Regularly monitoring and maintaining food cold storage units is essential to protecting product safety, ensuring consumer health and meeting regulatory compliance. To help industry professionals responsible for the proper cold storage of food products, Sensaphone offers the Sentinel™ monitoring system. This device uses cloud technology to provide supervised 24/7 remote monitoring of temperatures inside industrial food refrigerators and freezers and other conditions that can affect the operation of cold storage units. The system is ideal for food manufacturing, processing and storage facilities, research and testing laboratories, food service establishments and retail locations.
In addition to monitoring refrigerator and freezer temperature, the Sentinel system lets operators track conditions like ambient room temperature, humidity, vibration, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, water leaks, power failure, and unauthorized access.
When the Sentinel system detects that a sensor reading has moved out of the preset range, it sends a notification via phone call, text or email to designated personnel. This immediate alert helps staff take fast corrective action. Personnel can remotely check real-time condition status from anywhere through the Sensaphone app on a mobile device. They can also change settings, disable alarms and readjust temperature limits.
Sensaphone offers two types of Sentinel systems: Ethernet-based and cellular for locations where internet connectivity is unavailable. Each system monitors up to 12 different environmental and equipment status conditions. Housed in a NEMA-4X enclosure, the Sentinel unit is protected from dust, dirt and moisture both indoors and out.
The Sentinel system is also a data acquisition device and data logger that can store an unlimited amount of sensor information that users can view, graph, print and export. This advanced data logging capability saves personnel time and effort when reporting on operating conditions and identifying trends that might indicate potential equipment problems.
The Sentinel system constantly communicates a signal to the Sensaphone cloud to validate its online status. If the communication link is interrupted—for example by a power outage or someone accidentally switching off the unit—the system generates an alert indicating that internet connection is lost or that there is a cellular communications problem. Users are notified about the disruption through phone, text or email.
