Inkbird ITC-106VH PID Temperature Thermostat Controllers F and C 100 to 240ACV K Sensor 40DA SSR Solid State Relay for Sous Vide Home Brewing

This Inkbird ITC-106VH PID Temperature Thermostat Controller works great for me. My only disappointment was finding out that my model did not have the auxiliary 12 VDC supply that the user manual showed on pin-out #7, which I only realized after I was putting everything together in its utility box, where I had very little room for a separate 12VDC supply to power the heat sink fan. I had a heat sink from an old desktop motherboard that fit the SSR perfectly, so a model that didn't include that was OK by me. The alarm feature is nice, that will be mounted outside the box so that I can hear it. I read a few reviews about the sparse user manual from those not living in the 21st century, because we now have all the information at one's fingertips that is needed, and then some, to setup and operate this device. The user manual serves as a good reference once you get a proper introduction from YouTube, newsgroups, or AI.

This does everything it claims to and works perfectly. Programming it using the loosely translated instructions takes a little imagination and insight into what they mean to say, but once you get the hang of it, it's really a perfect little temperature controller. The fact that you get everything you need all at once, and that it all works together right out of the box is a big plus. Also, unlike a lot of these, you can set it to °F, not just °C, so it's much more useful here in the USA. The included temperature probe is a little fragile where the connectors are crimped on the ends of the wires, but care in handling and a bit of shrink tubing can fix that easily.

I'm using this product to control two 120 watt heater cartridges. I tried using the auto-tune, but the values it came up with aren't very good. I instead went with a manual process for tuning the parameters. A search or two on the web will find lots of information on that. The reason I knocked off one star is because the relay, while it works, isn't very well designed. The bottom plate of the relay (which is supposed to be in contact with a heat sink) is made of plastic as near as I can tell. It files excessively easily and the mounting holes exhibit a draft angle that would be similar to an injection mold. The issue here is that plastic doesn't transmit heat nearly as well as aluminum. I would have serious doubts about getting 40 amps through it successfully. In my case, it's only 2 amps so it does the job. That said, I didn't give it a lower review because of the cost. If you were to go to a professional online electronic parts distributor and buy a 40 amp SSR, your minimum cost would be around $50 for just that one part. You get what you pay for, I suppose...

A little more of a project than I realized, but a great little device. Way more features in terms of process control than I needed. It does allow me to control the temp of my wife’s green house as close as you want. I am using two electric heaters who’s temp control is very erratic and not calibrated. Saves a lot of electricity since I can now specify on at 40, off at 41 degrees and never find the two heaters running at 50 degrees.

The reason for the three star review is not because of the PID, it is very nice and works great. However, the thermocouple that comes with this unit seems to be a trouble spot for many people. The one that came with my unit worked OK the first day, then all hell broke loose. The second day when I turned on the PID, temperature readings were all over the place. Wiggling the thermocouple wires where they connected to the PID changed the temperature several hundred degrees. After a closer inspection I saw that the blue crimp connector was crimped onto the wire without stripping back the insulation. To fix the issue I cut both connectors off, stripped back the insulation and made a direct connection to the PID without using crimp connectors. The PID now works perfect and temperature readings are very stable.

This device is rather simple to install. But boy is it a bug to try to figure out the programming. There are so many settings in the background and they're not described in any of the instructions provided with the device that you can spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out what the actually do. Otherwise, I installed it in a large pizza oven that has to run at 700 degrees and this device is holding the temperature pretty steady. So in short we're happy with the product!

I bought this to control my heat treating oven to replace the controller that I bought 20 years ago. I already had a type J thermocouple, but it comes with a type K. It works amazingly well with either. Many of these controllers will not read in F, this one reads in F or C. It is hard to believe how well it works and how inexpensive it is.

A little complicated to get set up, but works really good especially for the price. I'm running a homemade 18000 BTU heater with it, I have gotten a small room to 117F so far in testing and no problems, but definitely recommend using a heat sink on the relay.