Do I need an Inkbird ITC 308?

[Falco]

OK, so I’ve got myself a second hand tall larder fridge which I’m using with a 40 watt Dimplex heater to ferment my beers in. I can monitor the fridge internal temperature using a digital min/max thermometer placed inside and by adjusting the heater thermostat I can achieve a differential of 18 to 21C during fermentation. This has worked fine for a couple of brews.

The question is the Inkbird any better in regulating the temperature compared with what I’m doing now?

I’ll also be using the fridge to cold crash the FV prior to bottling so again do I need an Inkbird to do this or do I just set the thermostat on the fridge to the lowest temperature it’ll go to?

Your comments and ideas welcomed please

 

[lupinehorror]

i can only say that i didn't think i needed one but what a difference it has made to my brews.
i don't use a fridge (just a heat mat) but it's kept it 1 degree from 20C effortlessly (and i can monitor it from my phone) but could be set to be more precise if required. for me it's reacting to environmental changes and it does it very well.

 

[Pezza24]

STC 1000 is about £10 or less on eBay. Same principle as the Inkbird you've just got to wire it all up yourself. I'm using one to control a length of heat tracing cable I wrap around my fermenter at the moment. The garage fridge is in constant use otherwise I'd have converted that by now.

 

[Galena]

Inkbird 308 all the way for me, plug and play and quite well priced, whats not to like for spot on temperature control?

 

[Falco]

Inkbird 308 all the way for me, plug and play and quite well priced, whats not to like for spot on temperature control?

That’s my question, does it provide “spot on “ temperature control? In my experience most heating control systems can achieve the desired set temperature but there’s always a small temperature differential when the heating is on or off.

At the moment this difference is 3 degrees C, is the Inkbird any better than this?

 

[lupinehorror]

That’s my question, does it provide “spot on “ temperature control? In my experience most heating control systems can achieve the desired set temperature but there’s always a small temperature differential when the heating is on or off.

At the moment this difference is 3 degrees C, is the Inkbird any better than this?

yup. set the hysteresis accordingly.

 

[Falco]

yup. set the hysteresis accordingly.

I'll put on my Santa's wish list then

 

[Galena]

That’s my question, does it provide “spot on “ temperature control? In my experience most heating control systems can achieve the desired set temperature but there’s always a small temperature differential when the heating is on or off.

At the moment this difference is 3 degrees C, is the Inkbird any better than this?

I have mine set to +/- 0.4C and it generally keeps it to this rather well, just occasionally straying, but it has never gone far out of this range.

 

[Clint]

I think the inky also has some gubbins that deals with the fridge compressor...protects it...someone who knows "stuff" will be along no doubt to explain..
I got 3...or maybe 4..

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Yes, an Inkbird will give you a lot more accuracy... but there is nothing magic about that brand, any PID controller will do. I made my own using an Arduino...

 

[MmmBeer]

An ITC 1000 is about £12, plus maybe a few £ for a Toolstation enclosure. Why look anywhere else.

 

[Hanglow]

I use mine for beer, wine, seedlings, souse vide before i got an immersion heater, also as another temperature probe during actual brew day. Extremely useful imo. And you can do it a bit cheaper with the stc1000 if you want to, but you still wont regret getting the inkbird if you pay a bit more.

 

[Clint]

The thing is if you're happy to build one..

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

The thing is if you're happy to build one..

... one of my other hobbies ;-)

 

[Falco]

Yes, an Inkbird will give you a lot more accuracy... but there is nothing magic about that brand, any PID controller will do. I made my own using an Arduino...

The thing is if you're happy to build one..

Yep, as another engineer that brews I could knock one together myself, but I’m more interested in the brewing process rather than building something from discrete components which when you add up the cost would probably be somewhere close to the cost of the Inkbird.

Besides Santa‘s coming

 

[Falco]

Thanks for the input chaps, much appreciated

 

[DavidT]

I've got an STC-1000. They are fairly easy to put in an enclosure and wire up. I was going to make another couple up but have decided to go with ITC-308 as it is not much more expensive (a fiver perhaps) and it's much smaller so worth the difference

 

[Falco]

I've got an STC-1000. They are fairly easy to put in an enclosure and wire up. I was going to make another couple up but have decided to go with ITC-308 as it is not much more expensive (a fiver perhaps) and it's much smaller so worth the difference

My thoughts exactly David

 

[ChrisT]

If you just want to control the temperature then InkBird or ST-1000 are easy to implement and don't require much configuration. If you want to monitor and/or log your fermentation then there are a couple of alternatives but require more involvement.

I've built 2 controllers, an STC-1000 and Fermentrack. The STC-1000 is in a simple box and just required wiring up. Fermentrack is running on an old Raspberry Pi but it needs you to build a BrewPi controller with display, relays, etc to provide heat and cool control. You'll need to get out your soldering iron and get parts yourself, setup and configuration all done from the Pi.

Fermentrack will control your brew temperature, you can build your own brew profile rather than set a single temperature. It also logs data from an iSpindel should you have one, or should Santa bring one of these as well.

So, it depends on the level of fun you want!

Chris