Inkbird + titanium heaters = slow to heat up water?

[Oberst Hajj]

I recently set up two 300w Finnex titanium heaters on an Inkbird ITC-306T controller and put them in a newly setup 150g stock tank. Yesterday when I left for work the temp in the tank was 74.4° per the Inkbird and when I got home in the afternoon, about 9 hours later, it had only risen to 75.7°. The ambient temp in the room (my work shop) is only about ~65°, but I thought that 600w of heating in just under 150g of water would have been plenty.

As a test, I also setup two 50w glass heaters on another ITC-306T on a 40g + 20g sump and I'm seeing very similar results. This tank is in the house and the ambient temp is ~69°.

Additional info, the working light on the Inkbird never goes out, so the heaters appear to be constantly running.

 

[alysak6075]

go physically look at the heaters, shine a light on them, can you see a "mirage" coming off of them? If yes then they are working. Also is the temp probe near the heating elements? how is the flow near the temp probe? Do you have a separate thermometer to test?

I run a single 600W BRS branded heating element on roughly 200 gallons of water that sit in a 68F basement. It takes about 70 minutes to raise the water temp by about 1.3F.

 

[guylaga]

For what its worth during the freeze and power loss in Houston a few weeks ago I had 700W combined heating (2x 200W Jagers and back up 300w that is stuck in the on position) + return pump and power heads running off a generator.

House temperature was in the mid to low 60s for two days and my tank 125g with 29g sump which usually runs at 79-80 got down to 74 at one point.

So to me it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibilities that not able to get the temperature up much higer.

 

[Jekyl]

Did you make sure to turn up the heat setting on the actual heaters?

 

[alysak6075]

Did you make sure to turn up the heat setting on the actual heaters?

duhhh, I should have asked that!

 

[Oberst Hajj]

go physically look at the heaters, shine a light on them, can you see a "mirage" coming off of them? If yes then they are working. Also is the temp probe near the heating elements? how is the flow near the temp probe? Do you have a separate thermometer to test?

I run a single 600W BRS branded heating element on roughly 200 gallons of water that sit in a 68F basement. It takes about 70 minutes to raise the water temp by about 1.3F.

I'll look for a mirage when I get home from work today. The temp probe is probably about 8-10 away from the heaters and right in front a gyre 3k pump (heaters are down stream of the probe).

For what its worth during the freeze and power loss in Houston a few weeks ago I had 700W combined heating (2x 200W Jagers and back up 300w that is stuck in the on position) + return pump and power heads running off a generator.

House temperature was in the mid to low 60s for two days and my tank 125g with 29g sump which usually runs at 79-80 got down to 74 at one point.

So to me it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibilities that not able to get the temperature up much higer.

I was thinking that might be a possibility in the 150g stock tank out in the work shop, but I run a 60g +20g cube in the house with a single 100w heater (the backup pretty much never comes on) and it has no problems keeping that tank at 78°.

Did you make sure to turn up the heat setting on the actual heaters?

Do the Finnex titanium heaters have heat settings? I did not RTFM, but the BRS site says they have no temp control on them.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Well, the temps in both of those tanks are still lower than what they are set for and the Finnex heaters say nothing about adjusting the temp setting in the instruction sheet. The only thing they says is that you have to use a temp controller.

Both of the Inkbirds are reporting a true temp on their displays, or at least they are close to what my Hanna Salinity checker says.

Does anyone know if the Inkbirds reduce the power going to the heaters as they approach the target temp, or are they strictly on and off devices?

 

[javisaman]

Can you run a "Kill A Watt" to see if the inkbirds are drawing consistent amounts of power at different temperatures? I suspect the InkBird is a simple switch that turns the heaters on/off.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Can you run a "Kill A Watt" to see if the inkbirds are drawing consistent amounts of power at different temperatures? I suspect the InkBird is a simple switch that turns the heaters on/off.

Thanks. I'm assuming they are simple on/off as well. I just can't figure out why neither of the two Inkbirds are getting the two tanks up to the target temps.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

One other thing I tried was setting the temp on the shop Inkbird to 90° to see what the temp would get to. Doing that raised the temp in the stock tank to 78.x° over the course of a day. I did not leave it set that high to see if it would keep heater the water though. Instead I changed it back to a target of 78° and the tank temp dropped back down into the low 70s.

