Inkbird ITC-308 & ITC 310T temperature controller - Review

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itbrvilla

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Luckily I was one of the winners of the Inkbird ITC-308 temperature controller. Here is a review of my use so far. I hope it is useful to those considering temperature controllers. Please feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer ASAP.

When I received the Inkbird ITC-308 in the post I was surprised at how compact it is. It looks really nice with a simple display as well as having a pretty solid looking build quality. It has 2 LCD screens showing the process value (I.e. the actual temp) and the other the setting value, it has 3 buttons; up, down and set, it has a power lead (~150cm), temperature probe (~200cm) and a double socket labelled with one for heating and one for cooling XXX.

It has lots of values you can adjust including:
- temperature
- cooling differential (i.e. temp difference below set temp before staring heating again)
- heating differential (i.e. temp difference above set temp before staring cooling again)
- alarm high limit
- alarm low limit
- compressor delay time (for fridge/ freezer)
- temperature calibration
- and C or F.

The first thing I decided to do with it being as I currently am unable to use a brew fridge, I decided to see how I could make my brew days slightly shorter. The first thing I tried was to see if I could use it to make the mash easier. I filled my boiler with 24L of water (I BIAB with an insulated electrim boiler), and connected the Inkbird to the kettle element pug and a timer (set to 7am) and set it to 74°c (cooling and heating differential set to 0.5°c), put the temp probe into the centre of the boiler as best I could and turned the timer on. When I checked the following morning at 8am the boiler was nice and hot and the temp on the Inkbird indicated it was at 73.8°c and my digital thermometer indicated it was 73.4°c, and my glass thermometer between 73-74°c. So it appears to be pretty consistent when compared to other measurements.

The following Saturday I decided get a brew of Greg Hughes Irish Red Ale on. I used the Inkbird to get the mash water ready, and took some readings during the temperature increase comparing the Inkbird and my thermometer: Reading 1. Inkbird- 36.7°c, thermometer-37.8°c; Reading 2. Inkbird 45.1°c, thermometer 45.5°c, Inkbird 74.1°c, Thermometer 73.8°c. So again pretty tight readings.

Once I added the grain to the mash I unplugged the boiler but left the Inkbird on with its probe in the mash wrapped around my digital thermometer. Again the temperatures were within 1.5 °c of each other.
Following my brew day, I set up a builder’s trug as I normally do with 10-15L of water and place my fermentation bucket into it with a fish tank heater but instead of using it directly in the mains I ran it through the Inkbird set at 19° with the temp probe placed at about 2 o’clock from the heater with the electric thermometer probe at about 10 o’clock. The ambient temp in the kitchen is between 14-16°c. I left if like that for 6 days like and the temperature difference between the 2 probes was generally pretty close although occasionally it sometimes differed by more than 2°c (probably due to many other factors), but the stick on temp probe on the fermenter was always between 18-20°c.

After 6 days I increases the temp by 1°c a day until it reached 23°c and left it for a day to help finish off fermenting those final sugars. The ferment went from SG 1.052 to 1.017 over 11 days and I transferred to a secondary for clearing before bottling.

Last week I decided last minute to do a brew and quickly put on my mash water to heat using the Inkbird and went to the brew shop to get some grain. When I returned I’d realised I had plugged the boiler into the cooling socket!!! It was my fault for rushing but it’s a shame that there is no red/blue colour indication on the sockets rather than the grey on dark grey writing.

Overview

As I have only used this for heating and not cooling I can’t review cooling, but imaging it will be pretty good as the probe appears to be pretty accurate and consistent with my other thermometers.

Pros:

+ Easy to use,
+ Lots of settings to customise it for your needs,
+ Out the box temp controller so no need for wiring,
+ Good build quality,
+ Accurate temp reading,
+ Consistent temp.

Cons:

- Probe cable is very fiddly as it is pretty rigid, and the way it was packaged has meant it is in a constants zig-wag pattern and difficult to get straight (may improve over time),
- Labelling on Sockets could be better to help clumsy fools like myself.

Overall a great bit of kit that can have many used for brewing. Hope this was useful!
 

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