Inkbird 306A

[Kraig]

I think I mis-understood how the inkbird 306a works. 2 outlets, 2 temp probes. I thought it would only trigger one outlet but I guess it triggers both? If I want redundancy for my tank, I am now thinking I need to have 2 inkbird controllers, one for each heater in the tank and set one at the temp I want and one a little under that so if the first fails, the second will kick in.

Any input on using an inkbird to have redundancy in my tank would be great.

Thanks!

 

[Reef.]

The two probes are meant to be kept together, if they read different temps then the Inkbird knows something is wrong.

Just use the Inkbird to control the temp, then set the heaters temps to just above the temp on the Inkbird, that will give you some redundancy.

The two plug sockets are so you can have two heaters in the same tank, incase one fails.

 

[Idech]

You can have redundancy if one heater fails, but not if the Inkbird fails.

For that you can keep a regular thermometer in the tank. You could also check if the Inkbird that comes with wifi would let you know if equipment fails.

 

[Kraig]

The two probes are meant to be kept together, if they read different temps then the Inkbird knows something is wrong.

Just use the Inkbird to control the temp, then set the heaters temps to just above the temp on the Inkbird, that will give you some redundancy.

The two plug sockets are so you can have two heaters in the same tank, incase one fails.

I should have mentioned, I have the BRS titanium heaters that don't have any control of their own. So what I have right now is just 2 heaters going at the same time, 1 200 watt and 1 100 watt. I'm pretty sure I don't need or want that much going in a 40g with a 20g sump. I thought I'd have the 200 watt as a main heater and have the 100 watt just in case, don't really want it running at the same time as the 200 watt.

 

[Kraig]

You can have redundancy if one heater fails, but not if the Inkbird fails.

For that you can keep a regular thermometer in the tank. You could also check if the Inkbird that comes with wifi would let you know if equipment fails.

The inkbird does have wifi. I actually got an alert a week ago that it wasn't running. The outlet was turned off for some reason. Luckily I don't have anything in the tank yet.

Also, I have a sicce wifi return pump that gives me the temp of water running through it so that is a nice backup thermometer.

 

[Reef.]

I should have mentioned, I have the BRS titanium heaters that don't have any control of their own. So what I have right now is just 2 heaters going at the same time, 1 200 watt and 1 100 watt. I'm pretty sure I don't need or want that much going in a 40g with a 20g sump. I thought I'd have the 200 watt as a main heater and have the 100 watt just in case, don't really want it running at the same time as the 200 watt.

To be fair that’s not the inkbirds fault, if your heater had a build in thermostat then you would have some extra safeguard.

I’m always surprised when people recommend these heaters without build in thermostats, that is just asking for trouble.

You could go your way with another inkbird, or just buy a couple of 100watt Eheim heaters and keep the others for spares or sell.

 

[Idech]

The inkbird does have wifi. I actually got an alert a week ago that it wasn't running. The outlet was turned off for some reason. Luckily I don't have anything in the tank yet.

Also, I have a sicce wifi return pump that gives me the temp of water running through it so that is a nice backup thermometer.

I think you’re all set then !

 

[Kraig]

To be fair that’s not the inkbirds fault, if your heater had a build in thermostat then you would have some extra safeguard.

I’m always surprised when people recommend these heaters without build in thermostats, that is just asking for trouble.

You could go your way with another inkbird, or just buy a couple of 100watt Eheim heaters and keep the others for spares or sell.

Yeah, I'm not blaming inkbird, it is totally my fault for not understanding.

Also, I didn't realize the heaters I bought didn't have their own control. That is also my fault. I had been immersed in trying to wrap my head around best practices for setting up a new tank, not ever running a saltwater tank before, and somehow overlooked the fact that the heaters I bought did not have controls.

So, I guess I now have to decide which way to go, new heaters with controls or another inkbird.

Thanks for the reply and help!

 

[Reef.]

Yeah, I'm not blaming inkbird, it is totally my fault for not understanding.

Also, I didn't realize the heaters I bought didn't have their own control. That is also my fault. I had been immersed in trying to wrap my head around best practices for setting up a new tank, not ever running a saltwater tank before, and somehow overlooked the fact that the heaters I bought did not have controls.

So, I guess I now have to decide which way to go, new heaters with controls or another inkbird.

Thanks for the reply and help!

go for the heaters, you can always use extra heaters for heating your water change water, replacing heaters when they break, will cut down on extra equipment in your tank stand, the inkbirds are not the smallest things.

 

[Lareng]

Just got the InkBird 306a and it does have dual relays. One for normal operations, you can hear it click each time the heaters should turn on/off and the other relay is for abnormal behavior, it will cut the power to prevent cooking your fish. I'm not sure about how it detects abnormal behavior, but one detection is if your constant heating time is passed and the temp probes does not recognize temp increase it will cut the power. Could mean your temp sensors are out of the water and the water is warmer than your InkBird reads.

Would be nice with some release notes for how this unit detects errors and cut power to prevent disaster.

 

[Reef.]

Just got the InkBird 306a and it does have dual relays. One for normal operations, you can hear it click each time the heaters should turn on/off and the other relay is for abnormal behavior, it will cut the power to prevent cooking your fish. I'm not sure about how it detects abnormal behavior, but one detection is if your constant heating time is passed and the temp probes does not recognize temp increase it will cut the power. Could mean your temp sensors are out of the water and the water is warmer than your InkBird reads.

Would be nice with some release notes for how this unit detects errors and cut power to prevent disaster.

Isn’t it when it detects is a difference in the temp of the two probes?

 

[Lareng]

Isn’t it when it detects is a difference in the temp of the two probes?

