I have no idea if this is common knowledge or not. I have wired 2 of them and they work fine....however they BOTH needed calibrated. I am not sure if I did it correctly but I put the probe in ice water and then adjusted it ( hold in the S button until the F1 appears then scroll with the up and down arrows until you get to F4. Hold in the S button and adjust the reading to 0) anyway before using yours, check it to see if it is correct.
ebay temp controller tip
- Thread starter OHIOSTEVE
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ChemE
Well-Known Member
Is this controller capable of being two-point calibrated? A one-point calibration is certainly better than nothing and does ensure that the controller is fairly accurate near the single calibration point but it does nothing to ensure accuracy further from the calibration point. You're setting the intercept but not the slope. A second calibration point lets you set both.
If you can only do a one point calibration, I would recommend the boiling point of DI water (corrected for elevation or better current atmospheric pressure) instead since it is much closer to mash temperatures than is the freezing point of water. Another option is to do a two point calibration and develop and calibration curve even if the controller itself isn't able to be two point calibrated. Just note the temperature the controller measures when placed in a DI ice slurry and a DI boiling water bath. Plot the controller reading on the y-axis and the true reading on the x-axis and connect the two points with a line. Then any reading taken off the controller can be easily corrected. Find the temperature the controller reads on the y-axis and move sideways until you reach the calibration line, then travel straight downward until you reach the x-axis. That is the corrected temperature.
The same thing can be done with multiple boiling points such as pure grain alcohol (actually only 95% ethanol and balance water) which boils at 172.6°F; a very useful third calibration point for homebrewers.
If you can only do a one point calibration, I would recommend the boiling point of DI water (corrected for elevation or better current atmospheric pressure) instead since it is much closer to mash temperatures than is the freezing point of water. Another option is to do a two point calibration and develop and calibration curve even if the controller itself isn't able to be two point calibrated. Just note the temperature the controller measures when placed in a DI ice slurry and a DI boiling water bath. Plot the controller reading on the y-axis and the true reading on the x-axis and connect the two points with a line. Then any reading taken off the controller can be easily corrected. Find the temperature the controller reads on the y-axis and move sideways until you reach the calibration line, then travel straight downward until you reach the x-axis. That is the corrected temperature.
The same thing can be done with multiple boiling points such as pure grain alcohol (actually only 95% ethanol and balance water) which boils at 172.6°F; a very useful third calibration point for homebrewers.
FirstStateBrewer
Well-Known Member
I don't know if it's capable of 2-point calibration. But, since I am using mine for a fermentation chamber, I will calibrate it at 0. Thanks for the tip, OHIOSTEVE!
ChemE
Well-Known Member
Gotcha. What about their ability to accept more than one calibration point? I've long been curious about these.
OHIOSTEVE
Well-Known Member
no clue
JuanMoore
Getting the banned back together
And keezers (and even my ghetto gas fired HERMS).
Nope, just a single +/- adjustment to shift the scale. I have 2 of the dual stage ones and 3 of the single stage ones. The single stage ones seem slightly more accurate across a wide temp range, and their SS probes have a much faster response time than the rubber ones used on the dual stage, but they're all surprisingly accurate. All but one of mine were calibrated accurately out of the box, but maybe I just got lucky. I did however need to adjust the ones in my HERMS control panel after I tripled the length of the temp probe wires.
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