All-Purpose Digital Temperature Controller Fahrenheit &Centigrade Thermostat w Sensor 2 Relays (ITC-1000)

I was almost put off by the negative reviews, but I got this thermostat for my leopard gecko egg incubator. I needed something that would keep the temp at 88* F constantly. Although this T-stat was a little difficult to wire in initially, and required some parts it didn't come with (a plug, outlet, jumper wire), which is a small price to pay for such an inexpensive thermostat, it did it's job very, VERY well. I already have hatched healthy leopard geckos from two clutches, and I have another clutch that should hatch in about 3 days. The eggs are very healthy and this will be my first 100% hatch rate EVER. I also hatched cricket eggs in the incubator controlled by this T-stat. The T-stat has kept the temperature within 1.5* F in both directions constantly for several months now. I have been EXTREMELY happy with this product, so uch so that I ended up getting another one specifically for my cricket eggs. Same great results. Another great thing with this T-stat is that it's small size and convenient shape makes it very easy to build into whatever you are using it for, in my case an incubator. The only reason I don't recommend this for everyone who needs a T-stat is that wiring is a bit difficult. It requires at least some prior knowledge of electronics, and it's definately not "plug 'n' play". I definately wouldn't recommend anyone who doesn't have experience with electronics try to use this. You are dealing with 120v AC. Show some respect! But after it's wired in it works well. There are also two diagrams on how to wire it in, which are both feasible but it is a bit confusing. I recommend that you follow the colored diagram on the FAQs sheet included with the product, because with that diagram all the "hot" wiring is inside the unit. That will reduce the risk of shock, fire, etc. The yellow, ground wire on that diagram is unnecessary, though it is safer. Overall, it's a great thermostat for a great price. I will definately be using it again!

Sheesh. Whatever passes for Madison Ave in China got a hold on the manual for this. Pseudo engineering Jaberwocky for what is a robust simple device. This performs two functions, closes a relay designated cooling if temperature rises above setpoint + "differential"; for which you may read " the highest temperature excursion above where I want it to be". The other function designated heating works the same way but opposite:" lowest temperature excursion below where I want it to be." The cooling function also features a programable delay before that relay closes if you so desire. Why all this and not just on and off ? Well, its clearly designed for HVAC compressors. Read fridge, freezer, air conditioner. Which in the real world all just blow cold air at one temperature. So when you set your room Tstat for 73, you do not get air blowing out at 73, but lower. After awhile the temp drops to below 73 and the beast shuts down.; Then things warm up above 73 and the cycle starts again. So the room temp "desired" at 73 actually ranges a couple of degrees above and below your setpoint. On the Ibird you choose setpoint and reasonable excursion. For a fridge this might be 34, ie above freezing and a differential of 6 ie: no higher than "unsafe for food zone" above 40. This is exactly how the cold control in fridge works. You could set the Ibird for 34, no differential, but your compressor would basically run all the time. Now, pop the door root around for a beer, warm air rushes in hits the thermistor sensor and the compressor wants to start again, fair enough, but the actual temp of the whole fridge compartment did not really rise much. So a compressor delay of a few minutes saves some bucks. Actually a lot of bucks if people keep going in and out ( of fridge or house) because now the compressor wants to cycle frequently, which is bad because there is a minimum off time the manufacturer specs before power should be applied. Ignore it and pay for a new compressor. Pro: works well, easy to program. Con: the usual low current screw down connectors, ok for 110 volt in and thermistor, no way to get 10 amps in and out of the relays. FWIW, I pulled cover, relays actually say 15 Amps @ 115. Do not believe it. Add an outboard relay capable of providing full inrush current rating of your compressor and use those built in relays and the wimp connector to trigger the outboard relays. Got mine for $0.99 at electronic goldmine.

