Inkbird Temp Control Thermostat ITC1000 Dual Stage Digital Temperature Switch Controller ℃ ℉ Display Heating Cooling Relay NTC Sensor 3D Printer Freezer Fridge Hatching 110 Volt

I usually write reviews for things I feel I should share information about. this is one of them.Electronic equipment like this should cost AT LEAST 5x more. I've purchased similar electronics for my research work that do far simpler tasks, yet cost hundreds of dollars. this little guy is just as good in quality and costs far less.Background: i use this to control a mini fridge to effectively create a fermentation chamber for my homebrew wort/beer. You can use it for nearly anything that needs temperature control. Ive even heard of people creating heating chambers using a lightbulb that turns on and off. that is the beauty of this switch, is the flexibility and simplicity of use. I call it a switch because essentially that's all it does. It reads a temperature and switches the circuit on and off depending on your set parameters.I read a lot on forums about wiring diagrams etc. because i was afraid i would wire it wrong. actually it's REALLY easy to wire, you only need the wiring diagram that came with it. Most people who use the STC-1000 on forums have it wired in a FAR more complicated manner than necessary, which, IMO is excessively complicated. If you want to use this as a temperature controller for a fridge like I did, you only need a couple of extra things: extra medium duty extension cord (3 prong), elecrical tape or shrink tube, and/or wire nuts and/or crimp connectors. The extension cord is TECHNICALLY optional because you could cut the fridge cord and wire it inline but you really should leave that cord intact and use a separate one incase you need to rewire later. You don't want to mess with the appliance wire anyway, and you get extra wire that helps you to hook the STC-1000 up properly. trust me, just spend the extra few bucks a get an extension cord from home depot. Also, Ideally you should use a soldering iron to get a good connection, but wire nuts or crimps work just as well. I prefer soldering my connections but your preference is fine. Just don't try to twist and electrical tape it your you're just asking for a fire.Next, to wire it up, you only need to be concerned with two color wires, the black (hot) and white (neutral). If you cut the spare cord, to minimize the soldering or crimp/wire nut work, be sure to not cut the green (ground) wire. Its ok if you do, but you then need to connect the two lose ends again later anyway, wasting crimps/wire nuts. When you cut the black and white wires, be sure to cut an extra 5-6 inches or so of wire out as leads for the next steps.No one mentions this, but what I did is actually put 2 wires into each numbered port, therefore minimizing the number of connections. If you do it right, the only crimped connection you'll need is 1 neutral (white) wire. If you cut the green (ground) wire, you'll need 3 connections....Here's how I did it:first, put the incoming (outlet/male) side black wire into port 1, then take one loose black wire end and also put that into port 1. Tighten the screw for port 1. Run the other end of the loose black wire that's in port 1 and put it into port 7 (cooling port). Tighten port 7. Take the appliance (female) plug side black wire and put that into port 8 (the other cooling port) and tighten port 8. place the white wire from the outlet/male side into port 2. Take one end of the loose white wire that you cut out of the extension and also put that into port 2. Tighten port 2. Now solder/wire nut/crimp the loose end of the white wire to the female/appliance port side. That's it!The beauty of this is that it doesn't matter if you reverse ports 1/2 (put black into 2 and white into 1) or use neutral (white wire) in ports 7/8 instead of hot (black wire), which is why it isn't labeled as such. This controller is very flexible and allows many ways of wiring. For me, this way was the simplest which is why I used it. Good luck!

I have had this for 4 years and it still works great. Easy to setup, very accurate temperature control. I use it to control a full size refrigerator with a heating pad inside for fermentation of beer, wine, and mead. I just bought a second one.

I'm using two of these controllers in series to control a fresh air ventilation system for my wine cellar. Where I live in the San Francisco Bay, it gets cool most nights, so I use one controller (Outside temperature) to turn on a duct fan which brings in outdoor air, but I only enable that fan if the internal cellar temperature is at or above a set temperature. The system is working incredible well. They read out in Centigrade versus Fahrenheit, which is no big deal since most of the rest of the world outside of the US is Centigrade and working well. I always remember that 15 degrees Centigrade is 59 degrees Fahrenheit. Pilots and wine cellar afficinados will find this number handy. I had read a number of reviews prior to purchasing these controllers and it seems that some folks have some issues figuring out the controllers. I didn't have any problems, but I'm also an EE by training.Basically these controllers are very flexible in their application, which makes them seem more complicated than they really are, but they are really simple. First, keep in mind that the units themselves need power, so the power terminals (1&2) supply power to the unit. They have nothing to do with the relay contacts.Terminals 3&4 are for a temperature sensor (a thermistor). You can add wire to the temperature probe since the thermistor itself is a much higher resistance than the wire. I used 20 feel of 16 AWG exterior lighting wire to extend the temperature sensor to the outside of my house and still didn't need to do any calibration. Terminals 5&6 are used to control a heating element. If you are using this device only for a cooling application, these terminals won't be used. Terminals 7&8 control a cooling element. If you are using this only for a heating application, these will be left open. The relay contacts should be used to switch the "hot" wire to the element you are controlling (in US AC, this is the black wire).The unit could be used to control both a heating and cooling element if you are trying to maintain a constant temperature.Keep in mind that there are accuracy tolerances in every device, especially the temperature probes, this one needs to set some "hysteresis" in the system to avoid oscillation between on and off states. This would be most important when using both a heating and cooling element. This is designed into the unit with the "difference" function.One reviewer indicated that he was having a problem wiring to the terminals. I had no problems, but can recommend that you remove the terminal guard with the single screw first. Then prior to inserting a wire into the terminal itself, make sure that you first open the terminal screw. I was able to use both stranded 16 AWG wire and solid 14 AWG wire with no problem.All in all, I'm very happy with these little controllers. Yes, it's true that the translation between Chinese to English isn't always the best in the directions, but we live in an international world and these devices come from China. I thought it was pretty clear after reading through a couple of times. Just keep in mind that the temperatures which the relays activate are a function of the set temperature AND the Difference.