Setup guide
Getting the most out of your Doobles.
Doobles is mostly hands-off once your sensors are in place — but a
few things are worth knowing so you can read the dashboard with
confidence, find a sensor when its battery needs swapping, and
get hold of us when something matters.
On this page: sensors
· the listener
· the dashboard
· batteries
· when to call us.
Where your sensors are placed
Sensors are stuck to the inside wall of each fridge or freezer — usually the back wall or a side wall, depending on what's practical with how the appliance gets used day to day.
The most representative reading would be in the middle of the appliance, sitting in free airflow. In reality the middle is also where the food goes, so wall placement is the working compromise. Side-wall and back-wall sensors tend to read a degree or two warmer than the centre of the fridge — that's normal and we account for it in alert thresholds.
Each sensor has a Location field on its settings page in the dashboard (e.g. "middle shelf, back right"). Filling it in is optional but worth doing — it helps the next person find the sensor when a battery needs replacing, and it gives context if the appliance ever reads warmer than expected.
Where the listener lives
The Doobles listener is a small device that plugs into a USB power socket and connects to your Wi-Fi, forwarding sensor readings up to our cloud. It needs three things to do its job: USB power, your Wi-Fi network, and proximity to your sensors.
Proximity matters more than you'd think — Bluetooth range is fairly short, and the listener has to be in the same room as the fridges to hear them reliably. A listener in the office next door or the other side of a closed kitchen door often can't pick up the signal. Pick a spot during installation in the same room as the bulk of your fridges; a kitchen shelf, a clear corner of the counter, or any spare USB socket close to the appliances usually does the job. One listener covers a typical café or shop. Larger sites (farm shops, multi-room kitchens) sometimes get two listeners to cover the full layout.
If a listener goes offline — usually because someone unplugged it or the Wi-Fi password changed — the dashboard flags it within an hour, and we'll usually be in touch before you've noticed.
Reading the dashboard
Each sensor on your overview page shows a small pill telling you its current state: Normal, Warming, Too warm, Too cold, Offline, or Muted. The colour matches the situation — green for in-range, amber for warming up, coral for a real breach, grey for offline.
Below each sensor, two diagnostic numbers help you read the room: battery percentage and signal strength. Signal is shown as a percentage (100% is excellent, anything above 60% is fine, below 30% means the listener is struggling to hear that sensor). A low signal isn't urgent — it just means the listener is far away or there's something in the way — but it's worth flagging if it persists.
Battery percentage is what it sounds like. When a battery drops low, the dashboard shows a small "replace soon" warning, and once it's urgent we'll send an alert. Long-life sensors (the AAA ones) typically last several years per pair of batteries.
Replacing a battery
When the dashboard or an alert says a sensor needs new batteries, the steps are: find the sensor (the Location field on the sensor's page tells you where it is), pop the back off, swap the cells, snap it shut.
Sensors with displays (model TH05) take one CR2032 coin cell. Long-life sensors (model THB2) take two AAA batteries. Both are available at any corner shop — we can also ship them to you if you'd rather not source your own. For sensors that live in freezers, use high-quality lithium AAAs (Energizer Ultimate Lithium or similar) — standard alkalines lose capacity quickly at sub-zero temperatures and will drain in weeks rather than years.
The dashboard usually notices a battery has been replaced within a few minutes (the voltage jumps back up) and quietly clears the warning. No further action needed.
When to call us
Adding a new fridge or moving a sensor between appliances — let us know and we'll either ship a new sensor or update the dashboard to reflect the move. The sensor's friendly name and threshold settings live in the dashboard, so changing where it lives is just a settings update on our end.
Persistent offline alerts, an unusual battery drain, a sensor that keeps disagreeing with the appliance's own thermostat — these are all worth flagging. Email support@doobles.uk with your business name and we'll dig in.
If something's actually wrong — a fridge that's clearly failing, a power cut, an EHO visit — call or message us directly. We're a small UK team and we'd rather hear from you sooner than later.
