Just a warning that you need to constantly check your calibration and its not just plug and play. At least that's my experience.
Over Christmas the pump on my 406 canister failed. As I had an external heater that meant my tank was without heating in mid winter. All I could get in a hurry was a cheap Chinese heater on Amazon as my samll backup heater wasn't really up to the task. I decided not to replace the canister as I had a spare. Different sized hoses and as the Hydor was 15 years old I never put it back. Turned out I quite liked the heater but as it was not a known brand I bought the temperature controller as a failsafe against the thermostat failing.
All was well and the calibration was spot on out of the box. I have it mounted on the wall above the tank which is great because I can see the tank temp from anywhere in the room. As summer arrived the temp went up as expected. I never thought much about it as the temp was consistent with what I saw in my other tank (in a different room on the warm side of the house). This morning at 6am the tank was reading over 27C so I opened the windows, took the cover off the tank and turned on a portable fan - as I have been doing for the last few days. Hmmm - that's funny, the tank in the "warm" room is only at 25 (this one has a regular thermometer and heater although the heater is turned off for the summer).
So I checked my cheap digital thermometer and it read 5.6C lower when I put the probe at the same place. Double checked with another digital thermometer and finally with a food thermometer. Yes, the calibration of the Inkbird was out. After recalibration I was able to turn the fan off. I also dropped the setting as there is little point in heating the tank in the morning only to have to cool it in the evening.
FWIW the calibration on the cheapie heater has remained constant and is working perfectly.
Over Christmas the pump on my 406 canister failed. As I had an external heater that meant my tank was without heating in mid winter. All I could get in a hurry was a cheap Chinese heater on Amazon as my samll backup heater wasn't really up to the task. I decided not to replace the canister as I had a spare. Different sized hoses and as the Hydor was 15 years old I never put it back. Turned out I quite liked the heater but as it was not a known brand I bought the temperature controller as a failsafe against the thermostat failing.
All was well and the calibration was spot on out of the box. I have it mounted on the wall above the tank which is great because I can see the tank temp from anywhere in the room. As summer arrived the temp went up as expected. I never thought much about it as the temp was consistent with what I saw in my other tank (in a different room on the warm side of the house). This morning at 6am the tank was reading over 27C so I opened the windows, took the cover off the tank and turned on a portable fan - as I have been doing for the last few days. Hmmm - that's funny, the tank in the "warm" room is only at 25 (this one has a regular thermometer and heater although the heater is turned off for the summer).
So I checked my cheap digital thermometer and it read 5.6C lower when I put the probe at the same place. Double checked with another digital thermometer and finally with a food thermometer. Yes, the calibration of the Inkbird was out. After recalibration I was able to turn the fan off. I also dropped the setting as there is little point in heating the tank in the morning only to have to cool it in the evening.
FWIW the calibration on the cheapie heater has remained constant and is working perfectly.
