|
A Refrigerator Thermometer for your RV
Know the Temperature Inside your RV's Refrigerator
Perishable food that is not kept at the proper temperature
can spoil rapidly. This can waste money at best, or worse, cause health problems.
If your RV's systems monitor or the refrigerator itself,
is equipped with some sort of display that tells you the
inside temperature of your Refrigerator, or better yet, is
equipped with an audible alarm to let you know when the
temperature drops too low to keep food safely; you probably
do not need to read this article. However, if you have
do NOT have a monitored RV refrigerator, or if you use a
portable cooler, ice chest, or 12-volt cooler, for any
meat or dairy products that is not equipped with a
thermometer or inside temperature gauge; then this
article could very well save you money AND save your tummy!
Placing a regular household or refrigerator thermometer
inside your RV refrigerator (or whatever you use for a 'cold
food container') is not exactly the best way to determine
if your food is safe to eat. I would say that it's better
than NO thermometer at all. But, if that thermometer can
only be read by opening the frig or cooler, it can also be:
time consuming, easily forgotten, and can waste money and
energy by releasing cold air out of the refrigerator every
time it is opened. Even if you are diligent in checking the
temperature, what happens if the power gets interrupted and
the inside temperature climbs up past a safe keeping
temperature for a time and then drops back down to a colder
temperature? How would you know?
When we are traveling in our camper, our 2-way RV 'frig
is running on propane and we are seated in the truck cab
without access to the camper area. Our camper's
refrigerator has a safety feature that turns the
refrigerator off, if the pilot light gets
blown out because of windy or 'bouncy' road
conditions. Our refrigerator is also equipped
with a red 'check' light on the front of the
refrigerator door. When it's illuminated,
that tells us that the refrigerator is off.
It's just a simple matter of pushing the restart
or 'auto' button to turn it back on, BUT there
is no way of telling how long the refrigerator
was off! Nor, what the temperature is inside,
without opening the door, raising the inside
temperature even higher.
We didn't know all this when our RV was new to us,
but we learned the hard way after arriving at our
destination with warm refrigerated food. We started
checking the 'fridge light' every single time we
stopped! And we were stopping more frequently, just
to check it every couple of hours. This routine was
made even more inconvenient because the refrigerator
door faces the kitchen sink, not the back door. This
means climbing all the way inside the camper to see
if the light was on. What we needed was a gauge to
tell us the inside temperature of our refrigerator
without having to open the refrigerator door, that
we could see just by peeking in the back door, or
better yet, from inside the cab. PLUS, we needed
someway of knowing if the temperature had dropped
below a safe level.
My very clever husband figured out a simple
solution for monitoring the inside temperature
of our Camper's Refrigerator. He adapted an inexpensive
Indoor - Outdoor Digital Thermometer that records the highest and
lowest temperature and attached it where we can tell at a glance
if the food inside is within a safe range. I'm sure this idea can
be adapted to any icebox, cooler or refrigerator.
He bought this indoor-outdoor Digital thermometer 'kit'
that was designed to be a simple 'stick-on' addition
for an automobile. He found this item in the auto
department of our local Wal-Mart for about eight dollars.
I'm sure they can also be purchased at most discount,
department or 'home' stores for under $10. as well.
He chose a white one to better match our camper's wall covering
(they were also available in black).
The already assembled 'kit' consisted of a display unit that was about two by three inches in
size with a good sized, easy to read, back lit, LED display.
Attached to the back of the display unit part, were velcro sticky pads
so that it could be easily mounted to any clean flat surface.
A long, very thin-gauged wire (actually, pair of wires
insulated together) protruded from a small opening in the
side of the display unit. At the other end of the wire
was a little plastic part smaller than one-half of a
dime with a sticky pad on the back of it.
part could be described as the 'information gathering'
part of the thermometer, or the temperature measuring unit.
For the intended use, the little plastic sticky part
was to be attached to the OUTSIDE of your vehicle so
that it could display the outside temperature while
you were inside of your warm car. To use as a
refrigerator monitor, the little sticky pad is
attached to the INSIDE of the RV's refrigerator instead!
Before attaching anything, we first determined the
best locations for all of the parts. For the little
ticky pad, that was on the inside of the refrigerator
wall on the 'handle side', in our case, that was the
right side. We also picked out a spot near the lowest
helf, on about the same level that we keep our milk.
That shelf also happens to the farthest from the
frozen food compartment. We had determined that products
that we kept on that shelf would the most vulnerable to
spoilage and so we wanted to get a 'reading' or measurement
from what we thought might be the warmest part of our refrigerator.
