Inkbird itc-308

[chillipickle]

Hi
Can any one recommend heating and cooling differential values to set on the inkbird.Will be using it with a fridge and 1ft dimplex tube heater.

cheers.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Go onto YouTube and put setting up an Inkbird. Personally I set at +/- 0.5C.

 

[chillipickle]

Thanks will give that a try and see how it goes.

 

[Banbeer]

Personally I set at +/- 0.5C.

Same here, I think default is +/- 1.5

 

[Tractorboy]

I picked up an old fridge last weekend, along with an Inkbird and, like you a 1 ft Dimplex tube heater.
After a bit of experimenting, I settled on ±0.3°C for my differentials. So far. Initially when I set the fridge up, the temperature seemed to drift a lot from 18.5 to 21.5°, but with the current settings, it seems to sit nicely between 19.5 and 20.5° (inkbird is set to 20°C).
Also found that it works well to have the temperature probe secured to your FV with an insulator (I am using a washing up sponge) so that you are monitoring the temperature of your beer and not the temperature of the air in the fridge.

 

[Martin-68]

Can’t go wrong with the Inkbird mine has been set at 21 degrees +- 1 degree never failed me yet

 

[chillipickle]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[nixhaz]

I just got mine yesterday and am currently using it in my kegerator as the damned thing keeps freezing. I put it to 5.5 C +/- 2C so that the compressor doesn't have to turn on and off all the time, is that ok or should I reduce the differential do you think?

 

[Cyberjip]

I just got mine yesterday and am currently using it in my kegerator as the damned thing keeps freezing. I put it to 5.5 C +/- 2C so that the compressor doesn't have to turn on and off all the time, is that ok or should I reduce the differential do you think?

This should be fine, I have mine set with +/- 2 although set at 6.5 and it works fine

 

[Banbeer]

Also found that it works well to have the temperature probe secured to your FV with an insulator (I am using a washing up sponge) so that you are monitoring the temperature of your beer and not the temperature of the air in the fridge.

Or you can use a thermowell to put your temp probe in, I made my own for 3 FV's quite a few years ago but you can buy Stainless Steel ones quite cheap now.

 

[Galena]

Have any of you set the compressor delay to anything other than the default zero? I put 2 mins in, I assume from the less than perfect instructions this is to stop the fridge from switching on/off too often and would only really be needed if the fridge is very inefficient?

 

[chillipickle]

I left mine at zero, to be honest the temp has been very stable.The compressor does not come on that often, when it does kick in it's for a short time.

 

[Galena]

I left mine at zero, to be honest the temp has been very stable.The compressor does not come on that often, when it does kick in it's for a short time.

Thanks for the info :)

 

[DarkIsland]

I set mine +/- 1 degree with a compressor delay of 3 minutes...but then I have my temp probe hanging in the air, I know this is controversial. The air temp varies slightly and slowly and the liquid varies hardly at all.

 

[Galena]

I set mine +/- 1 degree with a compressor delay of 3 minutes...but then I have my temp probe hanging in the air, I know this is controversial. The air temp varies slightly and slowly and the liquid varies hardly at all.

I have just got mine today and set it at +/- 0.5 degrees, I think having a short delay set can't do any harm, if the fridge is efficient then the delay will just cancel itself out anyway I guess.

 

[The Cat]

Ordered one today going to pick a fridge up next week.

No turning back now this hobby has got me.

 

[Galena]

Ordered one today going to pick a fridge up next week.

No turning back now this hobby has got me.

Haha indeed, the idea that you can make beer cheaply, now I could do with a second fridge and inkbird for conditioning

 

[TimXJR1300]

From my experience, a lot depends on the efficiency of the fridge and the size of the container in the fridge.
Top Tip... stick your temperature probe to the barrel or a bottle otherwise its measuring air temperature and that changes quickly.

Through experimentation I found that you may have to allow for a bit of hysteresis. When the heater turns on, it takes a while for the barrel/bottle to warm up and because the heater element doesn't cool off instantly the temperature will overshoot. It may mean that it goes past your cooling tolerance so the fridge turns on.

Likewise, and in my case, the fridge takes a bit of time to get sorted out before it starts having any real effect on cooling but once it gets going it's very efficient... so efficient that it overshot the heating threshold and the heater came on.

As a general rule though 0.5C is OK... in my case 0.5 for cooling and 1.0 for heating.

 

[stan.distortion]

0.5 deg heating and 0.3 deg cooling here as I'm getting about 0.4 deg overshoot after refrigeration. A small fan should reduce that to less than the 0.3 deg minimum setting, just haven's got around to putting one in there yet.

 

[gavp1979]

Only the second time using my brewfridge and my temp seems rock solid, I am using an old heat belt until I get round to installing a tube heater but now I am now wondering if the belt is a better option because you don't get the constant swing in ambient temperature