In 2003 I was on a typical service call. Ice Cream cases not working, $25,000 in lost product and frustrated manager. This manager had this happen a few weeks prior and had a very expensive remote temperature monitoring system installed, complete with 24 hr remote monitoring from Atlanta Georgia.  It was his impression any problem would be quickly identified and loss would be avoided because he purchased the most advanced system available.

Typical assumption, though not realistic. The problem was while the system did alarm, there was a communication failure and no alarm was dialed out (happens everywhere). A customer brought melted ice cream to the cashier and the problem was found.

Mark, the frustrated store manager asked me a profound question:  “Is there anything that can be installed on my cases that can show me when I have a problem”? I looked at the useless thermometer on the case and half heartedly joked about my idea for a thermometer that displayed the temperature and used a flashing light for high temperature alarms and communicated the temperature back to the remote controller. He responded with “How soon can you get those installed”?  

While this seemed to me to be one of my more insignificant ideas, I quickly found that virtually every store manager I asked wanted simple visual indicators for “real” temperature problems on their cases and coolers.

I found Phil Wiggins, Electrical Engineer responsible for the “Moller Sky Car” computer controls and together we built the first Thermo-Simple and installed our first location at the Davis Food Co-op in Davis California. The first products were built on my back patio with rather primitive manufacturing tools, yet are still working today!

From our humble beginnings working on my back patio, we have grown into a 12,000 sf facility in Woodland, CA with 8 outstanding people who all share in the mission to create innovative product firsts that are as important to us as they are to our customers. (I have to admit I do miss break times in the pool!)

Troy Tandy, Founder