Our refrigerator also happens to have a little "vegetable/snack"
drawer under this shelf, but we use the drawer for practically
non-perishable condiments, jellies and candies and chocolates
and other items that would otherwise melt while on the road,
when the air conditioner isn't on.
We originally tried keeping the milk, dairy products and
eggs on the top shelf, but found that by the second day of
camping, the cold air coming down from the freezer
compartment would freeze them.
For us, the top shelf is a better place for more perishable
meats and poultry and we don't care if they become frozen.
You will have to make your own determination as to where to
place the thermometer parts depending on your refrigerator
and how you stock it. Keep in mind: warm air rises and cold air sinks.
We had decided that a convenient place to attach the display
unit part was on an open wall next to the refrigerator,
near our 'living room/dinette area' clock. (Our refrigerator
is built into AND against that wall on the right hand side.)
That location seemed quite logical to us because we were
already used to glancing in that direction several times
a day for "the time" AND we can see the display by peeking
in the back door. Since the display is attached to the
wall with velcro, we put additional velcro strips in
other locations. When we are driving for more than 2
hours, we move the display into the cab, running the
wire through the truck window.
If you don't have a convenient 'wall area' near or
next to your RV's refrigerator to attach the display
unit, may I suggest that you might place the little
sticky pad on the inside of the door itself. Then you
can run the thin wire out and around the door edge
(on either side) to the front of the refrigerator door
attaching the display unit anywhere you please on that
door. Just remember to also pick out a shelf or level
for your sticky pad, where you want your 'reading' or
temperature measurement to come from, close to where
you keep your most venerable or most perishable food item/s.
We then washed and dried the selected areas very well
with paper toweling before we removed any of the
tape covering the mounting adhesive pads, so that they
would stay attached. After we peeled off the tapes and
placed each part where we wanted them, we pressed firmly
for about a minute. Then we closed the door on the thin
wire. We did this several months ago and it has not
harmed our gasket, nor is there any discernable air
leakage, because the wire is so thin.
The
attached display unit that we attached on the wall with
velcro has a switch to make the LED display either
the "inside" temperature or the 'outside' temperature... only
NOW, the 'outside' temperature is really the temperature
that is INSIDE of the refrigerator. We keep our thermometer's
switch set to 'outside' reading all the time, so we can
always read our RV refrigerator's temperature. If we want
to know the "inside" temperature of the camper, all we
have to do is flip the switch.
Knowing what the temperature is INSIDE the refrigerator
is always a good idea, and especially nice when you are
getting your RV ready for a trip. We turn on the empty
refrigerator and start packing & loading our RV. When
our 'new' digital refrigerator 'monitor' displays a
SAFE inside temperature, that's when I put in the
fresh foods, knowing they will keep well.
Earlier
in this article, I mentioned that this thermometer also
records the highest and lowest temperatures. I just push
a button and know exactly what the highest temperature
of my food was since my last check. (The high and low
temps can be independently reset.) If my refrigerator
is currently at 39 degrees, but the high temp reads 50,
then I know that my refrigerator was off long enough to
cause spoilage. If in doubt, throw it out.
NOTES:
This is our own copyrighted material, however, please feel
free to share this idea with a friend by emailing them a
link to this page. If you are using IE 6.0, you should
have a little opened envelope icon on your toolbar (or
can set it to do so). If you click the envelope, the
drop down list will have a selection: 'send link' that
you can toggle. If not, you can copy and paste this
URL address (in red) into an email for your friend.
The URL is:
http://www.carlyrv.com/carlyrv_articles-homemadegear.shtml Thank-you.
If YOU have any good ideas for Home-made Camp Gear or
RV tips that you'd like to share, please email them to
CarlyRV with a
note saying that it's YOUR idea to share OR public
property and not copyrighted by someone else, and let
me know if you want your name included in the credits.
If and when it's published on this website I will send
you a link along with my personal 'thank-you'.
If you'd like to see what we're currently offering at
eb
ay ...
this
is what we have up for auction!
Visit my eBay Store!
I am not currently an eBay 'power seller' because I eBay part-time, but I maintain MORE than the powersellers' minimum of a 98% positive feedback rating based on transactions with other eBay users. You can rest assured that your transaction will go smoothly and that you are dealing with someone who has consistently met the requirements established by eBay. Plus, my lower sales volume means I have time to provide individual attention and you'll get great PERSONAL customer service from me.
CarlyRV
|
