Inkbird v. Johnson Controls

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Clint Yeastwood

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I have my keezer on an Inkbird, and my fermenting fridge is on an old analog Johnson Controls device. I use a second digital thermometer to keep an eye on the fermenting fridge, it seems to let the temperature wobble within about a 7-degree range. Are other people here getting better performance with Inkbirds than old Johnson controllers?
 
I use a second digital thermometer to keep an eye on the fermenting fridge
Are you measuring the air temp inside the fridge? That can fluctuate quite a bit.
Is the Johnson sensor bulb also hanging in air?

It's the temp of the fermenter/wort that counts and fluctuations therein.

Temp fluctuation should be far less when you add more mass to the sensor bulb, like strapping it to a bottle or can and insulate the probe itself from ambient air. Similar for your thermometer.
 
I have an analog Johnson controller on my 12 keg keezer, that stays pretty stable where I set it at around freezing. The setting is not that precise but it seems very steady and reliable in "set and forget" application. Regarding sensor bulb, it is lower down and very near full kegs, so it is not affected much when freezer is open.

Inkbird 308s control my glycol chiller, fermentor "coil" and heater, and for controlling heat pads for keg spunding and D rest temps.

The Inkbirds are inexpensive, versitile as they can run heat and cooling devices, and turn on lag and temp swing can be controlled. However, they do occasionally fail, when they do, they usually seem to freeze things up. I've had the Johnson analog for a long time and it is very reliable.
 
Many of use strap the sensor to the bottom half of a keg or fermenter, under a 4" patch of packing foam. Now, that's hard to do with a Johnson bulb, and you shouldn't it can bend only so many times. Hence a bottle, can, jug, etc. that has some thermal mass. It will also help save your compressor by cycling much less frequently.
The maximum compressor delay of 10 minutes on an Inkbird/STC-1000 is too short, IMO. 30 minutes would make more sense.
 
I have my keezer on an Inkbird, and my fermenting fridge is on an old analog Johnson Controls device. I use a second digital thermometer to keep an eye on the fermenting fridge, it seems to let the temperature wobble within about a 7-degree range. Are other people here getting better performance with Inkbirds than old Johnson controllers?
Well yeah, because you can set the temp swing or variance on the inkbird.

I had a Johnson controller 20 years ago on one of those old green kitchen fridges everybody apparently had in the 70s. I used to use it as both a fermenting fridge and a kegerator. I’ve moved several times since then and been through different fridges. Now I have a real kegerator and a seperate fridge for fermentation. My kegerator doesn’t need a controller and I have an Inkbird on my fermenting fridge.
 
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