Inkbird FAIL

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Brewmance

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Worse day at work ever, my dog's cancer is aggressive and the medication is making me bankrupt. I dreamt about a nice first carbed pull of the Mosaic/Citra NEIPA i recently brewed all day.

Pull the handle....What? Nothing? inspects lines, notices everything is frozen. Opens keg, frozen beer cube. Inkbird is reading 47 degrees..........

I damn near hulk smashed my Inkbird with my frozen keg and thought about crushing myself with it. 2 kegs ruined and my kent falls/bissel brothers cans ready to explode.

**** this week, seriously. Anyone else have that problem with their Inkbird? A new one isn't on my horizon until I can recoup my cancer costs.

:(:hs:
 
Sorry to hear about the pup, best of luck on that.

Ive had beer freeze accidentally, once thawed it was fine. Maybe yours will be fine as well. Is the probe wire nicked or anything? They might have replacement ones for pretty cheap. Doubt you need to replace the whole unit, it's likely just the probe.
 
How can beer freeze at 47 degrees? Sorry to hear your troubles. I think Inkbird is one of the more reliable units available. And they cost less than almost all other options.

Thaw out that beer. I bet it will be OK.
 
Thanks all. Emo off. Optimistically cracked open a kent falls dry hopped blonde. exploded into a beer slurpy. Beer slurpy's are not as enjoyable as they sound. Balls. I'll check the probe though maybe that is it. Just crazy the sensor is so off. When I grip it in my hand I see the temp raise. Quite odd.

Does dry hopped beer thaw well? or once it freezes is it toast?
 
My ink bird was spot on temperature wise, however there is settings to change IF your probe is reading off. I am also curious if you have some sort of temperature stratification in the keezer too.
 
fwiw, I've read posts by quite a few folks that suffered frozen kegs that once thawed were fine.
Probably want to make sure they're fully thawed before sampling though, as there's a chance when they first start thawing it'll be mostly alcohol collecting at the dip tubes.

As for the controller, definitely want to test the sensor in ice water or something similarly close to the desired setting and see how far it's off...

Cheers!
 
You did have your probe submerged in liquid, and not just hanging in the air, right?
 
This just happened to me. Was set at 1c for a couple years now no problem. Came to pour a beer and nothing. Open the fridge and realized everything was frozen. Looked at the inkbird it was reading -14c green cooling light off but compressor running. Like the relay got stuck on. I’ve now set the low alarm to minus 2c see if I can get some warning.
 
Just got hit with a big power surge the other day. Blew out 7 breakers in the panel. The toll so far is three surge suppressors and an inkbird. It still read fine, and the compressor turned on, but the relay sticks turning off. I will try to fix it later. I don't blame the inkbird, it was a nasty surge and it didn't have a suppressor.
 
Just got hit with a big power surge the other day. Blew out 7 breakers in the panel. The toll so far is three surge suppressors and an inkbird. It still read fine, and the compressor turned on, but the relay sticks turning off. I will try to fix it later. I don't blame the inkbird, it was a nasty surge and it didn't have a suppressor.
I have some experience with electronics. I’ve already took the back cover off and snapped a picture of the relays. Going to see if I can unsolder them and put some new ones in. I also have heard a whining noise from this unit since I’ve bought it. Goino to do so some testing and see if I can narrow it down.
 
I have some experience with electronics. I’ve already took the back cover off and snapped a picture of the relays. Going to see if I can unsolder them and put some new ones in. I also have heard a whining noise from this unit since I’ve bought it. Goino to do so some testing and see if I can narrow it down.

Whining is typically from an inductor in a voltage regulator. Totally normal.

Might be a relay, but they usually fail open (that is, they get corrosion that causes the contacts to appear open). In your case, the contacts are staying closed longer than expected.

I have had an inkbird failure myself. I verified the problem was a bad thermistor, as unlikely as that seemed. See end of following thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...-youre-cold-crashing-ugh.667251/#post-8618602
 
I have had an inkbird failure myself.

I've got the old fashioned Johnson Controls temp controllers, I felt a little foolish paying more for them than Inkbird, but they've been working fine for many years. Did a quick google search and noticed many posts re: Inkbird problems, but not very many for Johnson Control units.
I realize all things electrical can go wrong but I also believe that most of the time (not ALL the time) you get what you pay for.
 
I've got the old fashioned Johnson Controls temp controllers, I felt a little foolish paying more for them than Inkbird, but they've been working fine for many years. Did a quick google search and noticed many posts re: Inkbird problems, but not very many for Johnson Control units.
I realize all things electrical can go wrong but I also believe that most of the time (not ALL the time) you get what you pay for.

Yep, I agree. I actually have one of the Johnson units myself, and also a more expensive one (can't remember the name of that one). I bought the Inkbird because it had an additional relay to do the heating as well - I ferment in the garage and occasionally I need heating. Well, that's sort of a lie, I never need heating here, but inkbird had a sale, so I got caught up in the inkbird frenzy.
 
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