The kids take their sweet time when it comes to getting whatever they want from the refrigerator. Even worse, sometimes they either leave the refrigerator door ajar or completely open, Unfortunately the refrigerator door is left open overnight.
When you notice that the refrigerator or freezer door is open for a while and you feel that food is not actually cold, I am not sure which is worse; the fact that the food is actually wasted or the making a decision on whether or not the food is wasted. Either way, it is bad! The situation is even worse for a freezer full of meat in the garage. FDA has refrigerator & freezer storage chart but that is with the assumption that the food is refrigerated at 40 F or frozen at 0 F.
Even if the food is still OK, more than likely the refrigerator motor ran much harder. That not only wasted energy but also perhaps overworked its motor. The impact gets worse if that is a refrigerator outside by the pool.
There is of course a way to avoid these happening. Doorsound is a smart door contact sensor that can send audible alerts as well as text/SMS messages, Google Home announcements, and app notifications. But today’s post is about the “time delay” so let’s see how it can help the kids and parents
How can time delay help with reminding kids to close the door?
The kids are probably not aware that how long they have been looking around and leaving the refrigerator door open. They almost need a reminder when they leave the door open for a certain time. If they hear an alarm every time they open the refrigerator door, it would not help at all.
With Doorsound , I set a gentle reminder to go off when the door is open for 30 seconds. Most of the time this gentle reminder is enough for my kids to realize that they are taking too long. They soon close the door. If 30 seconds is too short or too long for you, it is not a problem with Doorsound . Doorsound has a configuration menu when you can set the time delay to any second you want. If the gentle reminder is too quiet, you can adjust the volume as well.
How can time delay help parents to realize that the door is left open?
Of course, if you are in the kitchen and if the audible alert goes off, – as a parent – you would realize that the door is open or ajar but we all know that it is not always the case. In case I did not hear the gentle alert after 30 seconds, I set another reminder at 60 seconds mark with a louder alarm. Additionally, I configure a wireless speaker announcement. If I am upstairs or not close to the kitchen, my google home announces that the door is left open.
Finally, in case I don’t hear any of these alerts, I configure the 3rd alert. If the door is left open for 180 seconds, I want Doorsound to generate a loud alarm (85+ dB) and also send me a text/SMS notification so that even if I am not home I am still aware of the refrigerator door is left open within minutes – not hours.