I have not tested if the controller cuts the power in that situation, but I know it notify you if the temp probes are more than 3 Celsius apart from each other. I can test tonight what the actions are if the probes measure different temps.

Another test I can do to check how smart the controller is to detect abnormal behavior is to let it heat with two heaters and then remove one of the heaters. If it’s really good it should notify that heater wattage dropped and warn me to check the heaters. I’ll come back with the results later.

If there is other things I can test let me know, I’ll be experimenting tonight

 

[Reef.]

Ye

I have not tested if the controller cuts the power in that situation, but I know it notify you if the temp probes are more than 3 Celsius apart from each other. I can test tonight what the actions are if the probes measure different temps.

Another test I can do to check how smart the controller is to detect abnormal behavior is to let it heat with two heaters and then remove one of the heaters. If it’s really good it should notify that heater wattage dropped and warn me to check the heaters. I’ll come back with the results later.

If there is other things I can test let me know, I’ll be experimenting tonight

Yes! Inkbird are/were know for a delay in the probe sending the temp to the controller, would be good if you could test if that is the case!

 

[Lareng]

I did some testing and used two water tanks. (Tank 1 a glass, Tank 2 a plastic box) In addition to the InkBird temp probes, I had a normal temperature meter and one "Ampera PH controller" with temp.
Here is the readings for each tank:
Tank InkBird Ampera Temp
1 18,6 18,7 18,9
2 19,9 20,3 20,8

When I had the InkBird probes in each tank the temp was 19.9 - swapping the probes the temp dropped for a half minute and stabilized on 19.9 again.
Conclusion: The temperature reported by InkBird is the greatest of the two probes.

Keeping the probes in each tank and heating only one tank, the alarm went off when temp difference was more than 3 deg C. display showed E4 and the power to the heaters was cut. Moving the one temp probe from tank 2 to tank 1 resumed the heating automatically.
Conclusion: InkBird cut power if the difference of the temp probes exceed 3 deg C. Be sure to securely mount the probes together so it's not "your" fault if the temp difference is greater than 3 deg C. The safety here is if a technical fault resulting in InkBird got bad readings it cut the power to the heaters to prevent overheating your tank.

While heating: I removed one 300W heater from one socket, no indication of any alarm or anything.. removed the 2nd 300W heater and still no reaction.
Conclusion: The InkBird does not know if or how much wattage is passing the power outlet.

Now tank 1 is measured while tank 2 is heated, with a continuous heating time of 1 hour configured in the InkBird I'm waiting for the result of alarm? and action taken by InkBird?..
1 hour later: no alarm, no power cut.. checked the temp probe readings and I saw that the temp have increased by 0.1 deg C. 15 min ago.
To prevent the temp from getting higher I added ice, this resulted in the temp getting below 12 deg C. and alarm with code AL in the display. The power was not cut.
I finally got the Continuous alarm, it cut the power to the heater and I saw in the temp history that the last 4 readings (it logs the temp each 15 min) was 19.5 - 18.2 - 13.6 and then 14.2
Conclusion: If the temp logger does not have a higher temp reading than it was 1 hour ago (as I have set 1 hour in the continuous heating time) it will cut the power to the heaters. This time it took me 2 hours before the InkBird cut the power (even if I have 1 hour continuous heating time configured) due to increased temp the first hour, so its not a maximum time that the heater is kept on, but a limit if temp has not increased for the last "x" hours it will cut the power to the heaters. The safety here is that if the temp readings are wrong it should not keep heating the tank indefinitely.

I even provoked the AH (high temp alarm) and can confirm that it cut the power in that case.

Well, that was my findings when testing tonight, hope it gave some of you some answers. At least I have a better understanding of how the InkBird 306a works now.

Here is a pic of the testing.

 

[Lareng]

Ye

Yes! Inkbird are/were know for a delay in the probe sending the temp to the controller, would be good if you could test if that is the case!

My experience during the test was that the controller got the temp instant like the Ampera and the normal temp meter I had. The alarm for high and low temp came instant, alarm for different temp detection on each probe came instant and so did the push notification to the app. The only "detection" that looks like have a delay is the continuous heating time alarm as this use the 15min logging points to detect if the temp have increased within the last X hours. (whatever configured in the app)

 

[Reef.]

My experience during the test was that the controller got the temp instant like the Ampera and the normal temp meter I had. The alarm for high and low temp came instant, alarm for different temp detection on each probe came instant and so did the push notification to the app. The only "detection" that looks like have a delay is the continuous heating time alarm as this use the 15min logging points to detect if the temp have increased within the last X hours. (whatever configured in the app)

Good work.

Do you have the newer 306 Inkbird? The newer models are able to set the continuous heating setting to off, whereas the older models had to be set between 1-72 hours.
Maybe the newer models no longer have the delay with the temp updates either? As I’m nearly sure mine does, think you have encouraged me to run a test of my own.

 

[Lareng]

Good work.

Do you have the newer 306 Inkbird? The newer models are able to set the continuous heating setting to off, whereas the older models had to be set between 1-72 hours.
Maybe the newer models no longer have the delay with the temp updates either? As I’m nearly sure mine does, think you have encouraged me to run a test of my own.

I can set the continuous heating time to 0 and that disables the feature. If that’s not possible on yours I guess it’s a new version. This should be fixed in firmware I think, here is the version info from my device:

 

[Reef.]

I can set the continuous heating time to 0 and that disables the feature. If that’s not possible on yours I guess it’s a new version. This should be fixed in firmware I think, here is the version info from my device:

You would think they would be able to change the setting with a firmware update but they either can’t or have not bothered.