Sous Vide Controllers

[cooldood]

I am getting ready to build my mash in a bucket system and need to buy a controller. I see several on Ebay from $50 to $200.

I was wondering if anyone has experience with them and are the $50 a good buy or just a POS.

 

[danb35]

Without a link to the items you're looking at, it's hard to say. If you buy a plug-and-play sous vide controller, it should work for e-brewing, as long as your heating element is within your unit's limitations on power. However, most sous vide controllers aren't designed to run at a full boil.

 

[cooldood]

I guess I dont really see the difference between the SV and PID.
If they both work the same I might as well go with a PID because they are cheaper

 

[danb35]

Sous vide is an application--specifically, it's a form of cooking involving vacuum-sealing your food in a plastic bag and immersing it in a water bath that's held at a carefully-controlled temperature. PID is a control methodology (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller). One major advantage to PID control is that it can set a proportion of power--that is, it can set the output to some percentage of full power rather than simply on or off.

Most sous vide controllers are PIDs. Many simply use 1/16 DIN commercial PID controllers and package them with the rest of the support stuff (switch, enclosure, SSR, etc.); some others custom program a microcontroller with the appropriate software. If you buy a PID (sold as a PID), you'll probably need to also get an SSR and other stuff to make it usable for you.

Again, you haven't given links to the particular things you're looking at. If I search "sous vide controller", the first item that comes up, for $50, is this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sous-Vide-T...002?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c31d113f2
That just looks like the STC-1000 thermostat, about which you can find lots of threads here. It's priced about double what you can find it for in other listings on eBay. It's also just an on/off controller, not a PID, so it doesn't give nearly as precise control over output power.

Another listing, for about $60, is this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Make-Sous-V...118?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19db3f836e
It's a kit with a PID controller, SSR, and temp probe. The questions on that one would be whether the PID has a manual mode (allows you to control the % power, very helpful if you're planning to boil with it) and how good is the PID documentation. Otherwise, if the M8 thread on the probe is something you can work with, it doesn't look like a bad deal.

This one looks quite intriguing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thermostat-...all_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item20d0eb90d6
The listing says it's good for only 10 amps "for long life", but I'd expect there's an SSR in there that could be changed out for one with a higher capacity. The timer and ramp/soak capability could actually be pretty useful in this application, but I don't see controllers like that being used around here. The front panel markings do indicate that it has a manual mode, and the AT button suggests auto-tune, which would indicate that it is a PID controller.

 

[cooldood]

Thanks for all the help. I did not post links because I was more interested in the difference between the types versus a particular one. I would like to take my keggle and make a mash in a bucket system.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/mash-bucket-system-399490/

Of course if there was a "go to" unit that everyone uses here I would gladly take advantage of their (your) expertise