#@@##$%#$#% Help me not have this happen again (monitor wine cooler?)

Ok, major personal meltdown this morning. I have been sick the last couple days and not on top of things. Discovered this morning, that my cheese cave ( I make homemade cheese) was off… why oh why did I never think about doing something with SmartThings to it. So, after a big crying jag, I have a bunch of rags in the wash in hot water and bleach to use to wipe down the inside of the cave and I can cut the mold off the cheese and save it ( i think)… best I can remember at most it was 24 hours. I do have a thermometer and humidity meter in there that tells me the highs and lows for the last 24 hours, so not like it has been days and the cheese is shot. ( as I said I hope)… so WHAT Thing can I put inside the cheese cave and WHAT App can I setup to text me if the temperature goes to high or too low? Humidity would be nice also but that is not a must. I would need an app to text me if there was a problem. It normally stays at 52 to 56 degrees, has a glass front (was a wine cooler) and already has a small wire running through the gasket to power a computer fan that is inside… urrrrrrrrrrr

Why was it off?

I think “Notify Me When” will work on switches at least.

Also CoRE can easily do anything you want.

PS. For anything critical, I’d shoot out a regular status at the longest time it can be off. So if 12 hours is the longest, I’d notify just before bed, and just after wakeup.

I’m so sorry to hear that! I’m also impressed that you make your own cheese! :+1:t4:

Since it has a glass front, signal should be able to get through pretty easily, so you can just put any battery-operated multisensor that does temperature and humidity inside and you should be fine.

(I changed your topic title to include wine cooler, since more people will know what that is and can give you advice on specific models)

As far as Smart apps, if you’re already using core, you can probably do all of this with one piston. Otherwise you could set up several notifications from simpler smart apps, like one for too high and one for too low.

Once you’ve picked a device, you can ask in the core peer advice thread and people will help you set up a piston (that’s what CORE calls individual rules)

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Because I was lazy and did not go get a ladder to LOOK behind it to slightly adjust the temp… I just reached back there to turn it up a hair… and turned it off…

I have an Iris motion detector I am not using… I know they report temp… think if I put it in a plastic ziplock I could place it in there?

In my world there is one way to find out! Try it.

Ok, there is two… search the community.

BTW, the reason I asked is that if you monitor power on it, you could know whether it is on/off also. But temp is a better measurement, because it measures results which is generally better than measuring inputs.

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Don’t put battery operated devices in airtight containers… It’s not good for them unless they are specifically designed for that purpose. Just put the sensor in the cooler.

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Yeah, use 3m double sided tape to attach it to a wall, or perhaps for better measure, to the glass. You fill find that if the inside is made of metal, it is normally cooler than the glass door, so pick your sides wisely. If you have shelves in there, you can also just put it on one. But I would put it somewhere out of the way

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Personally, I would hang it from a string attached to the ceiling and hanging about halfway down. So it’s central in the three-dimensional space. But that’s just me. :sunglasses:

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Yeah, it would then measure air temp, rather than metal frame or glass door temp :wink:

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I use an EverSpring ST814 thermometer inside my freezer along with a Smart Home Monitor rule to text me if the temp rises above a set degree

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well, for now, I put the Iris motion detector in a panty hose toe and tied it to the shelf… will now look for a more long term solution.

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So, I looked at this on Amazon… that looks like just what I need. I could then remove the freestanding one that is really in the way anyway. So can you see both the temp and the humidity in the SmartThings app? Thanks

I have a Smartthings Multisensor laying on the rack in my wine cooler. Works great to notify me with the Smart Home Monitor app if temp goes high.

Just a thought… What about a power monitor? If the cooler turns off it can tell you. These work really good…

Power monitor would depend entirely on of it shuts down between compressor cycles. More likely would give a lot of false alarms. I think it would take some custom coding to come up with a " notify if has been below x watts for more than x time" but that is just me.
Any PIR/OC /moisture/ multi- sensor with temp would be a more reliable way to monitor

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Pending hearing back in a post from @cdikland about if he is able to get info texts on both humidity and temp, I plan to order the EverSpring ST814 and see how that goes… I Got my cheese all cleaned up and cleaned out the cooler to make sure there are no stray mold spores so hopefully I am back going… now to make sure it does not happen again.

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Honestly, if it was me, there would be no such thing as overkill…

I’d put a power monitor at the plug along with temp and humidity on the inside. I’d even have a contact sensor on the door, just in case.

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Perhaps mounting the contact/temp sensor on the inside so it can do double duty.

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Yes. The SHM rule however only reports when my temp rises above a set parameter. I assume I could add another rule(s) for humidity but havent checked. That said…

A custom smartapp (if Core is too much to handle :wink: ) is a piece of cake. I use such app in my office to turn on/off my humidifier.

Btw: I have 2 ST814 and found neither of them report RH very accurately (5-8% off within the 40-60% range. The higher the RH the closer to accurate). My Device Handler has a Pref setting to compensate for the RH error by offsetting the value read from the device.

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