Beer Forum

I think my temp controller is broken. I need to replace it, but am a little tight with money right now. Would this work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-All-Purpose-PID-Temperature-Control-Controller-STC-1000-W-Sensor-110V-/370773791107?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5653d71183

Thank you in advance.

Looks like a good deal and should work fine

I've got one on one of my freezers.
It's been working flawlessly for 2+ years now.
They only display in °C, but that's easy to deal with.

Yes, but do you like doing electrical work? You still need the relay, and box to hold it all, and the other misc. components. Your time and the other purchases may get you to one of the commercially available solutions. FYI

For me, half the fun of brewing is the build.

Kbar wrote:Yes, but do you like doing electrical work? You still need the relay, and box to hold it all, and the other misc. components. Your time and the other purchases may get you to one of the commercially available solutions. FYI

For me, half the fun of brewing is the build.

That was my initial thought as well. You can get a plug-n-play off Amazon for $40ish. PID's aren't necessary for kegerator/fermentation applications, but from my research I'd love to upgrade to one on my MLT.

It'll definitely do the trick though.

Those have two relays on-board. One for the heat circuit, one for the cool.
"Relay contact capacity: Cool 10A/250VAC;Heat 10A/250VAC"

All I did with mine is mount it in a project box and mount a receptacle on the other side with one outlet ran to the heat output and one to the cool output.

Ozwald wrote:That was my initial thought as well. You can get a plug-n-play off Amazon for $40ish. PID's aren't necessary for kegerator/fermentation applications, but from my research I'd love to upgrade to one on my MLT.

I did not know some work would have to be involved. I COULD probably do it myself, but how would I know that they were plug-n-play ready?

Thanks in advance.

AFAIK, no PID's are 'plug-n-play'. For those you'll need a Ranco or JCI A419 (there may be a few others, but those are the 2 on the top of my head). I prefer the JCI's myself. The A419ABG-3C is ready out of the box, but you can save some money with the A419ABC-1C & buying a short, heavy gauge extension cord. You'll have to cut the cord in half, strip the ends & make a couple simple connections inside, but it's about 2 minutes of work. The PID is a little more sophisticated (in a MLT application but will work exactly the same on a compressor as the Ranco or JCI). I never priced out the extras, but you'll likely be pretty close in cost & definitely spend more time dealing with it. If you had extensive knowledge about them, it's a quick job, but then we wouldn't have this thread now would we? Any of the above options will do the trick for a fairly similar cost, it really boils down to how much you want to read into it, how quickly you pick up electrical engineering concepts (& safety, of course), & how many extras you need to add to the controller itself. The PID's definitely have an aesthetic bonus if you put the time into them as well. If you want quick & easy, look at the analog Ranco's or A419's. Even if the sticker price looks a bit more, you might not be spending all that much more (if any at all) by the time everything is said and done. I like the A419ABC-1C's myself, but I do have a bit of an electronics background/education... not that it's needed for those, I just find them effective, cheap & simple.

EDIT:
If you want to save the couple bucks on the A419ABC-1C & aren't 100% confident (or think you're going to waste a bunch of time figuring out the correct config), PM me & I can help you hook up the extension cord in no time flat.

2nd EDIT:
Just saw you're from S.Haven. You wouldn't happen to know any of the Blasco's would you? Mike's a good friend of mine. I grew up between Hamilton & Saugatuck.