Chaney Instrument 00985 Wireless Refrigerator Freezer Thermometer Alarm Set
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List Price: Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Chaney Instrument 00985 Wireless Refrigerator Freezer Thermometer Alarm Set
Customer Review: Very Frustrating Thermometer
Summary: 2 Stars
The Chaney Instrument 00985 is so very frustrating. I've had the Chaney for about a month and there have been several issues with this product. I have called Chaney several times and they have been very courteous and tried to fix the problems, but so far the thermometer still does not work properly. The unit is located in a side by side frig in our garage. The thermometer keeps giving a false alarm. Proper batteries were inserted, lithium for the freezer and akaline for the frig and main unit. One of the fixes recommended by Chaney was to make sure real akaline batteries were in frig and main unit. Some of the super charged batteries do not work properly. Another fix was to move the main unit. I have had it several places in the garage and in an adjacent laundry room and still no fix. I even took entire unit out of the frig in the garage and put it in the frig in my kitchen and it still gives a false alarm. On this unit you can set the temperature for each sensor and currently it is as high as I think safe for the food and will see if I still get a false alarm.
The folks at Chaney even sent a new unit because they thought the unit I received from Amazon was defective, but their new unit has the same issues.
On the positve side the unit is easy to set up, and looks good and seems to be of quality construction. The technical support from Chaney is good. This thing is exactly what I was looking for, now if I can just get it work.
Customer Review: Works as advertised
Summary: 5 Stars
I read all the reviews and thought that this might just be a piece of junk but it has done what it says it should. I wanted it for putting in my mechanical room that is attached to my house. When it get really cold in the winter it sometimes causes the room to drop below freezing which is bad because my plumbing is in there. I have a space heater in there that is supposed to turn on before it gets to freezing. It has had some issues so I wanted something wireless and with an alarm so that if it gets below freezing in the room an alarm will sound in my bedroom to wake me up and I can go and check on it. It has done just that. After a week of cold weather I was able to adjust the space heater so that it kicks on before it gets to freezing by monitoring the temperature in the room on the wireless display. I also have a chest freezer in the mechanical room that I placed the other remote in so that was an added bonus.
I have had it lock up on me within the first week I used it. I reset the receiver and it worked all winter. As for range, my mechanical room is on the back of my house on the first floor. I placed the receiver on the second floor about 12 ft from the back wall above the mechanical room and the signal works fine even for the one that is inside my freezer. It might not be perfect but for the price there doesn't seem to be anything on the market like it.
Customer Review: Good price, solid build but only 1 of 2 sensors worked. Great seller.
Summary: 4 Stars
We bought this set to monitor our new wine cellar. One of the two remote sensors works fine, the other was dead on arrival--installed multiple sets of batteries and the power light stayed off. While the concept is very good and the components feel solid, quality is apparently spotty. With the magnets on the back of the monitor, I put it on top of the cabinet, which works out well. I wanted a sensor on the top and another on the bottom shelves since the whites and desserts on the bottom should be cooler. The working sensor clipped securely onto the top wire rack.
I emailed the Amazon seller about the problem and was initially given the option of packing up and sending the whole set back for an exchange, or trying to get the manufacturer (Chaney) to replace the defective sensor. A few emails later and the seller volunteered to open a package and send me a replacement sensor. I am very impressed with this seller, DTMdirect, and would certainly buy from him (Don) again. His price was the best I found, packaging was very good, shipment was very fast, and his email responses were fast and cordial.
I'm not altogether happy with this product yet, since obviously the quality control needs improvement. Therefore I give 4 stars. If both sensors worked out of the box I may have given 5 stars. I do recommend this item and the seller.
Customer Review: Not what it should be
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought the Chaney Wireless after losing an entire beef due to my freezer losing power. The item was received promptly and set up was a matter of just putting in the batteries. I used one remote sensor for my extra refrigerators freezer and the other for my deep freeze. The refrigerator has never given an issue. The deep freeze sensor often loses signal. I have given in to placing the remote display right by the freezer. This location is to far away to alert me to a failure. Since the deep freeze is in a remote part of my basement the wireless option is useless. I did call Chaney and the technician had me put all the devices together in the same location, pull the batteries and put them back in. Again the unit would fail to read the deep freezes temperature if the display was not close. The technician said due to FCC requirements the units could not be made strong enough to read through the metal of the deep freeze. I have 2 issues with this statement. 1) A cheap "box" store indoor outdoor unit did very well reading the temperatures for over a week with the remote 20 feet away and 1 story above. 2)Chaney knowing that the unit is week should understand that the purpose for this device is to monitor remote freezers and either develop a means to put the sensors transmitter outside the deep freeze or increase the signal strength.Customer Review: Good, but has a major flaw
Summary: 4 Stars
I've used one of these for about a year now and am fairly happy with it. I've checked its readings against a fairly high quality temperature probe and it's within a degree or so. I primarily use it to keep tabs on the temperature around some temperature sensitive medications, but it actually helped save energy too. It seemed like my refrigerator ran a lot and I found that the freezer was much colder than it needed to be. This unit allowed me to fine tune the (crappy) refrigerator temperature controls to keep both in a good range.
Many complain about range, and more range would be a good thing, but refrigerators are effectively a metal box and I'm surprised they work as well as they do.
There's been some complaints about needing lithium batteries for the freezer. This is dependent on how cold you keep the freezer and is to be expected. Alkaline batteries have a water based electrolyte and they simply freeze internally if it gets too cold. This is a shortcoming of the battery and not the sensor. I keep the freezer between 0F and 5F and alkalines work for me.
The major design flaw I see with the units is that I think the alarm should sound if the alarm is enabled and the unit loses contact with the sensor. I'd really like to know (right away) if it loses contact with the sensors.