wiring help for temp controller

I have 2 temp controllers one is the standard plug and play johnson. the other is a dayton that looks similar to the johnson except the temp probe is a small coil mounted to the controller body and it has no cord. I opened the johnson thinking I would just copy how it was wired but the relays are different. the johnson is a 2 wire relay with case ground where the dayton is a 3 wire relay with case ground. I plan on using a 16 amp extension cord to wire the dayton which is rated at 16 amps also. The house circuit is standard 15 amp so I'm not worried about burning anything. The connectors in the dayton are labeled red, blue, and yellow. The plate inside the cover states:

opens red to blue on increase
red-common
blue-opens high
yellow-opens low

they way I have this figured is that the common from the freezer and the extension cord both go to red. The line from the freezer goes to either blue or yellow and the line from the extension cord goes to the connector not used by the freezer line. I think this will work but I don't understand the opens hi and low part, and not sure it matters since its AC. can anyone help me on this?

I really don't know the answer to this, but I'll make an educated guess.

opens high = kills the juice when the temp is above the set point, so the circuit in effect opens when the temp is high, as one would expect from a heater
opens low= kills the juice when the temp is below the set point, so the circuit in effect opens when the temp is low, as one would expect from a cooler

I think an experiment is in order! Wire it to one of them, plug it in, and if it works backwards, flip them. As long as your watching it, it shouldn't hurt anything.

This is for anyone needing to know how to wire a temp controller. Temp controllers have 2 or three connections depending on the style. the connections are marked C- common, H- opens high, L- opens low. Your normal 3 wire conductor has Line, Common, Ground. Line will run uninterrupted past the controller. Conductor common is cut and attached to controller common. The other end of conductor Common is attached to controller Low for refrigerated applications(keezer or ferm. cab) or controller High for heating applications(heat strip for cold weather ferm.) Ground of course is grounded to the controller case. From the controller, conductor Line continues to the motor. Conductor low goes to the other side of the motor and ground continues to the keezer ground.

Now let me make this a little simpler. Make sure nothing is plugged in before you begin. Cut the plug of of your frezzer cord. Remove a few inches of outer sheathing and bare 1/4" from your conductors. Install "U" terminals to the black and the green wires. Cut the receptacle end off a 16 amp rated extension cord, remove a few inches of outer sheathing, and install "U" terminals to the green and black wires. Feed both wires through the housing of the temp controller. Wire nut or butt splice the white wires together. attach both greens to the case ground. Install the extension cord black wire to the controller common. Install the freezer black wire to the controller Low. Turn the built in freezer thermostat to the coldest setting(this in effect bypasses the freezer thermostat and allows the temp controller to handle all control). Turn the thermostat dial on the controller up above the sensor temp. Plug the extension cord in. Nothing should happen. Turn the dial on the controller down, when dial hits the probe temp the keezer will turn on. trun the dial back up the keezer will turn off. DO NOT TURN IT BACK ON FOR A FEW MINUTES. THE COMPRESSOR HAS ALREADY BUILT UP SOME PRESSURE AND MOST COMPRESSOR MOTORS ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO START UP WITH PRESSURE ALREADY ON THEM. After a few minutes the pressure will bleed off and you can set the desired temp and "restart" the motor. For heating applications, use controller High instead of controller Low. I hope this helps anyone who does not have a prewired controller. I figured this out by examining the built in thermostat on the freezer that I have and testing by the above turn on/ off method. It works as it should.

*DISCLAIMER- I AM NOT A CERTIFIED ELECTRICIAN, AND TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGE OR PERSONAL INJURY.*