifying me if the temp starts to climb. This gives me peace of mind from both the door staying open and a freezer malfunction.

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im gonna do the same thing on my freezer.

i will use this one:
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How has your battery been holding up? I tried using the smartthings multi sensor in our freezers, but the batteries just couldn’t handle the low temperature (-5 to -10°f) and would die in a month or less, with no warning (last reported battery life would be in the neighborhood of 67%).

I also tried soldering on an external battery pack, but I just can’t get the solder connections to be reliable.

At least 5 months. Put lithium batteries in there (not lithium ion). May last longer if I’d have bought batteries made in Japan instead of China.

They vary depending on quality. Some go for months, some for days.