Inkbird Controller Troubles - Maybe...

[chome360]

Hoping to get some opinions on this. Last night at 3 AM I woke up to an alarm from the inkbird. I have a simple setup on my tank, and HOB filter, Shark in-tank Skimmer, ATO and redundant heaters connected to a dual heater Inkbird. Tank has been running for 5 months, heaters have been great and stable, I added the Inkbird a month ago for added "safety".

So where's what went down. Yesterday our power went out at 2 PM. We have a full house generater that kicked on 10 seconds later. All was good. When I went to bed at 10 PM we were still running on the generater. I woke up at 3 AM to the Inkbird alarm. Came downstairs have asleep and unfortunately, without inpsecting anything, I unplugged/replugged immediatly. Looked at the Inkbird and it said the temp was 74.7, heating was on, and I confirmed looking in the tank that both heaters were on. We were off the generator at that point. There is generally no power disruption when we flip back to utility power, but if the power could have flipped on and off a couple times. Looking at the inkbird logs, I see that at roughly 11:30 PM the temp was at 77.5 where I keep it, but started to freefall. By 3:15 AM when I uplugged/replugged, it was at 74.7. From there it steadily brought the tank temp back up without a problem.

So now I can't figure out what happened. Is this inkbird not trustworthy? Did the power issues cause this? Even if the power went out and then came back, the inkbird was on and alarming, why would it not be heating from 11:30 PM to 3:15 AM. A reboot seems to have fixed it... I worried this will happen again.

Attached is a pic of the logs, and the screen after I rebooted. It was still alarming because its current temp was still below the alarm "low" setting. I think I dodged a bullet, if I didn't wake up, not sure if my coral and fish would still be alive.

Another clue, when I export the logs to excel, there's not data between the 11:30 PM temp and the 3:15 AM temp. Its as if the Inkbird just went haywire/offline at 11:30, was able to alarm at some point, but wasn't heating until I restarted it. Any ideas?

 

[KrisReef]

I had one of these with the dual temp probe and it lasted about 3 months before I abandoned it. I was trying to keep an outdoor tank warm, the alarm went off and I restarted the unit and it had some internal issue that caused me to take it off line. Tank just runs cold now (koi) and the alarm problem has been solved.

This offers you no help except perhaps some “me too” sympathy.

 

[chome360]

I had one of these with the dual temp probe and it lasted about 3 months before I abandoned it. I was trying to keep an outdoor tank warm, the alarm went off and I restarted the unit and it had some internal issue that caused me to take it off line. Tank just runs cold now (koi) and the alarm problem has been solved.

This offers you no help except perhaps some “me too” sympathy.

I'm always up for me too sympathy! Thanks. It sucks because I got this to "up my safety" game. The tank was at stable consistent temps when it was just the two indepentant heaters. I put this in, now I'm wondering if I should remove it. If I didn't wake up, or if I had been traveling and not here to unplug/replug, I'd be totally screwed.

 

[Wu Wei Reefing]

I’ve used Inkbirds on all my tanks for years with no problems. I find them to be trustworthy but that’s just my anecdotal experience. Can’t speak to your issue but as for the question about Inkbirds being untrustworthy. That I do not hear very often, if ever.

 

[chome360]

I’ve used Inkbirds on all my tanks for years with no problems. I find them to be trustworthy but that’s just my anecdotal experience. Can’t speak to your issue but as for the question about Inkbirds being untrustworthy. That I do not hear very often, if ever.

Glad to hear it. That's all I've ever known to be true also. Basically the reason I bought it. But even the best companies can have 1 out of 100 units turn out faulty. That's what's in my head. I have to assume the power issues had something to do with it, but I can't figure out why the result would be the Inkbird powered on, alarming from low temp, but not heating. Then a quick unplug/replug fixes it and leaves me with a gap in temp logging...

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

mine lost wifi for no reason yesterday for the first time ever but I didnt worry because the Neptune took over as a fail safe. The machines are turning against us. Skynet is going live.

 

[chome360]

Lol, it was only a matter of time right! If it loses Wi-Fi, doesn't it keep functioning as normal? Just no ability to connect from your phone but I would think it would still follow its normal temp hold procedures. If not that's concerning

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I hate that inkbird wifi, I only use the physical controller, it works perfectly.

 

[Wonkabar]

I had an I bird that kept dropping WiFi and it was a pain. Now I use a ranco controller and use my apex as a backup.

 

[chome360]

I had an I bird that kept dropping WiFi and it was a pain. Now I use a ranco controller and use my apex as a backup.

I have both, but the non-wifi is currenlty in the drawer. I would think they both work exactly the same, just with the wifi version having an "additional" access method. Wouldn't reliability and general function be identical? If no, I'm definitely switching!

 

[Evil1]

I hate that inkbird wifi, I only use the physical controller, it works perfectly.

Me as well

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

for how cheap the inkbird was, I'm impressed with it and its durability. I may be part of the minority on that but thats just my experience.

50% of the reason I even got an apex is because of it acting like a fail safe for wacky heaters.