Waggle is a company focused on providing pet safety solutions for owners who travel with their pets, particularly in RVs or vehicles.
The Waggle Pet Monitor comes in three versions: Pro+, Lite+, and Pro+Air offering somewhat different functionality for different prices. Here we will review the PRO+ that we have been using over this summer while staging search dogs from cars at training.
Disclaimer on Temperature Monitors
Having a temperature monitor still doesn’t mean we can leave a dog in a car unattended on a hot day - especially not when the owner cannot get back to them in time in case there is a temperature alert. A temperature monitor is just one of the tools you can use to ensure your dog is safe and comfortable on days with extreme temps (either hot or cold). Remember to use it as a backup or addition as every tool can fail.
The Waggle PRO+ Cellular Temperature & Humidity Monitor
The Waggle Pet Monitor is a device that monitors temperature and humidity levels in real time to ensure the safety and comfort of pets. This monitor operates exclusively within the United States only on the Verizon network but there is a Canadian and Australian version as well.
Waggle PRO’s key features include real-time alerts for temperature, humidity, and heat index changes, as well as notifications for power loss and power recovery. It also offers virtual zone notifications to alert users if their RV or vehicle exits a predefined area.
The monitor has a rechargeable battery and features a large digital display for easy viewing. With its recurrent 10-minute check-ins, the device ensures continuous monitoring and provides instant alerts via text, email, or the Waggle app if the temperature is getting out of the preset (and customizable) range.
The setup process is straightforward, involving mounting the monitor with Waggle’s “Peel & Stick” bracket, installing the Waggle Pet App, and registering the device. The UX/UI of the app is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
The app shows the temperature and the range in a way that is very easy to understand and also calculates a heat index based on the national weather service method. This helps you understand how the humidity level influences the “feels like” effect.
On the top of the screen, you always see the battery level. The Lite and PRO monitors can last up to 2 to 3 days on battery, depending on network availability and alert frequency, while the PRO+Air model, has a 24-hour battery backup.
Waggle Cellular Temperature & Humidity Monitor Review
The Waggle monitor is very cool-looking and minimalistic and both the unit and the app are well-designed.
The monitor itself is relatively small with a large display. The stick-on mount that comes with the monitor makes it easy to add it exactly where you want to measure the temperature. As Zulu doesn’t chew up anything, I put it in her kennel, on the dog level so I get a good understanding of the temperature where she is. The monitor can be snapped into the mount and easily removed as well for charging.
We haven’t had issues with the battery time, but it is highly dependent on the Verizon coverage in your area. Apparently, there is a spot around our house where Verizon coverage is weak so we continued to see a range of error messages that might have been related to that. We live in a suburban type of environment, not off the grid at all, so I was surprised that the monitors did not work at all here. It was also giving a range of error messages, not just the one about the network and asking to be reset regularly.
Reset errors
Continued getting this error after some hard resets
This also made it hard to do the initial setup and testing hence I have been in discussion with the Waggle team extensively since we received the monitor.
Unfortunately, we did not have a good experience with their customer support so far although we might have been talking to their marketing team more than the traditional support team (I do not have visibility on that). I heard mostly good experiences from others when they needed support so this might just be an isolated case but I still wanted to mention it for the full picture.
After the initial network issues and the first monitor asking to be reset every few days, they sent a new monitor to do some more testing. They immediately canceled our subscription for the first one but we never managed to transfer the plan to the second one to activate it. Again, this experience might not apply if you go through their regular customer support process but over the two months we have been using the monitor, we were able to use it maybe 50% of the time as the first one was throwing error messages and the second one was never activated which is not a good ratio.
However, when it worked, it was a very smooth process with seemingly accurate and prompt alerts (checked with another temperature monitor).
I like that there is also a display on the monitor so even when the monitor wasn’t connected to the network, I could just press the button to confirm the temperature manually when getting Zu in and out of the car at training. I wish there would be a way to check historical data to see how fast the car is heating up/cooling down vs only having visibility of the current measurement.
The other important thing to keep in mind is that although it has a USB C charger it does not charge with most USB C cables so be sure to test that out before packing up for a longer trip.
The cons of Waggle based on our experience:
- No historical data
- Only works on Verizon in the US which can have spotty coverage even in populated areas
- Cannot use any USB C cable for charging
- Potential customer support issues (?)
The pros of Waggle based on our experience:
- Easy-to-use app
- Mount that can be easily attached to any surface
- Cell-based so you can check it even when you are away from the car (if you have coverage) not like the Bluetooth-based monitors
- You can cancel and reactivate the subscription as they offer a 6-month option for those who don’t need it all year.
- Unlimited email and app alerts but text alerts are limited to 500/month (which should be more than enough in most cases)
Review Summary
As with all cell-based solutions, Waggle is highly dependable on coverage in the area you want to use it. If you know which areas you frequent, you can check it with a phone on the Verizon network to confirm what you can expect. We had many situations when my Google Fi phone had max coverage and the Waggle monitor had zero.
The monitor works best when it is fully charged and plugged in although it has a rechargeable battery that keeps it running for a few days. If you are on a road trip, you can adjust the notifications to preserve battery life so it is not sending them to you while you are also in the car and you can just turn it back on when they are truly needed.
Altogether this monitor is a great, easy-to-use solution to keep dogs safe in the RV or at dog sport or training events. It is also a great tool to monitor how long it takes to cool down (or heat up) the dog’s area in the vehicle while driving somewhere and have a better understanding of their comfort level on trips.
Waggle Pet Monitor
A cell-based monitor
It tracks temperature, humidity and calculates the heat index to give you peace of mind when traveling with dogs
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