I use both Govee (connected to a portable heater as in the winter the cellar temps can fall so the heater comes on at 52 degrees and oscillates). Pretty cool functionality. I then have a cooling unit in the summer that maintains 55. Anyway, I use both the Govee heater/temp sensor and also have a “Temp Stick” that is also a wifi temp and humidity sensor. I figure redundancy is good and the only maintenance costs are the occasional AA battery.
I use Aqara for this, mostly because I already have a bunch of their other sensors (motion, door, water leak, etc) and their HomeKit integration is pretty decent. I’ve been pretty happy with them so far.
I’ve used the Wireless Tags for years. Mostly, they work well, but I’ve had the same issue of short battery life (often just 6 months or so) and they sometimes inexplicably lose contact with the wifi network.I should check out the USB-powered version. That would solve the biggest problem for me.
SensorPush is great. Recently my GFR malfunctioned in rain, shutting off cellar A/C. When cellar temp hit 59, I got text and email warning me. Had repairs done and all good.
battery issue sounds like a settings issue. there are power / range settings in the app that helps with this. in my apartment going through 3 walls, the battery in my wine fridge lasts 2+ years.
I have used the older ones as well as the newer USB-powered ones. I haven’t noticed any network issues, and usually the batteries last much longer than 6 months for me, but that combination suggests to me that they might not have great connectivity to the Wireless Tag Manager. Have you tried moving it closer, or adjusting the antenna, or anything like that?
That said, now in my cellar I use the USB-powered type and it’s been working well. If you have power available, it’s probably the easiest solution. I also have an external sensor from my Ambient Weather station in there, as a backup/sanity check.
Another user of Wireless Tags here. They work pretty well. With the plug-in adapter there’s no battery issues and I just plug them in and forget about them.
Ive used the wireless tags for years. Mostly happy, battery life is 6 months or so typically. Have had various quirks with some of the other sensors, mostly getting stuck in weird alert loops that wore batteries down, but that seems to be mostly an anomaly
For sensor push- do you have to buy their Wi-Fi in order for it to connect with your phone if you are overseas?
If yes, are the wireless tags more economical?
Yes. SensorPush works via BlueTooth, so even if you’re at home, your phone or tablet would need to be within BlueTooth range of the sensors in your cellar/wine fridges to get readings and alerts.
The SensorPush sensors can connect to the WiFi gateway, which then reports to SensorPush’s Cloud Infrastructure. The SensorPush apps for your phone or tablet, or even the browser-accessible website then present that information and alert based on the thresholds you set.
At this point, you can get alerts anywhere with Internet access.
With respect to the sensors, don’t buy the HT1 model. My understanding is that, while a little bit cheaper, they are inferior for accuracy and reliability, and made in China. The HT.w and HT.xw (extreme accuracy model, which is overkill for a cellar) are made in the US, if that matters to you.
You can register multiple WiFi Gateways and many sensors all in the same app and label them however you like.
I have no affiliation with SensorPush. I do have a WiFi gateway and multiple HT.w sensors. It took me approximately 15 minutes to set it all up. The instructions are very easy to follow.
My suggestion is to get the sensors powered up and situated (aka: install the battery and place it in your cellar/fridges), register them in the app in your phone/tablet, and then power up the gateway and register it.
Once the gateway is registered, wait approximately 5-10 minutes before you toggle the sensors to be monitored by the gateway.
I looked at SensorPush but ultimately decided on the Govee Wi-Fi Thermo-Hygrometer. It monitors temp/humidity and you can set alert threshold via the app. The selling point for me on these was they work via Wi-Fi and not Bluetooth so anywhere you can access the data/wifi it will work.
One thing I like about the Wireless Tags is the leak sensor. That is why I chose that ecosystem, actually… so I place a leak sensor in the most likely place my basement will get water, and I get a backup temp reading from the leak sensor also.
Looking at this conversation and seeing the other current sensors also clued me in to the USB sensors they have (essentially the same wireless tag, but powered via standard USB connection). That gives some nice possibilities in terms of reliability, especially if plugged into a battery backed-up source and/or paired with a non-USB wireless tag.
Just chiming in to say that SensorPush has been sufficient for me! I grabbed a few of them, just rely on bluetooth which has drawbacks but mostly works for me.
Over a year, no battery issues, and pretty consistent (I’ve done some simple tests with my multiple units).
As I understand it, with wireless tags you still need their Ethernet gateway to work as well. So it’s similar to the SensorPush. I went with SensorPush because their wireless gateway didn’t require an Ethernet connection close to the sensors, just as Wi-Fi signal whereas the wireless tags Ethernet gateway requires an Ethernet port close by
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How do people find the reliability of the wifi/Bluetooth sensors? I went with Aqara for temp/humidity/leaks because I already have a bunch of their other sensors for motion detection and door/windows. Aqara uses Zigbee, which is a mesh network protocol, and seems to work pretty well in my house which has a bunch of brick interior walls that are not wireless signal friendly. I’ve had bad luck before with IoT devices that rely on stable wifi/Bluetooth connections.
I can’t speak to the other types, but Wireless Tag doesn’t use wifi or bluetooth. They transmit somewhere in the 400Mhz range. I’ve had Wireless Tags of various models since 2016 I believe, and I have had zero reliability issues with them. The only time they stop reporting is if it’s a battery-powered model and the battery dies. I do agree with some of the other shortcomings of this product line (bad software UX, need for the Ethernet Tag Manager, etc.), but reliability on these is rock solid. That said, I’ve had a ton of stuff besides temp sensors on Zigbee, and I have generally found that to be extremely solid as well, especially if you have enough devices to create a good mesh.
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Hi, wondering if anyone has updates in 2025? I was using sensors from a company called Notion.com, somewhat similar to WirelessTag. But they went belly up and my system stopped working a couple of weeks ago.
Seems like the most commonly used alternatives have been WirelessTag, SensorPush and Govee. The first two have setups similar to Notion, which I liked. But I’m concerned that I don’t see a ton of recent marketing or corporate activity. I worry about buying another system that’s about to go belly up. And Govee has very mixed reviews.
Has anyone used ThermoWorks’ Node wifi-based monitor? They’re the same company that makes the Thermapen instant read thermometers that are great for cooking. Their Node seems newer and is a bit more expensive, but the company seems much more stable and the quality of their products has been solid
I’d like a new system and may give this a try. I’ve had the same concern about losing support. $129 for temp and humidity that’s self-contained, and costs less than Sensorpush with wifi gateway, is not unreasonable. The main complaints I am seeing in the reviews on their site is the 30-minute data upload interval…can collect more frequently but doesn’t upload frequently, unless a reading is out of the normal range, which it then uploads immediately, or unless you pay monthly for a pro monitoring plan. The other complaint is that it requires 2.4GHz wifi with a few users reporting difficulty connecting. I like that it can be USB powered or battery powered.
I think the big advantage of SensorPush is that you can get multiple sensors. That may not matter if you have a small cellar but I have 4 sensors and they can be pretty different in different parts of the cellar.
As I mentioned in my post above two years ago, I had issues with the small 2032 batteries dying too quickly with my Wireless Tags, particularly in the winter when my passive cellar temp gets down around 50F. I had to replace them a couple of times a year sometimes. And at some point the phone app couldn’t contact the sensor, even with fresh batteries, so I gave up on the Wireless Tag.
As a replacement, I bought this $39 Govee two years ago and have been very happy. It takes three AAs, so battery life is not an issue and I find the much larger size much more convenient.
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