Product review (5 stars): Make sure you don't put the ball in until you've frozen the water first!
So my husband comes running in from the garage with this recently installed Freezer Meter in his hands freaking out showing me that the red ball was at the bottom which must mean the brand new freezer connected to our very old electrical system must've thawed out at some point in the month. We went into full panic mode. We had just finished harvesting and preserving our garden bounty for the year over weeks and weeks of work and I was in tears thinking we might have to throw out all that food.

And then it occurred to me to ask him if he had put the ball in the meter at the same time he put the water in? And he said yes, that's exactly what he had done. We thawed it out, froze it again this time without the ball, put the ball on top when it was already frozen and reinstalled it. I'm happy to report we've had no more sightings of the red ball at the bottom of the meter since then, but thought I would share this story so others would make sure to follow the directions when using it for the first time. Seems obvious in hindsight but it wasn't so funny at the time...