FA-B-CCA Basic FreezeAlarm

This alarm doesn't do much, but it does just what I needed. We have a second home which is unoccupied much of the year, but which we leave heated to 55 deg. Here in New England the temperature can get down pretty low. The town actually requires us to keep the water on at least a trickle all year, because the water lines can end up below the freeze line. All I needed to do was plug the unit into an open phone jack, key in my cell number and hit the test button. My cell rang a couple of seconds later an I got a recorded message saying there was a temperature problem at the house. There is a battery backup in case the power goes out so the FreezeAlarm can still call out.Other units, which cost quite a bit more, will call to more than one number and even turn up the heat before you arrive. This seemed like overkill to me so we got the basic unit. It keeps calling the programed number every two hours (though there is an option to do it more frequently) until the phone is answered. They give you an option to "really" test the unit, by placing it in a refrigerator. Doing that might expose the unit to damaging condensation, so I didn't try.

I have a cabin in northern Mi.and during the winter in the back of my mind i wonder is the furnace running? One night on my TV news home inprovement tips they showed the freeze alarm and I couldnt beleive it this is axactly what I needed , that night I started checking on the internet and found Amazon.com had the best price and I find that a small price to pay for the peace of mind I get . I found it easy to program and although I didnt test in my freezer I did the key board manual test and it called my cell phone so Im happy and one day ill put it outside and check it out for real but for the time being Im happy.

The alarm seems to work well with the test option. I did not drop the house temp to 45 degrees to determine if it really works but trust it will. It was simple to program, test and install.

I check several cottages here in Maine for neighbors that go south for the winter. Each cottage has one of these alarms in them, programed to call my house. Last year I received three different calls for low heat. One cottage I had just walked through the day before and the heat was fine. If not for this alarm, these home owners would have had thousand of dollars in damage from broken water pipes. A must have unit, that works, if you go away from home in the winter.

For the cabin.

After one year you replace the battery....however, the wire connector to the battery breaks! Out of warranty after one year...let the buyer beware!

for a bare bones freeze alert unit, this one is excellent. I tested it to see if it would sense the cold temperature outside (was in the 30's); it worked and called the number I'd programmed. I think it needs a longer than one minute send time for its message. I had it call my cell phone and I needed to change the number of rings and the length of my cell message to assure I'd get the alarm call. (Or keep the phone off which wasn't always practical.) Other than that, it was just what I needed for the price. Customer/tech support was fine, too. At $[...] rebate it was a very good deal.

I have had two of these alarms set up in different buildings for several years. Both have already paid for themselves with timely warnings of failed heating systems. I don't want to be in the situation that my neighbor experienced when an upstairs hot water heating pipe froze, burst and did over $100,000 worth of damage to his home while he was on winter vacation enjoying himself in the warm south!