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9 Comments

Fridge Closing Issue

I think it's safe to assume that most of you own a fridge, or rent an apartment that uses a fridge. Most fridges last a really long time (10+ years). I have found in all the older fridges I have used, that sometimes they don't close all the way, or they close and then pop open.

I woke up one morning to seeing my fridge slightly open and my milk warm, yogurt gone bad, meat gone bad... all my food had become spoiled.

Now I'm building a device that will alert you once your fridge has been open for a minute, then after 2 minutes, it will set out a longer alarm, then after 5 minutes, a 1 minute alarm.

What are your thoughts on this product?

If you've had this problem or similar problem relating to the fridge, can you fill out this 5 question form? https://forms.gle/VRDi3J5BUzE61HUW9

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    Modern fridges do include that feature, so I'd look to see if the market is dwindling with the modernisation of the product lineup.

    In terms of the product itself, the device would be inside? How would it know the door was open? Would the alert be some sort of beep?

    A related idea: fridge analytics. How often does your fridge get opened, and for how long is it open? That could be informative for energy usage as well as for diet.

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      The device could be created in a number of ways. The way I'm planning is that two parts will touch on the door, and when you open the freezer / fridge door, the touching parts of this device will start a 60 second (silent) countdown, and after 1 minute, it will start a 1 minute beep, then after two minutes, a two minute beep... etc.

      Yes modern fridges do include it, I was just thinking for all the ancient fridges out there that currently could use this.

      That would be interesting. A thing that can count how often your fridge is open. I'm not sure how I could monetize that though.

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        You're selling a physical product, so that's monetization right there. This would be a quoted benefit.

        I was afraid you'd solve it with some mechanical switch of sorts. I would take advantage of the fridge light and put a supercheap light sensor next to it, next to a piezo buzzer and see if you can get away with just using a capacitor instead of a battery, to keep it cheap and reliable. If light on for >1min, buzz twice at low frequency, increase frequency at every 30 seconds.

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          Yeah that's an excellent idea. Just making it light sensitive and stick it right next to the light in the fridge. My only concern with this is that if the fridge is barely open, the sound is going to be mostly absorbed inside the fridge.. so it would have to be REALLY loud for me to hear it in another room. So if I could make it grow louder over time and just continue non-stop, I think that would work great.

  2. 1

    I bought a load of those devices for a few dollars each.
    In my case a freezer broke and I lost $200 of steak.... got some fridge thermometers with alarms.

    When door is open, temp rises, it beeps.
    Added bonus working better than your idea, if door is closed but power goes out or fridge breaks, it also beeps.

    So fundamental question, is the problem the door opening, or the temperature rising.
    Then plan the solution.

    1. 1

      Yeah that's a good point. I think the temperature rising ultimately is my concern, so I could focus on an alarm that goes off when it gets over a certain degree. Since I'm not an expert at guessing temperature, I would want the device to be able to measure what the temperature is when it's working, and then make that the standard. I would hate to put it at 35 degrees Fahrenheit and then have it start beeping like crazy when it gets to 36 when it's working fine.. I like that idea! Thanks

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        https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Freezer-Thermometer-Temperature-Feature/dp/B0084ZEE4Q

        Not the model I have but similar.... will tell you the normal temp so you can set min/max alarms.

        Google will tell you standard range for fridge (2-5C) or freezers (-18C) in farenheit, I only know celcius.

  3. 1

    One can use the smart home door/window alarms like Xiaomi's

    For minor issues one should adjust it shimmy the legs of it

    For bigger ones people get these replaced or repaired in some fashion...

    If you can repackage existing stuff and just rebrand them cool, I don't think it's worth its own product development and manufacturing
    But maybe just cause I don't know these, they sound much.. can do some tinker level hardware for MVP I assume

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      Yeah good point. I can do some tinkering and try it on my own fridge.

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