AcuRite Digital Wireless Fridge and Freezer Thermometer with Alarm and Max/Min Temperature for Home and Restaurants (00986M), 0.6, White

Upon reading instructions, found the sensor needed lithium batteries, which were out of stock for a week and had to wait for them to try. When they finally arrived and I tried it, the freezer sensor never, ever worked. Since I only really needed the freezer sensor, I even tried to re calibrate the fridge sensor as explained in the instructions to work in the freezer. It wouldn’t re calibrate and I tried several times always following the instructions to do so. Tried the reset button and that did not help either. The freezer sensor never, ever worked. With all the waiting for batteries and trying to get it to work, the return window closed.

I am so pleased with this thermometer and its sensors. I purchased it because the freezer failed on my 7 year old refrigerator, and I didn’t know until it was too late to save the food in it. So several hundred dollars later, I am up and running again, but this isn’t going to happen a second time!

I found that setting everything up was a breeze – except the thermometer readout kept saying 71 degrees in the refrigerator and 70 in the freezer – it wasn’t even that warm in my house! So I emailed the company, and never received a response – nice! But finally a light bulb went on in my head and I hit the “reset” button on the monitor – and then it started working just fine. You do need to use lithium batteries in the freezer sensor for the best performance. And I found that the suction cups simply don’t work for more than a minute or two, so each sensor is clipped in place, which is not a problem, since the sensors come with built-in clips. As far as accuracy, I have no way to test, but it does show very satisfactory readings in both refrigerator (39 degrees) and freezer (3 degrees), on the Power Saver mode. That works for me. I think the thing I like the most about this monitor is that you can tell what the temperature is inside the unit WITHOUT opening the door – before I had one of those cheap dial thermometers that hung on the freezer shelf, and you had to open the door and really squint at it to see how cold it was in there (or not, for awhile, until the repair guy got here!).

Well, I have learned my lesson and I consider the money I spent for this monitor to be an investment in making sure my refrigerator and freezer are running correctly and that the food is safe to eat! I almost forgot – each sensor has a “minimum” and “maximum” temp setting so you can see if any temperature variations have taken place recently. And there is an alarm for each sensor that will go off if the unit gets above your preferred setting for 15 minutes, but I have not yet set them up – I’m still cleaning up after the freezer disaster! Even if you’re not having trouble with your refrigerator and/or freezer right now, you should get this monitor, because – believe me – someday you WILL, whether it’s a power outage, or a fan goes out, or whatever. At least with this you’ll have an early warning system before your food goes bad. I’ve been there for the past week, and you do NOT want to go there – it is very, very expensive!

We recently purchased a brand new fridge, a beautiful stainless steel 36″ unit but my family soon realized that the digital temperature readout on the fridge was to ‘set’ the temperature. The AcuRite digital temperature sensor system was the answer. It was very easy to setup and while the fridge compartment sensor is still suction cupped to the back wall, the freezer one fell off within minutes. I left that one lying on the bottom of the freezer compartment as this fridge uses 2 pull out drawers in the bottom area for the freezer. The main display unit has 4 magnets on the back to adhere to the metal door, but I found they were not strong enough to keep the display on the door. We resolved that issue by simple mounting the unit on the wall right beside out house temperature display so we can see at a glance all of our important hot/cold spots. I recommend this unit if you want to know what your temperatures are in your refrigerator as they are accurate, I compared the digital display with a dial thermometer (an HVAC thermometer made to test fridge/freezer temperatures) and both were the same. Hope this helps!

Review for: AcuRite 00986 Refrigerator/Freezer Alarm

SUMMARY:
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I recommend this product for now if:

– You want an INEXPENSIVE WIRELESS temperature monitor/alarm, a wired one won’t do.
– You prefer a DRY PROBE over a wet probe for quicker response, more on the trade-offs between those probe styles below.
– The DISTANCE IS NOT GREAT between the monitor and wireless probes in the fridge/freezer (see below on distances).
TAKING CHANCES with the refrigerator content every now and then is acceptable due to the display’s inability to report probe, battery, or wireless issues (see cons).
– Test that the alarm will go off correctly for your unit before using this (see cons). If not try a “hard restart” (see below for how).

I’ve reduced the star count from 4 to 3. The (1) dearth of inexpensive wireless temperature alarm options out there, (2) the strong customer service, (3) ease of getting it fixed or exchanged, and (4) loudness of the alarm as it is louder than many other temperature alarms, keeps this at the 3 star “Okay” level despite the lack of probe issue reporting. The alarm not working appears to have just been bad luck and ineffective quality control since not many appear to have this issue, and the hard restart did fix it. Not reporting a missing signal to the display is a significant design flaw given the purpose of this product, however.

