Best Temp/Heater Controller

[BadAtThis]

Hate to dig up an old thread. Google pulled this up as I'm looking for a new controller to replace the what I consider garbage inkbird. My 306 whatever is less than a year old and has been plagued with various imaginary issues. Their online tech support is worthless too. Gonna try the ranco asap.

 

[dmsc2fs]

If you want the cheapest with potential construction issues go with Inkbird. If you want similar to your title suggest go with Ranco.

 

[Eric R.]

I haven't personally had any issues running inkbirds for a few years now on several freshwater tanks, and they are very affordable. However, I agree, if you're really looking for industrial level reliability, quality control, and construction, and don't mind spending the extra couple hundred bucks (not all that much for some builds), Ranco is it.

 

[dadnjesse]

You can get a Ranco at a reasonable price if you have electrical experience and wire it yourself. You just have to waterproof the temp sensor. Plenty of YouTube videos.

 

[Yodeling]

I don’t remember how much my Ranco cost, but I think it was like less than $80.00. I wired the outlets myself and used heat-shrink tubing on the probe.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

best and inkbird are tough to say in the same sentence. I would say the best heaters are Tempco or Cygnet or plenty that are not sold on aquairum sites. Better yet run a heat exchange manifold off your water heater with a peristaltic pump drivign the loop. Tons of ways to do it besides putting a toaster oven tech in a glass tube in your aquairum, but best is never cheap. You will find more tempco in industrial use than inkbird or any aquarium brand.

 

[nano reef]

I was just looking at fans because one of my tanks hits over 82! I tets a mini fan and it brought the temp down 4 degress! Blew my mind and was not smart because my coarls got super stressed!

I coulnt find a decent fan that had good rating on temp control! So will the controllers kick on and off for fans as well?

Another thing. My tank varies during summer when lights are on and off and also dont have the heaters running. I have always wondered if that was bad for the tank. Anyone know?

Only one tank gets that high my other two just varie maybe 1 degree through the night!