kkiel02
Active Member
Nice little set up! I use the zen reef dual heater mounts already and love them. If I hadn’t just gotten new heaters I’d give these a try. I also run an ink bird on my quarantine tank and it’s done quite well. Good job BRS!
Are the new BRS Heaters and Controllers the Best of 2019? We think so!
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Don Lidtke
Some Old Guy
I just ordered a pair of controllers and 600w heaters for my system. I will replace the Finnex 500w and JBJ TrueTemp Digital Heater Controller with these. I figured going with dual controllers would be redundant so if one checks out I will plug the other heater into, no muss/no fuss.
That's not quite accurate. There are 100 degrees between the freezing and boiling point of water in Celsius, and 180 degrees in Fahrenheit. That means that 1 degree Fahrenheit would translate to roughly a half a degree (.56) Celsius. This is close, but still over half a degree.
The heater we developed with Inkbird will do .3 degree Fahrenheit OR .3 Celsius temp variance, and can be set in .1 degree increments. This means that if you were okay with setting in Celsius, you could get as low as a .17 degree differential range. Of course, I don't see why you would need to go that tight, and having the heater cycle on and off that frequently will put a lot of wear on the controller. .3 degrees Fahrenheit is a pretty tight range. That means that if you set your temp to 79F, the heater will kick in at 78.7F, and back off at 79F.
-Zack@BRS
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The failure point we were seeing in the last couple years of testing and development was not with the internal circuitry, but rather with the temp probe degrading. This was in part because the initial units were not using an aquarium grade temp probe rated for use in saltwater, and just because in general the probe portion is prone to wearing out. Unless you go with something super expensive and custom to develop, like the Neptune temp probes, they have a limited life. That's why we specifically got our units with a fully sealed aquarium probe that can be easily replaced if it loses calibration.
-Zack@BRS
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Bugsy_Barboza
Active Member
Been using jager for years. Have 4 in use. trust them and will stick to them. These do seem slightly expensive tho. I use a lot of BRS products but sometimes "if it aint broke, don't fix it"
We're definitely not trying to hide that this is a product developed with Inkbird. We've been doing a lot of hands-on testing with various units over the last couple years, and felt that they had the basis of a good controller, but not everything we wanted in one package. There are a number of key differences that we have built into our units based on customer feedback and our own internal testing.
-Ours has a replaceable temp probe. Their standard aquarium controller does not. The probe is a primary failure point as they will wear out over time. When that ones probe goes out, the whole unit is junk.
-Ours can be set to maintain a temp range as small as .3 degrees Fahrenheit or .3 Celsius.
-Ours has a 3 degree temp alarm, meaning if you set your temp to 78 and it gets to 81, you get an audible warning and the heater shuts off. Theirs will only alarm if the temp goes outside of the units temp setting range, which is -58F to 210F--not super helpful.
-Perhaps most importantly, if a regular Inkbird fails, you have to go to Inkbird to get help from them. If you buy one of our custom heaters, WE ARE THE WARRANTY SUPPORT! In the rare case you might have an issue with either the heating element or controller, you come to us and we take care of you, end of story.
-Zack@BRS
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NanoDJS
Valuable Member
Haha your reading mine (and alot of other avid reefers here ) minds !!! I gotta check these out , if you can keep my current setup regulated , you are the gods of reef supply x2 (cause you already are ) been through every heater in the last 30 years it feels like , although adequate enough , nothing this stable looking and maintainable .Cant wait to check it out.
frydaddy
Community Member
That statement is not true as Inkbird does sell a unit (Inkbird ITC-308SA) with a replaceable aquarium temp probe and I believe BRS used to carry it.
Basically you took features from two of the Inkbird models (306 and 308) and put it in to one controller along with adding this "Ours can be set to maintain a temp range as small as .3 degrees Fahrenheit/.3 Celsius, and temp can be set in .1 degree increments" and then slapped the BRS label on it. Not sure that justifies a 40% mark up. Now if the warranty was 2 or 3 years on it, then the mark up would be worth it.
We actually do still sell the 308SA.
www.bulkreefsupply.com
The SA also a custom model that we asked them to produce for us that has the replaceable aquarium grade probe. The normal 308S does not normally have a replaceable or aquarium grade probe on it. However, the 308SA is a heater/chiller combo and can only run a single heater in one of the outlets. Still, not a bad option for those in that situation.
ITC-308SA Aquarium Temperature Controller
Custom Designed for Aquarium Temperature Control Ink Bird ITC-308SA Aquarium Temperature Controller lets you set custom trigger points to turn on a chiller or heater based on the temperature of the water in your tank. The easy to read display lets you view the current temperate, while the large...
www.bulkreefsupply.com
The SA also a custom model that we asked them to produce for us that has the replaceable aquarium grade probe. The normal 308S does not normally have a replaceable or aquarium grade probe on it. However, the 308SA is a heater/chiller combo and can only run a single heater in one of the outlets. Still, not a bad option for those in that situation.
