inkbird alternatives due to false alerts

[jda]

Ranco is like $80 bucks and a good extension cord less than $20? This is expensive to people? This hobby amazes me... folks will spend hundreds on co2 scrubbers and media rather than open a few windows on a nice day, $900 for a piece of tech that doubles as a light with a short warranty, hundreds on frags, DC pumps when they don't even need to control the output, buy 3-4 inkbirds yet $100 for a lifetime temperature controller is expensive to many?

I have seen Rancos on coolers with hundreds of thousands of dollars of aging beef, greenhouses with hundreds of thousands of dollars of the chronic, etc.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Ranco is like $80 bucks and a good extension cord less than $20? This is expensive to people? This hobby amazes me... folks will spend hundreds on co2 scrubbers and media rather than open a few windows on a nice day, $900 for a piece of tech that doubles as a light with a short warranty, hundreds on frags, DC pumps when they don't even need to control the output, buy 3-4 inkbirds yet $100 for a lifetime temperature controller is expensive to many?

I have seen Rancos on coolers with hundreds of thousands of dollars of aging beef, greenhouses with hundreds of thousands of dollars of the chronic, etc.

Gotta remember weird priorities, lol. Also the vast majority of new(er) reefers have absolutely no diy skills to even set up a ranco... Also isnt techy or pimped on instagram, BRS, YouTube or the like.

 

[Dweezilz]

Ranco is like $80 bucks and a good extension cord less than $20? This is expensive to people? This hobby amazes me... folks will spend hundreds on co2 scrubbers and media rather than open a few windows on a nice day, $900 for a piece of tech that doubles as a light with a short warranty, hundreds on frags, DC pumps when they don't even need to control the output, buy 3-4 inkbirds yet $100 for a lifetime temperature controller is expensive to many?

I have seen Rancos on coolers with hundreds of thousands of dollars of aging beef, greenhouses with hundreds of thousands of dollars of the chronic, etc.

Just to be on record...I never said anything about it being too expensive. Did someone else? I may have missed that. Obviously it's not all that expensive compared to getting a Hydros or Apex and not all that much more than an Inkbird. I want notifications...that's it. I think everyone gets than the Ranco is an incredibly reliable and solid piece...no doubt.

 

[bouncingtall]

I’m getting an E4 alarm and the mystery is that the 2 probes are within 1 degree or less than each other on the digital readout. How can this be? Is it just busted after running 18 months? Alarm started at 2 am and no amount of resetting would fix it. Every 5-10 min it’d alarm again. I had to disconnect the INKBIRD completely and plug the 2 heaters in to regular outlets.

 

[TokenReefer]

I just replaced my Inkbird with a different ITC (308) model for the same E4 error but next time (and I'm sure there will be) I want to try this which I just found out about

 

[Dweezilz]

I ended up getting a Helios 2 element heater and the newer inkbird which has a setting to disable the max heating time shutoff. I have it set to 82 and the Helios controlling the temp. I also got a Hydros controller so I can monitor the current temp as well. The heating is not controlled at all by the Hydros as the WiFi power strips aren't reliable for critical things and I haven't purchased an XP8 yet.

 

[TokenReefer]

Yeah I went with the ITC-306a originally because,hey it's on brs, but idk if that's a good unit and hey, wifi (turns out this is not needed with the controller on a apex eb8 outlet ; didn't realize). Two temp probes? It doesn't have the brains for that and inevitably the e4 error (I think/imo). It's cheap. I went with the itc 308 which has one probe which is replaceable. No wifi and does heat/cool. Still cheap tho so...time will tell I guess

I was going to get the helios as well. Post if it's reliable

 

[Dweezilz]

Yeah I went with the ITC-306a originally because,hey it's on brs, but idk if that's a good unit and hey, wifi (turns out this is not needed with the controller on a apex eb8 outlet ; didn't realize). Two temp probes? It doesn't have the brains for that and inevitably the e4 error (I think/imo). It's cheap. I went with the itc 308 which has one probe which is replaceable. No wifi and does heat/cool. Still cheap tho so...time will tell I guess

I was going to get the helios as well. Post if it's reliable

So far it's great. It has temp monitoring in both it's heating elements and a temperature probe so built in redundancy. It keeps the temp nailed at 78 and then the inkbird is a 3rd layer of redundancy plus WiFi email alerts should it go over 82. If I buy the Hydros XP8 I won't need the inkbird anymore.