Customer Reviews

Control Products FA-I-CCA Intermediate FreezeAlarm

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I purchased this unit because we live in the Northeast where it can get pretty cold. When we travel during the winter months, I like to have the security of knowing that the heating system in our home is working properly and we are not coming home to a disaster caused by frozen pipes. The unit is so simple to set up and maintain that you will probably not even read the well written instruction manual that the unit comes with. I just plugged in the power supply, installed a 9 volt battery and plugged the unit into an available phone wall jack. I then called the unit using my cell phone and completed the programming in less than 5 minutes. The intuitive voice menu guides you through the installation in an extremely clear manner. It works well with our existing answering machine. Well worth the price of $180 that I paid.

I am fortunate enough to have two residences that I live in depending on the time of the year. Spring and Summer in Minnesota and late Fall and Winter in Southern California. Leaving the Minnesota home unattended throughout the Winter is anxiety inducing as a power or furnace failure in the sub zero weather could lead to frozen pipes or other disasters. I do have internet cameras monitoring the house along with an indoor/outdoor thermometer that can be seen on the camera but I need to have access to high speed internet and the power needs to be on in the house in order for me to see what is going on. I wanted something more secure but didn't want to pay an alarm service several hundred dollars to add in temperature monitors to my existing entry alarm system. After searching around I found the Control Inter Freeze Alarm on Amazon. The reviews were good so I went to their website and downloaded the product manual to see the details on what it could do. I was impressed at the capability and features so I ordered one. When it arrived I scanned through the instructions and set it up in about 10 minutes. The software control of the unit (embedded) is ingenious and kudos to the developers. Once plugged into the electrical and phone lines you can set it with numerous variables like setting the alarm temperature, how long at the temperature before it calls one of the three numbers you program into it, how many rings before it answers - yes you can call the unit and it will report temperature, power condition and backup battery level - you can also reprogram any of the selectable parameters over the phone after entering your password and choosing the desired variable from the very simple voice guided menu. I was concerned that my answering machine would answer before the unit and I would never get through or I would only get the freeze alarm and never the answering machine. Control has an ingenious solution where you select a ring count for answering that is higher than the answering machine - my answering machine answers after 6 rings so I set the Control Inter Freeze Alarm to answer on 8. The Alarm will retain the ring count for ~3 minutes so I call the home number and get the answering machine after 6 rings, hang up and call again and the Alarm answers after 2 rings and I'm in. Really well done. The manual is very comprehensive but difficult to read for techno-phobes. Fortunately, the unit is very simple to use and using the manual only for specifics will make setup easy and painless. Testing the unit is a bit awkward as you need to put the temperature probe in a waterproof bag and immerse the protected probe in ice water and then wait until the unit starts calling out the programmed phone numbers and alerting as to an alarm condition - it works but I would have rather seen a test button to do the same thing. Having said all of that I am very pleased and I like the unit a lot.

February 2008 update. Working on my computer late two nights ago my cell phone rang and it was my Minnesota home calling me here in California - strange I thought as I answered the phone as no one is at that home. The voice on the other end was Inter Freeze Alarm telling me that the temperature in the house was 45 F and an alarm condition existed. I decided to wait until morning to see if it was some sort of anomaly before calling my son who is going to school in the area. I called the alarm early the next morning and it indicated the temperature was now 40 F and an alarm condition existed. Called my son who went over to the house, found out the furnace blower motor had seized and got the repair company in a few hours later. This puppy just paid for itself several times over with the damage that could have ensued with frozen pipes and subsequent water damage.

This is one of the best products ever invented. An absolute necessity for someone who has a second home. Great features allow you to check the temperature of your home at any time. It even calls up to three emergency numbers when something is wrong. A small price to pay for never having to worry about your investment. I couldn't imagine not owning one.

On three occasions after installing the FreezeAlarm, and alarm was triggered and I was able to get a service man to restart the furnace before additional damage was done. The FreezeAlarm obviously paid for itself within one month.

This little device is great and a bargain at $180. It works like a charm and gives me the peace of mind that my weekend house is safe and sound. Since my house has electric heat, the power outage feature is a huge plus. I have it set to send a warning call if the power is off for an hour, as brief interruptions are not important. I also like the ability to call and check the status and house temp, works well with my answering machine as promised.

If you worry about your place while you are away, this is most definitely the route to go. You won't be sorry!

Great Product! I had heard of similar products but most require monitoring fees or are more complex. The FreezeAlarm was not only simple to use but it payed for itself immediately when it called our home in Florida due to a furnace outage in our Minnesota home. My wife also really likes the fact that we can call our home and check the temp and power anytime.

This item works well and gave me peace of mind all winter while it monitored my second home on a lake on cape Cod. The company is very cooperative answering questions and getting setup. So happy I purchased it.

I ordered this unit for my house in NH as I was moving to Florida and had not sold the house. It was shipped FEDEX and arrived the next day. I had only 1 hour to set it up before we were moving.

It has been a house saver. The furnace quit a week later and the unit phoned me at 1:30 in the morning to give me an alarm. The furnace technician fixed the malfunctioning furnace by 4:30 am and prevented frozen pipes. This $200 saved me thousands of dollars. The unit will also call two other phone numbers if I had not acknowledged the alarm.

The unit is easy to set up and the default settings are the right ones so there are not a lot of changes. It is great to be able to call in and get the current temperature at any time even though there is no alarm.

We own a log cabin in vermont that is 200 miles from our home in ct. We keep it heated during the winter because we snowmobile a lot. Three years ago our furnace didn't shut off,and it was a good thing that we went up when we did,it was over 100 degrees in the cabin,it would have burned down. This january we went up and the heat was off needless to say we had frozen and bursted pipes.I always turn off the well pump when we leave or it could have been worse.I started looking for a monitoring system and decided on the inter freeze alarm.I was at the cabin in february and lost power at 4:30 am and at 5:30 am it called my wife in ct.she knew the power was out before i did.I now have piece of mind that if anything goes wrong I will know about it.The only thing I wish it had would be a high and low temp setting at the same time,but it's not a big problem because I can call in to see what the temp is inside anytime. I would highly recomend this product to anyone needing the piece of mind. Excellant product

The Freeze Alarm was simple to configure and install. I purchased it as a supplement to my security system which gets quirky when the power is out. Two weeks after I put it in service it called me to let me know the power was out. Within two hours I received a 'freeze alarm' call letting me know that the temp was 45 degrees. Over the next couple of hours I called in until I knew the power was back on and the temperature was rising. The night I lost power to the home the temperature was -19F and the windchill was -49F.