I was wondering if any of you have your coolers/freezers monitored. There is an alarm company that has approached me to switch my service over to them. One of their selling points was they would hook up sensors in my coolers and freezers. They could be monitored and save the expense of food going bad if something should go wrong with the unit.
I personally dont have my walkins temperature monitored yet, although it is a feature i am planning to do. I do have the doors themselves monitored so that i know if they were opened if the alarm goes off.
I think it would be a good idea, although i’m not too sure how much they would cost you to set up. the last i checked the temp sensors ran about $200 each for me to purchase.
One thing you might also consider is having your alarm company contact you if the panel ever loses power. Its not as good as having temp sensors in the coolers, but it might be a cheaper alternative. On mine, If the building loses power for more than say 20 or 30 minutes, it calls in to the monitoring company and lets them know, and they then call me to let me know so that I can come down and ice everything down if need be.
One thing I forgot to add. You should pay attention to the programming of the system if you do use temp monitors. The normal opening/closing of the walkin doors might be enough to bring the temps out of range and set the alarms off. I would recommend that it be only programmed to monitor the temps when the alarm is set.
I dont have mine monitored but I do have the poweroutage monitored so if it was a power problem I would know but if it is a compressor issue I would be out of luck. Sounds like it might be worth the expense if you have alot of stuff you could lose due to a malfunction.
you could always install something like this in the cooler yourself.
http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=OMA-VM500-3
They also have larger units with multiple inputs but they get costly.
http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=OMA-VM540_OMA-VM541&Nav=dasg01
Rick
Does your alarm company offer “environmental monitoring”? If not temperature, you could at least monitor power.
We have asystem that dials up a series of preset telephone numbers if the freezer or cooler falls out of a specified temperature range. Our system is tied into our fire alarm system, but there are some free standing units too. I was working at a store this past summer where the cooler went down during the night and by morning the contents were up to just about 70F, needless to say, the entire contents had to be scrapped, not to even mention the mess from all of the blown dough. The manager’s comment was “The dough is blown”, never mind the fact that the cooler isn’t exactly living up to it’s name. Good case for a manager’s check list. Our alert system has saved our skins a number of times (not just dough skins either).
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor