YoLink Smart Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensor Review

A failing refrigerator or freezer doesn’t warn you that something’s wrong. Instead, you just find spoiled food. The YoLink Smart Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensor helps you save money and stress by letting you remotely monitor the temperature and humidity. But how well do these sensors perform? I recently had the pleasure of testing them.

This is a sponsored article and was made possible by YoLink. The actual contents and opinions are the sole views of the author who maintains editorial independence even when a post is sponsored.

Overview of Features

The YoLink Smart Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensor helps you monitor temperatures and humidity in your freezer, refrigerator, outdoor pet houses, storage buildings, and pretty much anywhere else you can imagine. What’s impressive is the range. Sensors can be placed up to 1/4 mile (1,320 ft.) away from the hub, thanks to LoRa (long range) technology.

Both Celsius and Fahrenheit are supported and can be switched easily on the sensor or via the YoLink app. You shouldn’t have to worry about extreme temperatures, as the sensors are designed to work from -22° to 140°F or -30° to 60°C.

While the sensors always show the current temperature and humidity, you can check details remotely via the app. Assign different sensors to different locations to easily display just the areas you want to check.

Of course, this isn’t just about checking in on temp and humidity. Set your desired temperature range to get alerts whenever the appliance or device is outside of that range. For instance, if your freezer starts to go above freezing, you’ll get an alert so that you can check to see what’s wrong before your food has a chance to thaw and spoil.

Get alerts via the app, email, and text. While you can get unlimited alerts on the app for free and unlimited email notifications, you only get 20 free text messages per month for each device. Easily check the history and logs to see if there are any concerning fluctuations on each individual sensor.

The hub can connect to Wi-Fi or directly with the included Ethernet cable for a more stable connection. Then, you can add sensors to your system.

Thanks to the low-power design, batteries in the sensors can last up to two years. Simply replace the AAA batteries when you need to, and you’re all set.

You can also use the sensors in conjunction with other YoLink products, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT.

In the Box

The YoLink Smart Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensor comes with three main components: the hub and two sensors. The hub includes the power cable and adapter (which is nice, since so many smart home products don’t include the USB adapter) and an Ethernet cable.

Of course, all three items include a quick start guide. You can scan a QR code inside the guide to be taken to the full setup instructions, though the quick start is likely all you need at first.

Something that also impressed me is both sensors already had batteries installed. There’s no digging around for batteries to use in your new sensors. Everything’s almost ready to use right out of the box.

Getting Set Up

The setup for the YoLink Smart Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensor is fairly straightforward. As with most smart home products, step one is to download the companion app. In this case, it’s the YoLink app. Once I installed it and set up an account, I was ready to start pairing.

I started with a Wi-Fi setup. I plugged in the hub and scanned the QR code to pair it to the app. Then, it was a simple matter of pressing the button on the back of the hub and going through the Wi-Fi connection process.

It took two tries to connect, but once connected, I was ready to add the sensors. Adding sensors is incredibly easy. Just add a sensor in the app, scan the QR code on the sensor, and specify the room (if you want). It took maybe 30 seconds to add each sensor.

Overall, this was a fast setup, and I started seeing the current temperature and humidity readings in the app immediately.

Testing the Sensors

I tested the sensors in my refrigerator, freezer, and a second building roughly 400 ft. from my house. I wanted to be able to monitor the temperature remotely in the building, as it needs to stay at a certain temperature due to having a second freezer inside and flowers that have to be moved inside during the winter. This was also a good way to test the range.

The sensors worked flawlessly in both appliances. You have to select the individual sensor and go through the settings to select your temperature range, so you only get alerts that fit your needs. I was also able to set up the types of alerts I received. I love that you create individual settings for each sensor.

Thanks to metal siding on my home and concrete walls on the second building, I wasn’t really expecting the sensor to work in the building. I was pleasantly surprised that it worked with no issues. I even got an alert after I set the temperature range just a little higher than needed, so the alerts work great.

Throughout my tests, I was able to check in on the sensors whenever I needed to. I could also check logs to see any fluctuations, which is a nice indicator that something might be wrong.

The only thing I didn’t love is that you can’t manually refresh the temperature/humidity on the app, but no other brands provide that feature either. You just have to wait for it to update on its own. But it does update fairly often, so that’s not a dealbreaker. YoLink explains that the data isn’t streamlined to conserve battery life to more than two years. The new X3 version does manually refresh.

I compared the readings to another thermometer, and the temperature always stayed within one degree, so the sensors are accurate as well.

Connection Issues

While the sensors never had any trouble connecting to the hub, I did have trouble with the hub staying connected to my Wi-Fi. I moved the hub closer to my router (within 5 ft.) but got the same result. I didn’t have issues with any other devices.

However, YoLink does recommend using a wired connection for best results, so I connected the Ethernet cable and didn’t have any more problems.

The good news is that if you want to use Wi-Fi, you can just go through the roughly one-minute connection process to reconnect, and you’re good to go for a while.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the YoLink Smart Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensor is an incredibly useful tool for monitoring temperature and humidity in your fridge or freezer, storage buildings, basements, attics, and most anything else that’s within the 1/4-mile range of the hub. It’s the only sensor that will work in a metal box, thanks to the LoRa technology.

The app makes it easy to customize alerts, ranges, and more. And the app itself works really well.

What I didn’t love is the Wi-Fi connection issues and no manual refreshes. But, there is a wired option and waiting for an update isn’t that bad.

You can grab your own YoLink Smart Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensor for just $55.99, after a 30% discount. It includes the hub and two sensors.

Crystal Crowder

Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.