STC1000 and timer and bucket heater

After reading the thread "I love waking up to hot strike water" I am considering doing something along those lines. Brewing in Texas in the Summer (the night time lows are still in the 80's) is hot and this should shorten the time a bit.

I have an extra STC1000 and programmable timer, so this is what I'm considering:

STC1000--> TIMER --> BUCKET HEATER
or
TIMER-->STC1000 --> BUCKET HEATER

Suspend the STC temp probe in the water away from the heater and let the timer turn on at my designated time and turn off a few hours later in case something comes up and I am not there to manually turn it off. The bucket heater runs about 8.5 amps which is below the 10 amps rated by the STC.

Am I missing anything here? Is there any benefit to using one way vs. the other?

 

Don't you have to do it this way -> TIMER-->STC1000 --> BUCKET HEATER so that the timer always has power to run the clock?

I do the bucket heater thing every once in a while and it really saves on the propane.

 

Nope as long as the timer can handle 8.5 amps you should be good to go. I heat my water with a stc but just done even use a timer. Just turn it on before bed and when I wake up its holding it at the correct temp. That way I can be super lazy and not calculate how long it will take to heat up X temp and X amount of water in X container to X temperature.

 

Doed

The timer has built in batteries that keep the time when power is not applied so that isn't an issue.

Apparently I'm good to go with either setup. Thanks for the responses.

 

I'd say to keep the batteries from dying prematurely and saving them for a backup if you do loose power, go timer-->STC-->heater.

 

Not hip to all the nuances of the STC-1000.
Will it's relays handle said load of the heating element?

 

number40fan:

Good point, that's what I have decided to do.


stealthcruiser:

According to the specs. the STC relays are rated at 10 amps and the bucket heater draws 8.5 amps so there shouldn't be a problem.

 

i run an 800w hot plate on mine with no issues. but wireing up a ac / ac ssr costs all of 10$ and you can have they whole system rated for 20+ amps pretty fast. I just did this so I can run a 1500w element without having to worrie about it