Potatohead
Valuable Member
I have two green Inkbirds and one blue one. They've been running for combined total about five years and I haven't had a single problem. I have changed one temp probe on one green one because it developed a rust spot, in the future I will switch them to the newer plastic probe type.
IMO they are pretty decent units and BRS seems to have combined the best of both units into one. My only real complaint with the blue one is it won't audibly alert you if temp goes out of range like the green one will - I don't know if BRS addressed that or not.
IMO they are pretty decent units and BRS seems to have combined the best of both units into one. My only real complaint with the blue one is it won't audibly alert you if temp goes out of range like the green one will - I don't know if BRS addressed that or not.
Actually we did! The standard 306 was set to alarm only if the temp exceeds the range of -58F to 210F. We had them change that so that the unit will alarm and shut off if the temp exceeds 3 degrees over your set point. So, if you set your heater to 78, it will shut off at 81 and alert you with a visual and audio alarm.
-Zack@BRS
0.3 degrees swing Celsius is 0.54 degrees swing Fahrenheit which is much better than a one degree swing that all my inkbird controllers have but I would still rather have 0.3 . The other two benefits would be when you order an inkbird online they often time show the all plastic probe but when it shows up at my house it comes with the metal probe I would much rather have the plastic one because it's completely submersible the metal one is not. and the number one reason it's worth paying an extra $15 is because BRS will actually stand behind it and warranty it if needed. I had a defective temperature probe on an ink bird controller that I ordered about a year ago and I rapidly figured out that the only warranty I had on it was the 45 day amazon Prime warranty I had no response from incurred at all and had to send the whole controller back to amazon when all I really needed was a 50 Cent temperature probe.
Replacing the controller every year is only going to be necessary if you keep a very tight temperature swing causing the internal relay to have to cycle many many more times than I would argue is necessary. That being said if it's a real strict concern for someone it's a pretty basic procedure to open that inkbird up and unsolder and solder in a new relay, I think the relays cost less than a dollar on eBay. Or you can spend 10 to $20 on a much better relay get one with a much much higher duty cycle and probably not have to worry about it for years and years
infinite0180
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I would think you had this plugged into a apex or profilux you could sleep at night and not worry...
thanks for the info zack
FYI to the thread, looks like this is the replacement probe, $9:
Replacement Probe for Aquarium Temperature Controllers
Keep your Bulk Reef Supply or Ink Bird Temperature Controller operating smoothly. Probe replacement should be done when the existing probe no longer holds calibration. New probes need to be calibrated before operation for proper function. We recommend the use of a separate calibration...
www.bulkreefsupply.com
seems reasonable enough to me.
So above the previously available inkbird on brs, which has the replaceable probe, the new one is $10 more, but has the alarm within 3* of setpoint feature (and that stuff about being setable within 0.1* or 0.3* for whoever cares), and the brwarranty support.
$30 gets you the nonreplaceable probe model and is the baseline.
So add $10 for replaceable probe (which itself is $9), and another $10 for brs support and alarm.
seems alright. I’d feel better if the brs version had a 3 year warranty on the head unit (minus the probe), or maybe charge $55 for it and include a spare probe
I'm a huge BRS fanboy and like the changes they made but Inkbird just came out with the 306A which has wifi and two temp probes so you have a lot of what you're asking for. If BRS had one of these with replaceable probes I'd be all on it.
I watched the video twice, read this thread, and I'm still confused. I have a 308S that I bought in 2017. It lets me set AH and AL (alarm high/low) to any temperature I want. And does this mean that the new BRS controller can't set the temp alarm to 1 degree like I can with mine?
My 308S has a replaceable probe. I was also wondering if there's two relays independently controlling each heater in BRS's new controller. If not, couldn't I just plug a power strip into the heater outlet of my 308S and have the exact same thing? And now there's no cooling relay/outlet so I'd need a separate controller for a fan. I don't understand how this is a feature. Am I missing something? I'm usually a BRS fanboy but I just can't justify this one.
Not to mention, it's a new release. How can you prematurely claim it to be the best of 2019 when it hasn't been tested by consumers? The cobalt heaters seemed to be the best for awhile until they started blowing up in peoples' tanks.
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Would it be better to use a heater with an internal thermostat (set 2-3 degrees higher than desired) with the controller providing main control of heater? Acting as layer of redundancy.....think one of your old videos mentioned this, so was surprised that the BRS heater did not have an internal thermostat.
There are a few reasons we didn't go this route. Heaters with internal thermostats don't tend to be as accurate at temp regulation as a heater with a remote temp probe. If the internal thermostat does go, you have a useless heating element that you have to toss and replace, even if the heating element is still good. The thermostat is the most likely portion to fail.
We believe the Schego heating elements are the best available, and building on that product, we needed a temp control system to support it. Unfortunately Schego doesn't produce a controller that's compatible with US wiring needs. If we had gone with a different brand that had an internal thermostat built into the element, we'd essentially be selling you a standard heater, plus a temp controller. If you wanted to go that route, you can buy any old heater we sell and plug it into our controller. By using the Schego heating elements without an internal thermostat, we are able to eliminate a failure point and point of inaccuracy.
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