[jjflash]

Looking for advice from tech savvy brewer:

My ancient Kill-A-Watt meter just died.
Want to replace it with an electrical run time meter / data logger.
Would like a portable unit to connect to any refrigerator to monitor compressor on / off cycle times.
I walk into the garage, and I sometimes think one of the refrigerators is running too long.
Cools but runs too long indicating impending cooling failure.
Would be able to catch impending problem before overt failure.
Then I would be able to document excessive compressor run time and that the refrigerator needs service.
I have found several, but they run several hundred to thousands of dollars.
Need a good, low cost product (Inkbird where are you)?

[Thirsty_Monk]

Are you looking for circuit consumption monitor like this?

Smart Home Energy Monitor with 16 50A Circuit Level Sensors | Vue - Real Time Electricity Monitor/Meter | Solar/Net Metering https://a.co/d/8GOYIeX

They also have “smart plugs” that you can specify how much electricity you want to allow for specific time period.

[jjflash]

Thanks Thirsty,
I have seen these Emporia circuit monitors and thought they are way cool.
However, they only seem to work if monitoring the entire breaker electrical circuit.
I may have up to four refrigeration units running at the same time on the same circuit.
Have other electrical items like computer, stereo, etc. also connected to the same circuit.
Isolating a single refrigerator on a circuit by itself for testing would be difficult.
Wishing for something easy to use like the Kill-A-Watt that I could connect in-line with a single refrigeration unit.

nech slúži

[Thirsty_Monk]

May be what you are looking for to replace your Kill-o-watt (I have one of those as well) is something called “smart plug” Amazon have a couple of them.

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QFLJH8T?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_DSDK4H08FFBMY30PMCRM&peakEvent=5&dealEvent=1&language=en-US

[jjflash]

Thanks again Thirsty,

These SwitchBot Smart Plug Mini's look like they will work.
With "power on duration" and energy consumption graphing should do the job nicely.
At $30 for a set of four makes them easy on the credit card.
I could monitor multiple refrigerators at the same time.

Looks like I will become a Tasmoto nerd to connect to PC rather than just my cell phone.