T
8
c/gadget-reviewshart.taylorhart.taylor1mo agoProlific Poster

Bought a $70 smart plug that ended up saving my bacon with a freezer full of meat

My old garage freezer started acting up about three months ago, making weird noises but still running. I was worried it would die and ruin about $300 worth of food. On a whim, I grabbed a smart plug with energy monitoring for roughly seventy bucks. I set it up to alert me if the power draw dropped, which would mean the compressor quit. Sure enough, two weeks later, my phone buzzed at 2 AM with a power drop alert. I ran out, moved everything to the kitchen fridge, and called for a repair in the morning. Has anyone else used a simple gadget like this to catch an appliance failure before it became a disaster?
3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
3 Comments
paulfisher
paulfisher1mo ago
My neighbor caught his sump pump failing the same way last spring.
6
theaellis
theaellis1mo ago
My buddy had his pump die during that huge rainstorm in April. Water started seeping up through the basement floor tiles before he even heard the alarm beep. He ended up with two inches of nasty water and a ruined home gym setup. Took him weeks to dry everything out and fight with his insurance.
8
jamie_taylor
Honestly, that seems like a lot of work and extra cost just to watch a freezer. Most of those things give out with no warning anyway, so you got lucky. For seventy bucks, you could have just bought a basic freezer alarm for twenty dollars and saved the hassle of setting up all that smart home stuff.
3