Inkbird ITC-308

[redarmy990]

Hello all,
I have a temp controller see title, that i set up last night.
M y questions
1/ Does my refrigerator need to be set to 9 the coolest or 1 the warmest temp

2/ Temp set on the inkbird to 64f. I had it plugged in and my temp is at 54f, I have the heating diff set 1f and the cooling diff set to 1f. AH set to 96f AL set to -14.
PT set to 3 minutes.

Are these ok and why ould it overshoot so much, the inkbirds temp prope is in a cup of water and the fridge is empty, new fridge

 

[waldoar15]

Fridge/freezer should be set to the coldest setting.

 

[IslandLizard]

An empty fridge is not a good reference, it doesn't have much heat capacity.

If used for fermenting, brew a batch, put in fridge, and keep an eye on the temps. Do it over a weekend so you can monitor and adjust. The probe placement is essential. Most of us keep it under a 4x4" piece of 1/4" packing foam strapped to the side of the fermentor. The probe should contact the side of the fermentor about halfway up to the beer level.

Or stick a keg of beer in it.

I'm not familiar with the actual ITC-108 settings abbreviations, I use STC-1000s, the precursor.
But compressor delay should be set to 10 minutes, minimum.
If you set target temp to 64F it should keep your beer at that temp +/- 1 or 2 degrees. If it fluctuates more, experiment with different probe placements, thicker foam, thinner foam, lower/higher on the fermentor, etc.

 

[aprichman]

You need to tape the probe to the side of your carboy and then tape some insulation over the probe. A couple layers of bubble wrap works well, but I've seen people use sponges, foam, etc.

During active fermentation the beer is generating heat so a cup of water will be at a drastically different temperature than the beer in the carboy.

Set PT to the maximum.

 

[PADave]

You compressor delay should be set to 10 min. Don't set your hd and cd at 1 degree, they will just fight each other. During active fermentation, I set the cooling diff to 1 and the heating diff to 10, because I don't need any heat. Once active fermentation is finished and I want to raise temps a bit, I do the reverse, set the hd to 1 and raise the cd to 5 or 6. Without anything in the fridge, don't even try things out, you need the mass of liquid to keep temps stable. Tape your probe to what you want to control temps of.

 

[mikeschmidt69]

My fridge forms ice on the back wall if set at maximum. This means it will keep cooling after the inkbird turns it off. For this reason I use a lower setting.

 

[IslandLizard]

My fridge forms ice on the back wall if set at maximum. This means it will keep cooling after the inkbird turns it off. For this reason I use a lower setting.

In red. How is that possible? The Inkbird turns the power to your fridge OFF.

 

[PADave]

My fridge forms ice on the back wall if set at maximum. This means it will keep cooling after the inkbird turns it off. For this reason I use a lower setting.

All a fridge thermostat does is control the temp. If you crank it up to max, it will just run longer, not be colder quicker, or have more "power." At fermentation temps, doesn't really matter where the fridge thermostat is set, the inkbird will do the on/off. Ice is a sign that you are getting moisture in the fridge, which happens when using it as a fermentation chamber. Got anything in there to absorb moisture?

 

[mikeschmidt69]

In red. How is that possible? The Inkbird turns the power to your fridge OFF.

Because even though the power is off the ice that was created continues to cool the fridge.

 

[mikeschmidt69]

All a fridge thermostat does is control the temp. If you crank it up to max, it will just run longer, not be colder quicker, or have more "power." At fermentation temps, doesn't really matter where the fridge thermostat is set, the inkbird will do the on/off. Ice is a sign that you are getting moisture in the fridge, which happens when using it as a fermentation chamber. Got anything in there to absorb moisture?

Thanks, this is good to know. I think this mainly happens when I cold crash as the compressor is running a long time to take temperature from 21C down to OC. It might also happen when dropping from 20C to 18C but not so much. Once I reach target temperature there is no problem.

 

[aprichman]

Thanks, this is good to know. I think this mainly happens when I cold crash as the compressor is running a long time to take temperature from 21C down to OC. It might also happen when dropping from 20C to 18C but not so much. Once I reach target temperature there is no problem.

You could always run a small heat source inside the chamber on the hot side of the controller. I use a fermwrap that's open in my chest freezer when I'm fermenting to minimize swings. I can really keep the probe within 1°F in either direction this way.

I also keep my carboy inside a milk crate so the bottom isn't touching a cold surface directly.