Note that a wired temperature alarm (or a higher-end wireless one) may offer you more peace of mind since again since this product won’t notify the display unit if the probes or wireless failed.

I haven’t had it long enough to have experience with its battery life or durability.

SOME FINDINGS AND POINTERS:
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(1) I talked to technical support and they were friendly and offered to exchange or fix the item if it had problems (Chaney Instrument Co. who owns the AcuRite brand, in Wisconsin). Product knowledge was limited to the basics. One of them clearly hadn’t read the product instructions and so didn’t know when the product’s alarm is supposed to go off, for example. This support person insisted twice that it operated in a way it didn’t operate and the instructions confirmed it is not supposed to operate. There was no product authority to be passed on to. This is hardly surprising for technical support for such a non-technical product so I still consider their technical support above average for friendliness and ease of item exchange, but I can’t sing their praises. My instinct is to like the company and the support folks, however the company would benefit from more product training, preferably hands-on, for technical support.

(2) It wirelessly sent signals from the thermometer unit to the little monitor unit through the refrigerator chassis wall without issue. The temperature gauge was inside the fridge and the display/meter was attached solidly to the outside side panel of the fridge with its strong magnets. Probe clips are excellent though perhaps could benefit from being able to grab taller shelf fronts. Display unit looks attractive enough. Could it use a designer makeover, lose some thickness, use a more attractive finish, certainly, but it looks perfectly okay.

(3) Use LITHIUM batteries for the FREEZER temperature gauge, not Alkaline, due to operating temperature of the batteries. If using Energizer Lithium batteries only use “Energizer ADVANCED”, avoid the “Energizer Ultimate” per technical support’s advice.

(4) Use NAME BRAND ALKALINE batteries for any Refrigerator temperature gauge, per technical support’s advice. They strongly emphasized this based on their product testing and user experience.

(5) AcuRite says the accuracy of the unit is +/- 2 F. I tested this, it was within one degree Fahrenheit of two more accurate temperature probes, so it seems to be fairly accurate for such a competitively priced product.

(6) The alarm isn’t quiet, but it isn’t very loud either, around 74 dB, which is much louder than some of the competition. The alarm first goes off for a full minute AFTER 12-15 MINUTES SINCE YOUR SET MAX TEMPERATURE IS REACHED (or 8-10 minutes after it is passed, not sure). It is supposed to be 15 minutes. After that once per minute it goes off with 3 beeps over a total of 2 seconds. It will continue to go off every minute even after the temperature drops back below the maximum threshold, you need to hit the alarm button to stop it. You would likely not want to depend on hearing this more than one room or so away from the kitchen. The product may benefit by having an adjustable alarm level. Be sure to test the alarm, my first unit’s alarm didn’t go off even after waiting a half hour after going over the alarm temperature threshold. A hard reset fixed this problem (see more on this in Cons section).

(7) AcuRite support says Alkaline or Lithium batteries last 8 months to 2 years in this unit, so they suggest replacing the batteries annually to be on the safe side. I assume they expect over 1 year is common. They found that lithium usually only lasts 20% longer than brand name Alkaline in the units which surprises me, but I thought I should share that. Some customer reviews suggest it is less, but you never know when people used older batteries, etc., but thought I should mention it.

(8) Don’t use Lithium batteries in the display unit, there is an issue according to customer support.

(9) They estimate 75′ wireless transmission range from inside a refrigerator to the display unit, though it is less if there is interference like concrete walls. From inside a second fridge in the basement the display updated upstairs at roughly 20′ away, beyond that I couldn’t get reception. This is through floorboards and drywall. I assume wireless range will depend on your refrigerator, too.

(10) Temperature update to the display is often slow. Some combination of update frequency and temperature monitor lag often results in 2 minutes updating. This can vary, but gives you an idea. This does not seem to hamper its main functionality for the most part. I assume this is at least partially to reduce battery drain. They say update is once per 15 or 16 or 30 seconds depending on who you talk to and what you read, and since I haven’t seen it that quick I assume it is at least partially due to temperature lag at the probe since the probe is enclosed.

