Shameless plug-input sought

[chezhed]

The company I work for has begun to expand its market. You may have seen their new ad in Zymurgy lately....http://www.controlproductsonline.com/brewer

I inquired about being a field test and will be receiving one. I have four temp controllers that I built using the STC-1000 so this will be used concurrently for test purposes...I plan to put a carboy in identical Avanti mini fridges from the same batch and run one with my controller and one with this one. I'd love to attach a couple chart recorders to measure on/off cycles but unless I can find two spare at work, my record keeping will be limited to SWMBO making hourly checks and recording which is on, which is off and what temp......wonder how long that will last I will then attempt to run both fermenters off this one controller.

So, question is, would you pay more for this versus a Johnson A419 because of its ability to cool two circuits? I told them the price is too high...

 

[outside92129]

So each output can have a separate range of temperatures?

Btw, please tell your webmaster to resize the image at the link below, there's no need for a 2.1mb 1389x2063 pixel image to be resized after download to 743x500 : )
http://www.controlproductsonline.com/brewer

 

[grathan]

One page says 20 amp relays the next says 30 amps?

If it had 3 plugs you could control a fridge and heat 2 different carboys to 2 different ferm temps. I would pay for that. Otherwise the stc1000 can heat and cool to 1 degree.

 

[chezhed]

So each output can have a separate range of temperatures?

Btw, please tell your webmaster to resize the image at the link below, there's no need for a 2.1mb 1389x2063 pixel image to be resized after download to 743x500 : )
http://www.controlproductsonline.com/brewer

Yes...it's dual relay with separate ranges for each output.

I will pass on the image comment. Thanks

One page says 20 amp relays the next says 30 amps?

Hmmmm...will ask about that, but I suspect it is only 20 amp.

I agree the STC works within 1 degree of the range on hot or cold if you wire it that way so the advantage to this one would be beneficial for someone that may not want to do both...ie, cool two different fermenters or heat two different belts or whatever.

In my case, I no longer have need for heat so I will probably replace 2 of my home built units with this one.

 

[chezhed]

From the source about the 20 amp/30 amp question:
The unit has 30A relays, but the UL filing keeps them downrated to 20A max. If you’re using the Pre-Wired configuration, you’re limited to the input amperage of the incoming power if jumpering power from the input power to the relays. And on a dual stage unit, you have to be careful not to overload your circuit if both stages happen to operate at the same time. This can happen if both are in cooling mode, but the controller won’t let you have a hot and cool stage fight against each other.

 

[ITHZ]

I bought one of these controllers back Sept.2011. I wired it my self and have been using it on my fermentation fridge. It has been working great with the fridge and a ferm wrap. Not sure why it has a Cool/Cool or Heat/Heat mode, it only has one temp probe. As far as Cool/Heat I have had no problems, but the ferm wrap does only draw 14 watts. In 2011 I paid $65 shipped from Amazon. After recently building a kegerator, I "was" going to buy another, even though I only needed a single stage. I went with the Johnson A419 because it was much cheaper and pre-wired. With that said, I would not have any problem buying another TC-9102 if I needed 2 stage control (the single stage is almost the same price as the 2 stage). It's a great controller and has been running for almost 2 years in my garage even through the Georgia summers.