Inkbird Itc-308 Review

[joshesmusica]

First time giving a product review, so I'm not sure if this is in the right place.

Inkbird recently gave us an offer on here (probably on other sites as well) for 75% off of the ITC-308 temperature controller in exchange for an honest review. I jumped at the chance, as it was significantly cheaper than the one I had already, and it had outlets for cold and warm, whereas mine only had one outlet.

I read some other reviews that it needed to be calibrated right out of the box, but mine seemed to be very close, enough that it could've been an error on either thermometer.

It's still a simple control compared to some, but it had many more features than my previous one, and so I am very pleased with the product. I have only used it in one complete fermentation so far, but my black IPA came out without any fermentation flaws in it.

I liked the alarms for high and low temps, as this helps ease the mind that if something does go wrong with any of the appliances, I'll be able to catch it before it ruins the beer. The temp probe even is better quality than my previous one, and it seems like from several reviews that people are submersing it in water. I'm not sure if I'll dare to do that, and it mentions nothing about its capabilities in that regards in the user manual. With it have several little nooks in it, I'll doubt I'll ever attempt it directly in the beer, no need to risk infection.

The other feature I really liked is the compressor delay. My old controller handled everything pretty easily except when I would cold crash and it would finally start to settle in at the set temp. Then I could hear it kicking the freezer on and off pretty rapidly. Even just setting this to a 1 minute delay helps to ease up on the stress on the compressor. Because of the delay it takes a little more time for the temp to really settle into place, but that time is worth it compared to having to buy a new freezer.

Some of the reviews on the American amazon site talked about its 1000w limit. Luckily I'm in Europe, and it has a 2000w limit here.

The only "problem" I really experienced with it was during cold crashing. Because I didn't need to really rush this beer through the fermentation chamber, I decided to crash it over a few days - taking it down 4C every 12 hours. This was really my problem, as I attempted to just keep the alarms set with the same parameters, 2C on either side, but I should've just set the low alarm a lot lower.

I'm very satisfied with the product, I received it in the mail fairly quickly considering it was coming from France (I live in Norway). Because the packaging was so small, I was able to get it in the mailbox instead of having to go down and pick it up from the post office.

I think that normally this one costs around $40-50 US, which isn't terribly expensive at all. If you already have your fermentation chamber, and still have some left in the budget, I would recommend this product.

I will be putting it a little more to the test next, when I'll be attempting a Bohemian Pilsner (so any fermentation flaws should be readily apparent).

 

[inkbird]

Thanks so much for your review it.

 

[joshesmusica]

In continuance with the honest review:

The thing still works great... Except when I'm cold crashing. It seems to be kicking on my freezer even when it shouldn't need to kick it on. Obviously something faulty with it. I can have it set to 0.5C, then once it hits 0.8C the freezer kicks on, it drops it too low, and kicks off again. No big deal, that's why it's supposed to have the heating option there. I leave the probe sitting on top of the fermenter bucket so that it reads the ambient air, so that it doesn't take so long for the temperature change to hit the probe (as opposed to leaving it taped to the side of the bucket with bubble wrap on top, reading the fermenter temp, which would take a bit longer to fluctuate and could majorly overshoot at that point). But even if it's attempting to warm it back up to that 0.5C, I will hear it trying to kick the freezer on. It's actually pretty lame, because I know this can't be good for the compressor one bit. At this point, I don't even know if I want to continue using it, in fear that it will burn out the compressor leaving me with no fermentation chamber.

 

[doppeldowns]

Thought I would jump in here and add my review of the ITC-308S with 12" probe. There was a similar deal here in Canada for a discounted purchase with a promise to provide a product review.

Up until now, I have been using an STC-1000 to control my fermentation chamber, so my review of this product is made with that context in mind. Both controllers will allow you to set the temperature, within a specified variance, and allow for both heating and cooling modes.

Having said that, here are my thoughts on the inkbird controller, after first time use:

Product arrived securely packaged with no damage during transit.

The instructions are fairly well written and programming is intuitive and simple – only one hand is required, no need to hold down one button while pressing another. This display is large, bright and easy to read. A nice feature is that the set temperature and probe temperature are both displayed at the same time.

The probe fits nicely in the narrow tube of a carboy cap and is long enough to immerse in the beer. An added benefit is that the probe can be quickly disconnected from the controller to make cleaning and sanitizing more convenient. Prior to first use, I verified the accuracy of the probe against my calibrated thermapen, and found that the probe only differed by 0.1 C. After accounting for this variation in the programming, I was all set to go. Total time from unpacking to use, including programming, was less than 5 minutes.

My first use of this controller was with a dark saison. I set my desired temperature with a tolerance of +/- 0.3 C and the controller kept the fermentation chamber within this range, activating heating and cooling as required.

Overall, this controller was very easy to set up and use and makes for a full featured and simple out of the box solution for controlling a fermentation chamber.

 

[Finlandbrews]

Thought I would jump in here and add my review of the ITC-308S with 12" probe. There was a similar deal here in Canada for a discounted purchase with a promise to provide a product review.

Up until now, I have been using an STC-1000 to control my fermentation chamber, so my review of this product is made with that context in mind. Both controllers will allow you to set the temperature, within a specified variance, and allow for both heating and cooling modes.

Having said that, here are my thoughts on the inkbird controller, after first time use:

Product arrived securely packaged with no damage during transit.

The instructions are fairly well written and programming is intuitive and simple – only one hand is required, no need to hold down one button while pressing another. This display is large, bright and easy to read. A nice feature is that the set temperature and probe temperature are both displayed at the same time.

The probe fits nicely in the narrow tube of a carboy cap and is long enough to immerse in the beer. An added benefit is that the probe can be quickly disconnected from the controller to make cleaning and sanitizing more convenient. Prior to first use, I verified the accuracy of the probe against my calibrated thermapen, and found that the probe only differed by 0.1 C. After accounting for this variation in the programming, I was all set to go. Total time from unpacking to use, including programming, was less than 5 minutes.

My first use of this controller was with a dark saison. I set my desired temperature with a tolerance of +/- 0.3 C and the controller kept the fermentation chamber within this range, activating heating and cooling as required.

Overall, this controller was very easy to set up and use and makes for a full featured and simple out of the box solution for controlling a fermentation chamber.

You really put a differential of 0.3 degree celsius? I have +- 2 degrees celsius and was told that the fridge could break otherwise if I set narrower differential range. Any comment on that?

Do you drop your probe straight in water?

 

[doppeldowns]

@Finlandbrews,

I used this temperature controller for my fermentation chamber, which is a very small fridge, and placed the probe directly in the fermenting beer. I wanted a very small variation in fermentation temperature, so I set that value for +/-0.3 C.

My understanding is that the value for the compressor delay is more critical in protecting your fridge. I set that value to maximum. However, in this case, as I was brewing a saison, only heating was required to maintain my desired fermentation temperature.

I hope this helps.

 

[stella_tigre]

We got a freezer free from sister, just enough for a fermentation chamber. First brew in the chamber, using the Inkbird with probe taped to the side, wrapped in bubblewrap. Holding temp very nicely, starting to ramp up, 2 degrees every 2 days. Working like a champ!

 

[Nodak_Brewer]

I absolutely love my inkbird. I use it in a chest freezer fermentation chamber, but also purchased the 12" long stainless probe just in case I want to monitor a specific brew. Right now I just have it taped and insulated against a glass bottle of water on the compressor hump. This creates a "cellar" environment versus one that regulates one specific aging/fermenting beverage. I have it set to 63F which seems to work well for the mead, cider, and beer I have in it right now, two of which are fermenting and one aging.