STC 1000 probe-waterproof?

Hi all, I've got my STC1000 wired up and wanted to do some testing before I put it to "real" use.

I was thinking of just plugging in two lamps (one in the cooling outlet and one in the heating outlet) and putting the probe in cups of warm/cold water to test it out.

I would imagine it would be ok since from what I remember, the youtube build I followed had "Aquarium" in the title.

Just wanted to check...

I keep my probe submerged in a cup of water and I've never had any problems.

It is supposed to be waterproof. I think for testing it would be fine.

I don't submerge mine, though. I use a thermowell. Just my personal preference.

I have mine in a ziplock bag in a cup of water. The water presses the bag against the probe for accurate readings, but it stays dry.

Probably not needed; these are supposed to be aquarium temp controllers, after all, and would be wet full-time.

It is fully waterproof. Ive had mine submerged in a sanitizer solution in my keezer to regulate temperatures better for like 5 months now with zero issues.

Mine's waterproof. I drilled a hole in a bottle of water, silicone'd it back closed, and taped the probe wire to the side of the bottle. Works great.

I have three of them, they rock. There is no problem using them in water, but I would recommend using a thermowell in the fermenter. I would worry about the plastic becoming infected.

I use them to control pumping cold water through an immersion chiller in a rope tub.

I don’t understand why people call them ‘aquarium controllers’. It goes from -50C to +99C, and has an adjustable compressor delay. What sort of aquarium needs that? The cheap aquarium heaters work just fine without the need for an external controller.

LovesIPA said:

Mine's waterproof. I drilled a hole in a bottle of water, silicone'd it back closed, and taped the probe wire to the side of the bottle. Works great.

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I did the same thing, but with an old 8oz bottle of Starsan..

Using sanitized water helps keep it from getting crummy...

As others mentioned, the probe is water proof. If you don't want to submerge the probe, taping it to the outside of the fermenter works well too which is what I do. I like this method because it accounts for the rise in temperature that occurs during fermentation.

It seems like a lot of people have it in a bottle/cup of water or taped with some sort of insulation to their fermenter.

Why wouldn't you want to have it hang out in the air? I would imagine that would be the best way to regulate the temperature. If its in a solution or taped to a Carboy, wouldn't there be a delay for the solution to heat or cool enough to change from heating to cooling?

I'm trying to understand why I would want to do in a solution/or attached to a carboy.

Because I care about the temperature of the beer, not the temperature of the air inside the keezer. Putting it in liquid allows me to just control the temperature of the liquid. Besides, I don't need it kicking on if I open the lid and air hits the probe kicking off a compressor cycle.

Pelican521 said:

It seems like a lot of people have it in a bottle/cup of water or taped with some sort of insulation to their fermenter.

Why wouldn't you want to have it hang out in the air? I would imagine that would be the best way to regulate the temperature. If its in a solution or taped to a Carboy, wouldn't there be a delay for the solution to heat or cool enough to change from heating to cooling?

I'm trying to understand why I would want to do in a solution/or attached to a carboy.

Click to expand...

Precisely because of what you said.

Your trying to delay it from overshooting or undershooting your temperature. By placing it in water you are basically lowering its reaction time to temperature changes. Imagine its 34f and you stick your beer in and it goes to 34f, life is good. Then you open your freezer for a few minutes to put in a new keg and hook it up to the gas, you now have to take all of your beer out of the freezer.

Why? Because the air is now 40F according to the sensor, and your beer is 34. So the freezer will turn on again, most freezers will be well below 0F when turned on... until the air hits 34..by then your beer is probably 30F or lower and a frozen ice cube if you didn't take it out.

On the other hand if you had it in water, you could open the freezer for probably 10 minutes and the temperature the sensor see's would maybe move half a degree celsius if that.

Great, thanks all for the input guys. I'll go ahead and test this thing out! Then I got to figure out what I want to brew next.