(11) If something is wrong you can try a “HARD RESET” and see if that fixes it. This is how I resolved my original set-up issue where the second temperature monitor had a value freeze on the display. I haven’t had that issue again, I’ll report if I do. Here are the instructions for this from technical support:
– Bring all 3 units together
– Remove all batteries
– Let 2 minutes pass
– Put batteries in display unit
– Put batteries in 1st temp monitor unit
– Put batteries in 2nd temp monitor unit
– Leave them alone and together for 30 minutes
– Now try placing them in their normal places

CONS:
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(1) NO NOTIFICATION AT DISPLAY UNIT THAT NO SIGNAL IS BEING RECEIVED if signal later fails after set-up. If signal is too far or even if batteries fail, there is no notice of this at the display unit. This is surprising given the purpose of the product, they should add such a notification feature. This product clearly strives to be inexpensive and “good enough”, often a much greater engineering challenge than just building a great, expensive product. Nevertheless, such a feature is expected for such a product.

(2) My unit’s ALARM DIDN’T GO OFF when temperature was reached. I called support to confirm I set it correctly. To their credit they offered to take care of me with an EXCELLENT LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE and they noted this was super rare. On the other hand, it’s a refrigerator alarm that didn’t go off which suggests a QA issue at their manufacturer. Clearly you’ll want to test the alarm when you get it right away and exchange it if it doesn’t. The workaround was a hard reset (see how to hard reset above), however after that there is no way to know if at a given moment the alarm would be unable to go off.

(3) Signal strength might be an issue for some needs, though not an issue for me since the distances are very short.

(4) While not unattractive the display unit could be more attractive and skinnier for fancier kitchens.

TEST #1: LEAVING FRIDGE DOOR OPEN 1/2″:
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Let’s open the fridge door completely for 15 seconds and then close it leaving a 1/2″ gap for 30 minutes and measure the effects on temperature. One measurement is with this device using its dry probe to measure air temperature, the other is with another test device that uses a wet temperature probe, which means the probe is inside a bottle filled with a liquid. This latter probe better approximates the temperature of the food and liquids in the fridge, not the air directly. Obviously the temperature of food and liquids in a fridge won’t increase as quickly as the air in the fridge when the door is left open.

Min Wet Dry
00 37F 37F
01 37F 37F
02 37F 39F
03 37F 39F
04 37F 40F
05 37F 40F
06 37F 40F
07 38F 40F
08 38F 41F
09 38F 41F
10 39F 41F
11 39F 41F
12 39F 42F
13 39F 42F
14 39F 42F
15 39F 42F
16 39F 42F
17 39F 42F
18 39F 42F
19 39F 42F
20 39F 42F
21 39F 42F
22 39F 42F
23 39F 42F
24 39F 42F
25 39F 42F
26 39F 42F
27 39F 42F
28 39F 42F
29 39F 42F
30 39F 43F

As expected dry temperature probes will give you earlier warning, which may be preferable to you, but for some purposes you may prefer to use a unit that uses a wet probe. With most common inexpensive mini-fridges, for example, due to the often great swings in air temperature, the use of a wet bulb probe in a refrigerator alarm might be highly suggested.

Note that when I make the open door gap quite tiny (much smaller than this) it doesn’t actually increase the temperature of the inside air beyond an initial 2-5 degrees. After that it just made the fridge work harder for longer. While this, of course, both increases electricity costs and likely reduces the lifetime of the refrigerator, it should make folks a little less nervous about very small accidental door gaps for short periods. I found this result during testing, your results may vary :). The fridge tested isn’t particularly powerful.

It is notable that it took only 10 minutes for the estimated temperature of the contents to rise 2F even with such a small door gap. It only took 12 minutes for the air temperature to rise 5F.

TEST #2: HOW LONG FOR CONTENTS
TO REGAIN TEMPERATURE:
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Measuring the approximate temperature of contents (not the air) with a different product with a wet probe, after closing the fridge door it took these following times to drop the 4 degrees back to the original temperature:

00m Closed
11m 1st degree temperature drop (F)
15m 2nd degree temperature drop (F)
25m 3rd degree temperature drop (F)
35m 4th degree temperature drop (F)

Clearly after the door has been left open it takes a while for the temperature to fix itself.

NOTES:
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Note: AcuRite contact info is 1-877-221-1252
Detail: This is at 433 MHz radio frequency
Competitor example: Thomas Traceable Radio-Signal Remote Thermometer

Note to the manufacturer: If you report in comments here or to me that the inability to report probe or wireless issues to the display unit has been addressed, or other improvements, I will adjust the review accordingly.