All Members Community

 View Only

  • 1.  Campus-wide freezer monitoring system

    Posted 01-24-2024 12:50

    Hello All,

    I'm exploring whether any of you oversee and/or have a better suggestion for a campus-wide freezer monitoring system. Currently, we utilize REES Scientific's monitoring system designed for continuous 24/7/365 monitoring of critical equipment like fridges/freezers/tanks and temperatures in specific areas such as forensic and anatomy labs. We are considering a potential switch to a different company that is more responsive and customer-oriented. Any recommendations?

    Thanks,
    Sharad



    ------------------------------
    Sharad Shrestha, Ph.D.
    Director | Research & Innovation
    University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, TX
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Campus-wide freezer monitoring system

    Posted 01-24-2024 18:01

    Hi Sharad,

     

    Our Green Labs Director (Kathy Ramirez Aguilar) uses KLATU Traxx for freezer monitoring and recommends working with KLATU directly..

     

    Best,

     

    Joe

     

    ----

    Joe Dragavon
     
    Director
    BioFrontiers Advanced Light Microscopy Core 
    JSCBB C315
    University of Colorado Boulder
     

    Arrange a Training or a Meeting: 43ec276be94b4ad5bdb7519f84eda1dc@colorado.edu?anonymous&ep=plink"> Click Here

    Website: https://advancedimaging.colorado.edu/
     
    Teams/Office: 303.735.6988
    Cell: 720.934.2933

     

     




    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Campus-wide freezer monitoring system

    Posted 01-25-2024 07:43

    Hi Sharad,

    At Mount Sinai we use Minus80. They are not an institutional resource but most of the departments have been using them for several years. They are pretty responsive and cost effective. Please let me know if you need their contact information.

    Thanks,
    Shekhar



    ------------------------------
    Shekhar Patil
    Administrative Director, CoREs and Shared Resources
    Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
    New York NY
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Campus-wide freezer monitoring system

    Posted 01-26-2024 05:43

    We use XitriX at Einstein: https://xiltrixusa.com/. They do all cold storage monitoring and we also use them in our vivarium for temp, humidity, light intensity monitoring. Notifications via email/text message for alarm conditions, software to view current temp/history and door status and to set a list of notification contacts for each device/room. They are monitoring as a service so they also have people who follow up with our engineering or security team if a lab is not responding to an alarm on a device. We've been happy with their service and they've saved us from a few disasters already in the handful of years we've been using them.

     

    -----------------------------

    Brian Pelowski, MBA

    Associate Dean for Research Operations & Infrastructure

     

    Albert Einstein College of Medicine

    1300 Morris Park Ave.

    Belfer Building, Room 313A

    Bronx, NY 10461     

    718.430.2285 office

     




    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Campus-wide freezer monitoring system

    Posted 01-25-2024 08:39

    Hi Sharad-

    We use Elemental Machines to monitor our ultralow temp freezers as well as standard fridges, freezers, LN2 tanks and incubators as well as some ambient environmental conditions in sensitive locations.  The Institution covers the cost of the hubs required to transmit data to the cloud, the PIs and Cores pay for the individual sensors that they wish to deploy in their space.  We are on an annual subscription model, so we can scale our number of devices up or back without a significant long term commitment.  I meet monthly with a Customer Success Manager, and the company as a whole responds to our help tickets in <1 day usually.  As with all systems, there are some pros and cons, but we've been on this platform for ~4 years and have found it to be a good solution for our needs.  We have approx 400 devices in our environment currently.

    Best-

    Michelle



    ------------------------------
    Michelle Winter
    Assistant Dean of Core Operations
    University of Kansas Medical Center
    Kansas City KS
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Campus-wide freezer monitoring system

    Posted 01-25-2024 13:49

    Sharad, 

    We are in the process of moving to SwiftSensors ... I believe from REES.  I can put you in contact with someone in IT who is our point person and integral to choosing and implementing it.  It is supposedly significantly cheaper than our previous system, uses blue tooth (which supposedly makes it easier from an implementation standpoint), and does NOT require VPN access (this was key for me because we need access on our personal phones at 2 am in the morning or vacation when the inevitability go off). I have heard the hospital is impressed with its features, particularly with respect to regulatory compliance.  As a core, it is 100 x better than our previous system and I am happy to show it to you on zoom/TEAMS ... but the main things are:

    • No VPN access required
    • I can see our units for the last 15 min or for the last 5 YEARS ... it allows me to zoom into specific windows of time
    • Theoretically I can monitor anything ... temp ... flood (water) ... movement ... connection to the system ... etc
    • There are high and low temp alerts in addition to the high and low critical alerts (4 alerts in total if you set them)
    • I can set the off set (difference between what the probe is reading and what the temp really is) and alarm limits for each unit individually ... and do it all myself
    • We get text messages for all alerts longer than 15 min ... now MSK IT does call us when the high critical alarm is going off for 5 min or more .. I control the list of people who get texts/calls
    • I can add / edit notes to the monitoring time line ... e.g. someone left the door open on the -80C ... unit not having problems ... or ran out of LN2 in the supply tank
    • There are user roles (edit / view) set / changed by IT.
    • I can monitor units at a local institution (outside our intranet) without involving their IT (we are bi-institutional)
    • It is user friendly and well laid out

    I am sure there are bells and whistles I could find useful because everything I have asked for has been possible ... but it meets our basic needs as a research lab.

    Happy to chat if you like.



    ------------------------------
    Frances Weis-Garcia
    Director, Antibody and Bioresource Core Facility
    Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center - Zuckerman Research Center
    New York NY
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Campus-wide freezer monitoring system

    Posted 01-25-2024 15:28

    Good afternoon- We use iMonnit- not campus-wide but we do have a multi-building installation. They offer many different sensor types and we have found it relatively affordable for our tracking and alert needs.

    Barbara



    ------------------------------
    Barbara Fransway
    Manager Genomic Research Services
    University of Arizona
    Tucson AZ
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


Related Content