Compare
Manual temperature logs vs continuous monitoring for freezers and cold rooms.
A clipboard round checks a unit a few times a day. Everything between rounds is a guess.
| Manual log rounds | Continuous monitoring | |
|---|---|---|
| Readings | A few per day, by hand | Every minute, automatically |
| Night and weekends | Gaps until the next round | Covered around the clock |
| Excursion found | At the next round | In seconds, with an alarm |
| Warning before a breach | None | Drift projected forward |
| Alarm response | Not recorded | Acknowledged with a reason, escalated if not |
| Calibration | Tracked separately | Due dates and reminders in the system |
| Audit evidence | Paper sheets and exports | Append-only audit trail and reports |
When manual logs are enough
- Non-critical storage where a short excursion has no product impact.
- A backup check alongside a continuous system.
When continuous monitoring is needed
- Product that is lost or must be investigated after a short excursion.
- Units that run unattended at night or over weekends.
- Sites that face regulatory inspection and must show evidence on request.
- Many units across several rooms or buildings.
Already monitoring? See the alarm escalation playbook.
How ColdWatch does it
ColdWatch monitors freezers from −80 °C to cold rooms at 2–8 °C, plus product probes and door contacts, on the sensors you already have, over BACnet/IP or Modbus TCP. It raises five alarm types (high, low, rate of change, comms gap and sensor failure) and escalates by screen, email, SMS and push until someone acknowledges with a mandatory comment. AI projects drift forward to say which unit is likely to breach next and roughly when. Excursions go into a register with duration, peak, shift and severity; calibration due dates are tracked with reminders at 30, 15 and 7 days; and every reading, alarm and action is kept in an append-only ALCOA+ audit trail for five years, with IQ/OQ/PQ documents delivered as part of go-live.
Questions
Is a manual temperature log acceptable?
For non-critical storage, often yes. For product that is lost after a short excursion, or for inspected sites, the gaps between rounds make continuous monitoring the safer choice.
What does continuous temperature monitoring add?
Readings every minute, alarms in seconds with escalation, warnings before a breach, and an audit trail instead of paper sheets.
See it on your own data. ColdWatch — Every freezer, every minute. Book a 30-minute working session with an engineer.