Need Help temperature controller

[tel72]

Hello everyone im looking for a little help with a build I have a commercial grade ice cream freezer and I want to turn in to a beer cooler/fridge. I have a inkbird itc1000 temperature controller when wired up to the freezer it kicks on and off act like it doesn't have enough power to start up when I bypass the controller The freezer comes on and works properly. Im wondering if the freezer drawing to many amps for the controller freezer is normal 110 below is label for the freezer any suggestions thanks

 

[mongoose33]

Normal draw according to the label is 4.0 amps....but on startup it'll draw more.

I wouldn't expect that to be too much for a normal controller, though my experience with inkbirds is only with the 308 version. I have 308's controlling a freezer for a keezer application, and for two other refrigerators; plus, a glycol chiller. None of them have any difficulty controlling those applications, so it suggests to me there's an issue with the controller you're using.

What is the compressor delay? Mine is set at 3 minutes, but perhaps there's a delay built-in to the freezer you're using?

Try a 5-minute delay on the one you're using, see if that helps any.

 

[tel72]

That didn't fix the problem I removed the old thermostat and replaced with the temperature controller. Wondering if I got a bad unit. Anyone know how to check the controller

 

[micraftbeer]

I'd reach out to the Inkbird folks on their website. I was just looking up the specs of the controller, and they've got a little floating help bubble and listed a bunch of people currently online you can chat with.

But assuming you're looking for some opinions... My guess is the commercial grade freezer draws more current than the controller can handle. Looking at the specs for the itc-1000 (as well as the itc-308 that I use on my 10 cu ft keezer, and is super common/popular in the homebrew world), it's rated for 10 Amps.

Your freezer label says 4.0 Amps, but that is probably a standard operating load. Reading some rando-website, it says a rule of thumb is that start-up current is 2-3x operating current. So that would say maybe you're getting spikes of up to 12 Amps to get it going, which is more than your 10 Amp controller could do. Plus, with age, maybe that number could be higher.

As a sanity check, I looked at a run-of-the-mill Insignia 10 cu ft chest freezer from Best Buy uses 1.4A. So your ice cream freezer is pretty powerful. So that's why myself (and probably lots of others) can operate their keezer with an itc-308 or itc-1000 and not have the kind of start-up issues you're seeing.