Temperature Distribution Measurement of Refrigerators

Temperature Stability in Refrigerators

Stable refrigerator temperature is particularly important for storing mission-critical supplies and equipment that are vulnerable to temperature fluctuations, such as vaccines and medicine, and even certain foods such as dairy products.  However, different refrigerators have different insulation and temperature distribution characteristics.  Moreover, lower quality refrigerators may be highly susceptible to external temperature and load density, and may present inconsistent temperature uniformity.

When measuring internal refrigerator temperature, it is important measure multiple points because factors such as relative position within the storage space, control stability, air circulation patterns, defrost cycles, long-term drift of the temperature set point, and even storage containers can play a large role in determining whether a refrigerator maintains suitable chilling conditions.  It is also very important to measure the internal and external temperature of a refrigerator at the same time in order to see the correlation between ambient temperature and internal refrigerator temperature so that measures can be put into place to control large fluctuations in the room temperature.

A Solution in a Portable Multi-Channel Logger

The Hioki LR8431 Memory HiLogger is a 10-channel handheld logger that offers the following key benefits:

・Temperatures inside and outside of a refrigerator can be measured over a long period of time and changes in the temperature can be displayed in waveforms.
・A noise cancellation function in the MEMORY HiLOGGER eliminates noise caused by electrical wiring to ensure stable measurements (in accordance with the specifications of the HiLOGGER if there is voltage in the electrical wiring).
Convenient, hand-held portability
・Data save to memory card or USB stick
・Free Logger Utility PC software

How to Connect

1. Connect the thermocouple to the MEMORY HiLOGGER and attach the other end to the location where the temperature is to be measured
2. Set the sampling rate of the HiLOGGER to 1s (1 second)*
3. Turn the filter on
4. Start measurement

*Approximately 163 days of recording can be made when the 9728 PC CARD 512M is used.

The ability to identify the true temperature within different locations in a temperature and how ambient temperature can be adjusted to control a refrigerator's internal temperature can save labs and facilities from wasting valuable resources.

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