Picked up a mid-2000s Red Bull countertop mini fridge. It worked and cooled, but would occasionally "chatter" the compressor on and off, causing it to stall and trip the overload switch. After checking the overload and motor starter, the cuplrit seemed to be it's electronic thermostat circuit board. Parts are unobtanium, so ultimately just tossed it and replaced it with the Inkbird. Wiring it in was a snap, just follow the diagram provided. It's fans are tied to the compressor (cool) power. The "heat" side was not used as this was for a fridge. The only slightly tricky part was the original temp sensor had a very different resistance than the one with the inkbird, however, the wiring for it was sealed into the unit via the foam insulation and couldn't really be removed- or a new one shoved through- without drilling a new hole through the insulation and steel case, which I wanted to avoid. I ultimately clipped off the wiring at the probe and the controller, spliced the Inkbird probe onto the wiring, slid it back into the original probe holder, and then attached that wire into the Inkbird. Reusing the original wiring through the case, but with the new probe at the end. Temp was reading correct. At that point, it was just a little trial and error playing with the set point and temp differential. For a drinks (well, mostly beer) fridge, this is what I found worked the best for ice cold beverages, without it excessively cycling on/off. Set point- 32* F Differential- 12* F (so, it will kick ON at 44*, and OFF at 32*). I've found at room temperature, this results is a roughly 30% duty cycle on the compressor- it runs for about 10 minutes, then is off for about 20). I've had no issues with even soft drinks freezing or being slushy- popping a can fresh out of the fridge and checking the liquid temp shows about 36*- or the "average" temp in the box. I left the compressor lockout at the default 3 minutes (the cycle time is much longer than that anyway, so it really should never be needed), and the temp "calibration" also at the default (zero), as I found it's reading to be spot on. For a fridge with fresh foods I'd probably keep the differential a bit lower for safety, but for canned beverages, a bit more fluctuation is fine. Saves power and wear/tear on the compressor with less frequent starts. It's been running for a couple months now with zero issue. The fridge pulls about 120 watts when it's running- or only about 1 amp, so the 10 amp rated relays in the Inkbird are more than sufficient, no additional relays or anything needed. That's quite a bit given it's size, only a little less than a full size residential fridge/freezer, but these little commercial drink fridges have relatively high cooling power (to recover/chill warm restock cans quickly from constantly being opened- this was originally intended to live on the counter of a gas station). Anyway for $20 it's a no brainer. Got a fridge/freezer with a bad controller? Or just want to be able to customize the set points? Get this.

I purchased the ITC-1000F digital temperature controller to replace a failed mechanical controller in a wine cooler. Doing the research, I read many reviews, especially the one and two stars. I was concerned that this might not be a long term solution but at the price point, it was worth the risk. Thanks to Amazon Prime, I received the device a day earlier than expected. It was packaged well and appeared to be well constructed for such a low price. The part I was replacing cost about $150.00 and this cooler has has had three of these in the last ten years! The instructions that came with the unit were poorly written. In fact, there was a supplement that showed a different wiring diagram than what is printed on the unit. Before installing the unit into the cooler, I wired it temporarily to make sure that it worked correctly. The mechanical thermostat had two wires as it was a switch. I found the line wire and the load wire. These were connected to terminals one and two with jumper wires to 7 and 8, which were for the cooling mode. The temporary connections turned on because the temperature was much higher than the set temperature; cooled the cooler down ;and then shut off the compressor when it reached the set point. SUCCESS! After this, I cut a hole into the cooler grill to mount the unit and wired it for the permanent installation. By the time I completed this, the temperature was several degrees above the set point. I turned the unit but the compressor never started. FAILURE! I contacted Ink-Bird at the "support" and "cs" email addresses and gave them detailed information on the installation and the failure. Even though the website states they would try to respond in 24 hours, I did not hear back until the third day and they only sent me a wiring diagram while ignoring my questions. By then, I diagnosed that the switch on the 7&8 terminals was not working. THANK YOU AMAZON! I contacted Amazon, explained the problem and they had a replacement unit to me in one day! I wired the new unit temporarily and it worked immediately. This time I left it this way until the unit had cycled several times until the next morning. I installed it permanently and it has run perfectly for four days. SUCCESS! The temperature controls are accurate and needed no calibration. The settings are precise and the differential settings keep the compressor from being overworked. If the unit lasts, I will be really pleased.

I love these, and have bought for several purposes. The included K type thermocouple is accurate enough to measure to .1 degrees resolution. From the few times I've used these, they are very close to actual temperature (+/- 1 degree), and do offer a temperature "shift" in case you do need to make an adjustment. I've used this to replace a mechanical thermostat on a 1930's westinghouse refrigerator, and it works great. I've also used this to build a chicken incubator. Again, it works great. it has an internal relay that handles quite a bit, and you can always run it through a "solid state relay" to power anything you need to. If you are using this for a refrigerator rebuild, I highly recommend you also buy the compressor starter capacitors also sold here on Amazon. I'm happy to have such value in such a cheap package. In reality, you can also use this for a sous vide controller. The only downside is that though the resolution is to .1 degree F, the control range is a minimum of 1 degree. If you wanted to hold exactly at 100 degrees, for example, it would kick on the heater at 99 degrees, and stop at 100, then kick back on at 99 degrees. One degree is the minimum range you can set. If you need any more narrow control band, I suggest you get a PID controller. For the vast majority of applications however, this can't be beat. The range is adjustable (on/off) to whatever you wish, but not less than 1 degree. It is adjustable to display C or F. It also has a setting to prevent "short cycling"... that is, kicking on, and off your compressor so often that it burns up faster. The setting puts a timer on the minimum time from when it last went off, to when it goes on, and visa-versa. For example, you can set it to not to cycle less than 3 minutes (factory default). The probe cord is about 6 feet, and the probe itself is plastic coated and just over 1/2 inch. It seems pretty responsive (you hold it in you hand and it warms up about 1 degree F per second, or faster). I hope you find this review helpful.

