Fair questions.

No. Monitoring and alerts work without a subscription, including after the included year. Live Plus is an optional paid plan. Included Core comes with every kit and covers monitoring, alerts, set ranges, history, exports, household sharing, manual Sync trip imports, trip monitoring, and shareable recorded-air records. Each eligible kit includes Live Plus for the first year. After that, Live Plus is $29/year for every home you own and add to the billing account. Renewal is automatic each year until canceled, and every charge is fully refundable on request. It does not unlock an additional shipped product.

No. They use the same hardware. In setup, assign an Add-on Sensor to an appliance or a Trace sensor to something portable. A Trace sensor can connect through any nearby gateway you own, or through your phone while the app is open. You can change the assignment later.

On the go, your phone can send current readings while the app is open. At home, a nearby gateway can do this without opening the app. To import readings stored on the sensor, choose Sync trip in the app.

A standard US wall outlet and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (every dual-band router has it). The appliance plugs into the gateway, the gateway into the wall — that's how it measures the appliance's real power draw with no electrician.

Yes. They are rated to −20 °C. Deep cold can shorten coin-cell life; the app warns you before the battery runs out.

When outlet power or internet service is unavailable, live monitoring and alerts stop. ColdMinder checks every five minutes and marks monitoring paused after 20 minutes without a report. Sensors keep recording. When service returns, use Sync trip in the app to import stored sensor readings; recovered readings are marked, and any remaining gaps stay visible. During an internet outage, some gateways can temporarily store readings and some cannot; check your model's product page. No gateway reports during a power outage.

At checkout, which runs on Stripe — card and shipping address are entered there, and we never see your card number. Shipping is free in the US, and the total the checkout page shows is the total. If you reserved a cart before ordering opened, the promise held: prices only ever moved down, so today's price is the same or lower than the one you saved.

Every order today is a pre-order, charged at checkout. First orders are expected to ship in Q4 2026 with free US shipping. An unshipped pre-order may be canceled at any time for a full refund. When tracking is available, it appears in the shipment email; a shipment can be recorded without tracking or customer email. If the timeline moves, we email you before you have to ask — and if you'd rather not wait, ask about beta testing.

We're picking a small group of beta testers to run ColdMinder on their own fridge before general shipping starts. Interested? Email support@coldminder.com with a line about your fridge (type, and what you want to watch) and we'll be in touch.

Returns are accepted for 30 days from delivery with the original packaging. You buy a change-of-mind return label; ColdMinder provides one for a defect or wrong item. The full refund goes to the original payment method within 5–10 business days after the return arrives. Start one by replying to your order email or writing support@coldminder.com.

The founders do. Email support@coldminder.com. We have not published a guaranteed response time yet.

Hardware has a one-year limited warranty against defects in materials and workmanship. ColdMinder replaces first and refunds if it cannot replace. Drops, liquid beyond the sensor rating, and disassembly are not covered. Write support@coldminder.com with your order number and what happened.

iPhone (TestFlight today, App Store at launch), Android (coming to Google Play), and any browser at app.coldminder.com — same account on every screen.

You and the people you invite into your home — plus anyone you hand a proof link, which is a page you explicitly create, that expires when you say, and that can be revoked. Nothing is shared otherwise.