Losing sleep wondering if you’re freezer is secretly thawing valuable frozen foodstuffs? Worry of secretly spoiled steaks no more –
William Grill wanted to make sure his freezer didn’t cut out and ruin his frozen food. He was concerned that when he traveled, his food could defrost and re-freeze — thus compromising his frozen steaks — without his knowledge. So, he developed a gadget that measures freezer temperatures, keeps a history of variance and sends an alarm if freezer temperatures rise above a set range. The gadget is built around a small controller, an alarm and a temperature sensor. While temperature monitors are common, Grill’s device remembers temperature variance and displays the length of time the freezer rises above the set temp. The gadget is relatively small and costs less than a couple of steaks bought on sale and stored in the freezer.
Check the project’s comments for details on the applicable PIC program – Spying on your freezer
Related:
Make an ethernet temperature monitor
6 thoughts on “How To – Keep tabs on freezer temps”
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A bowl of ice cubes could tell you if the steaks had thawed.
If they are still cubes, then the steaks stayed frozen.
If there is solid block of ice at the bottom of the bowl, the steaks thawed.
This seems like an awfully complicated way to do this. At work we have a cold room and it has the same type of device that you see in museums, its a big paper circle and there is a writing device attached to a rod that sticks out of the center. The thing slowly turns keeping a record of the temp, I think its based on contraction of the metal at colder temps etc.
Some may prefer a strategy with less ‘perishables’ (ie – ice cubes to replace, paper roll, ink, etc)
Even still, you’re comments are further proof that we have the smartest readers on the web ;)