OK, so I am a total novice here but I can say this was an easy swap. My Carel Controller (Code PYFETZN059 / Model PZFES0P111K) got water logged and eventually fried. It stopped keeping temp for my Argus Cooler. I looked for a replacement and the part was discontinued. The suggested replacement was $120-$300 by Carel and the cooler company wanted $200 to put it in. So I found the Inkbird controller on Amazon and decided to take my chances. I just followed the wiring diagram from the Carel controller and matched it up to the Inkbird. The Inkbird fired right up and was easy to flip into Farenheight mode, and set between 32-38 degrees. The cooler has no heating element so I didn't have to worry about those wires. It has been holding temp, and does exactly what it is supposed to do. Also what is cool is that they include a shield for controllers that may be mounted at the bottom of coolers and get water on them. I taped it up a little extra in case water leaks onto it. I added some photos in case anyone wants to see what I did. All in all I am very pleased with this controller, and I am extremely happy that I figured it out on my own and didn't have to pay a company to do it. I tried to use as much as I know about my situation here for anyone who might be Googling how to replace these things. Good luck.

I purchased this to convert an Igloo 7.1 cu ft chest freezer to a refrigerator for my homebrew kegs (also known as a "keezer"). Many people use the STC-1000 temperature controller for this purpose, but now that the ITC-1000 is available I'm sure it will become the standard for the USA since it displays Fahrenheit whereas the STC-1000 is only in Celcius. Other than that, the ITC-1000 is more or less the same as the proven STC-1000. Rather than hard wiring this into the chest freezer to replace it's controller, I created a separate box that contains the temperature controller and outlets to plug in devices such as the chest freezer. This makes it a universal device if I decide to get a different chest freezer in the future or I want to use it with another device for heating or cooling. I was disappointed that the product box arrived damaged since it was only sent in a padded envelope, but the controller seems to be working okay. Surprisingly, it had protective film on the front LCD, so it has some slight scratches in it already. This fit into a DEEP 2-gang box. I haven't yet verified the accuracy, but plan to do so soon. Also, there was a storm recently and it must have tripped up the controller since it was down to 9 degrees F with both the Cool and Heat (not used) lights on. I unplugged everything to reset it and it seems to be working fine now. I added a surge protector to see if that helps. The included wiring diagram isn't great and manual is lacking, but there is a newer version available that may help. I also attached some better wiring diagrams for reference that I sourced on the Internet, so USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! ;) Manuals: Included in the box @ http://www.ink-bird.com/asset/file/ITC-1000F_EN.pdf Updated version @ http://www.ink-bird.com/asset/file/ITC-1000%20Manual%20-%20V1.2.pdf My Settings: TS (Temperature Set Value) = 38 degrees DS (Difference Set Value) = 3 degrees PT (Compressor Delay) = 10 minutes CA (Temperature Calibration Value) = 0 degrees (need to verify) CF (Fahrenheit or Celsius Setting) = F Note: This device is not quite the same size as a typical rectangular decora light/outlet. That's too bad. In my setup, I used a plate that was meant for a decora and regular switch and just cut a whole on the regular switch size to fit the ITC-1000. It looks really nice, but I would have been so much easier and nicer if they would have sized the controller to fit a standard rectangular decora light/outlet cover hole!

I ordered two of these to build an incubator and hatcher. Instead I built a heated/cooled brooder first. The heater is a 100 watt radiant heat emitter for reptiles, and the cooler is a computer cooling fan. I have been very impressed by the functioning of the controller. It maintains its programming even after power outages. Mine was inadvertently rained on and was not affected. I'm not claiming it is waterproof - just lucky. When it got wet I was afraid that it would be dead, but it has continued to work just fine. I had a little difficulty figuring out how to program the unit. Once I reread the instructions several times, I finally understood that you have to store the value you've input by hitting the on/off button after you've set each parameter. The way you set the heating and cooling is to set your heat temperature upper limit pretty much like you'd expect. Then you set the cooling set point by choosing 1 to 30 degree differential as one of the menu choices. Say if you are hatching eggs and set the temperature to 100 degrees. You don't want the eggs to go higher than 102. Set the degrees of differential between heating and cooling to 2 degrees. That way when the temperature is below 100 the heat function will be switched on. Once the unit reaches 100 degree the controller will switch off the heat. When the thermostat detects that the temperature has increased more than the 2 degrees you selected then the cooling device will activate and remain on until the sensor detects a temperature below 102. The maximum difference between heating and cooling is 30 degrees. The minimum difference between heating and cooling is 1 degree. The temperature is displayed to tenths of a degree, so you can set heating set point at a temp of 99.5 degrees. There are two LED lights on the display marked heating and cooling, so you can tell at a glance whether the controller is in heating or cooling mode. The current temperature is displayed all the time. This thermostatic controller seems to very accurate. My quail chicks are very happy with their new brooder.