ITC-308 wifi is always heating or cooling

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m1k3

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I just got a new ITC-308 wifi and it's always heating or cooling.

I own the old Inkbird wifi and dual stage units so I understand how to set it.

The issue is that it does not respect any Difference Value settings.
(and it does not respect Refridgeration Delay)

Is it broken, need updated? Did anyone else have this issue. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
I just played with settings. I got it to stop doing anything.
 

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I guess mine is busted. Thanks for testing! Mine does not do that... it's heat or cool all the time.
 
I used my new ITC-308 wifi to ferment a beer.
Here are my issues with it:


Let's say the temp was 69.5F... If I change the temp to 69F, the cooling turns on. If I change the temp to 70F the heating turns on.
It should respect the Difference setting and not turn on. (see video)

The chest freezer and Reptile heater seem to be cycling more than with other Temp controllers that I own.
(usual fermentartion... two fermenters with thermowells... 2F Difference Setting)

Unplugging the heat or cooling and running it single stage helps reduce cycling.
 
Do you let it settle first?

I've noticed on mine that if I change the target then it will heat/cool if not at the exact target. However, once it hits the target initially then it will respect the difference setting. It doesn't stop the cycle until target is achieved exactly.

Let it ride out a few cycles and see if it starts to respect the difference setting.
 
Hi, everyone, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We have already reported to our engineering team, we will try our best to solve the problem. We will keep you posted. Thanks for your patience.
 
Hi, we just check with our engineering team. And here is the details:

After setting the parameters, save or exit or power on for the first time, it enters heating or cooling according to the TS value, not based on the difference value. Then when the heating or cooling is turned off, the following control is controlled according to the TS and the difference. Here is the user manual for your reference.

upload_2019-6-26_14-43-38.png
 
Hi, we just check with our engineering team. And here is the details:

After setting the parameters, save or exit or power on for the first time, it enters heating or cooling according to the TS value, not based on the difference value. Then when the heating or cooling is turned off, the following control is controlled according to the TS and the difference. Here is the user manual for your reference.

View attachment 632771


I reset mine today as the set temperature function on the app was not working. It was at 64.9 degrees and I set it to 65. It ran heat til it hit 65 and shut off. I then turned the heat back down to 64 and it started cooling. My heat differential is 2 and cooling is 8 as I do not intend to use this in the winter. It is still running the cooling.
 
Having same issue here. Fired mine up yesterday for first time in a while, it's always in heating or cooling mode. I have mine heat diff @ 2, and my cooling at 10. Temp is set at 64. Heat should only go on at 61, and cooling at 75. Otherwise, "off".

Last night, it was in heating mode for two hours, yet the temp never moved. Good thing I switched it out for another controller, as the temp was higher than indicated on Inkbird.

Its also making a hissing noise (yes, really).
 
Having same issue here. Fired mine up yesterday for first time in a while, it's always in heating or cooling mode. I have mine heat diff @ 2, and my cooling at 10. Temp is set at 64. Heat should only go on at 61, and cooling at 75. Otherwise, "off".

Last night, it was in heating mode for two hours, yet the temp never moved. Good thing I switched it out for another controller, as the temp was higher than indicated on Inkbird.

Its also making a hissing noise (yes, really).
Hey there! You should be get it wrong.. According to your settings, heat will go on at 62, will be off at 64. cooling will go on at 74, will be off at 64. As for the reading problem, please put the probe to another place and see if the reading is accurate.
 
Hey there! You should be get it wrong.. According to your settings, heat will go on at 62, will be off at 64. cooling will go on at 74, will be off at 64. As for the reading problem, please put the probe to another place and see if the reading is accurate.

Its still always either in heating or cooling mode. What about the hissing? I don’t have this issue with any other controllers I own.

I’ve unplugged it.
 
What was the verdict? Did anyone figure it out?
I just got one and found this thread because I had the same problems/concern.

My previous temperature control experience was a Ranco and I have to say the Inkbird's behavior isn't exactly intuitive the first time. When you make any change to the settings the Inkbird will force a cycle back to the set temperature. Only after completing that cycle to the set temperature will the Inkbird begin to follow the rules set my the heating and cooling difference settings. I changed the refrigeration delay and even that forced it to start a cooling cycle to the set temperature a mere 0.3 degrees away.

This time of year I rely on my chest freezer fermentation chamber to complete the initial chilling of my batches and so far this behavior has caused a bit of bouncing a little back and forth around my target temp. I suspect it will settle down or I will expand the difference settings (setting off another temp target cycle) but at this point I definitely prefer my Ranco's predictable performance.

This behavior is definitely the biggest mark against it I've seen. Well that and this thing should be so much easier to program in so many ways, like having a calendar to automate fermentation profiles. The big upside is the WIFI capability and it's rather inexpensive when on sale which is about every month or so.

Finally, one of the local breweries that makes darn good beer uses these on their fermenters and so I figured for $38 I would give it a shot and it's always nice to have a spare one around just in case. I figured I would test it out over the 4th of July holiday seeing as I brewed a batch and wanted to have the ability to adjust the temp away from home based on the data from my RAPT Pill as well.
 
I have two of these. Like the ability to change temp via wifi. But yes sometimes over- or under-shoot with this "hysteresis loop." Are the better wifi-controllable options?
 
Not at this price point as far as I know. RAPT makes a temperature controller that is wifi enabled but it's $119 and I haven't checked out it's features. Though I will say while a wifi connected controller is convenient I'm not convinced I need it. I've brewed hundreds of batches without it and the advantage of the wifi controller does not outweigh the unfortunate temperature settings implemented on the controller.

Ideally you could set an upper and lower bound temperatures with cooling and heating differences for those temperatures on either end of the bounded range. Additionally changing the setting should be automatically accepted and acted upon immediately not after hitting the target temp. @inkbird please consider a firmware update to do this. As of right now my new wifi controller might get relegated to control my keezer and I've already switched it out on my ongoing batch back to my old reliable Ranco controller.
 
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