This tells me that the heaters can physically raise temp of the tank high enough, the controllers are just doing it.

 

[alysak6075]

this seems like the temp probe gets hit with warm water and trips the inkbird into off mode. maybe try to move the temp probe to somewhere upstream from the heaters.

 

[DaddyFish]

I have the same problem with titanium heaters and InkBird 306T, although my heaters are not BRS and they do contain a thermostat and I'm able to watch the temps they report. Two 300w heaters in a 90-gal with room temps in the mid-60s and they struggle keeping up. I have seen the heaters log ON times of 4+ hours.

The problem appears to me to be mostly with the hysterisis of the InkBird. You have to allow the temp to rise at least 0.5 F above your target before switching off or the ambient room temperature has too much effect on tank temps. That means if your target temp is 78F, you have to live with 77.5 - 78.5 as your range or you'll get premature cycling of the heaters.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

this seems like the temp probe gets hit with warm water and trips the inkbird into off mode. maybe try to move the temp probe to somewhere upstream from the heaters.

The probe is upstream from the heaters... well, I've got a gyre on each end of the stock tank right now, but the heaters are closer to one end. Plus, the Inbird never turns off the heaters. The "work" light stays on constantly for the titanium heaters in the work shop. On the glass heaters setup on the other Inkbirds in the house both the "work" light on the Inkbird and the lights on the heaters stay on all the time.

I have the same problem with titanium heaters and InkBird 306T, although my heaters are not BRS and they do contain a thermostat and I'm able to watch the temps they report. Two 300w heaters in a 90-gal with room temps in the mid-60s and they struggle keeping up. I have seen the heaters log ON times of 4+ hours.

The problem appears to me to be mostly with the hysterisis of the InkBird. You have to allow the temp to rise at least 0.5 F above your target before switching off or the ambient room temperature has too much effect on tank temps. That means if your target temp is 78F, you have to live with 77.5 - 78.5 as your range or you'll get premature cycling of the heaters.

I wish my Apex EB832s were close enough to either of these two temporary tanks to use it to log what is actually going on. At one point I did heat the water past my desired temp and the Inkbird/heater combo still allowed the temp to drop down past the set point.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Are both of your dual time cycle settings the same?

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Are both of your dual time cycle settings the same?

I have the day/night function turned off.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Hmmm, just reading your post and something doesn't seem right. You said that the Inkbird is constantly on powering the heaters. So that should be no different than setting a higher set point. Yet you say that you had different results between the two. (I'll believe you, just trying to make sure I'm getting this straight.) Would it be possible to run an extension cord (properly rated of course) from your Apex to the Inkbird to monitor the power consumption to verify on/off status?

 

[alysak6075]

The probe is upstream from the heaters... well, I've got a gyre on each end of the stock tank right now, but the heaters are closer to one end. Plus, the Inbird never turns off the heaters. The "work" light stays on constantly for the titanium heaters in the work shop. On the glass heaters setup on the other Inkbirds in the house both the "work" light on the Inkbird and the lights on the heaters stay on all the time.


I wish my Apex EB832s were close enough to either of these two temporary tanks to use it to log what is actually going on. At one point I did heat the water past my desired temp and the Inkbird/heater combo still allowed the temp to drop down past the set point.

this is some weirdness.

 

[FishyFishFish]

Can you plug a light or something into the sockets (rather than the heater) and check that they are turning on and off correctly?

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Hmmm, just reading your post and something doesn't seem right. You said that the Inkbird is constantly on powering the heaters. So that should be no different than setting a higher set point. Yet you say that you had different results between the two. (I'll believe you, just trying to make sure I'm getting this straight.) Would it be possible to run an extension cord (properly rated of course) from your Apex to the Inkbird to monito

I could do that with the glass heaters in the house tank, but the cord would be across the main traffic area and with two dogs, not sure I want to tempt fate. I might still try it.

I think I will remove those two heaters from the Inkbird and see if they bring the tank up to temp using their internal thermostats. I'll use the Inkbird's temp probe to verify. If the two heaters bring the tank up to 78°, then it has to be something in the Inkbird.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Can you plug a light or something into the sockets (rather than the heater) and check that they are turning on and off correctly?

That I can do. The really odd thing to me is that this is happening with two separate Inkbirds (same models), each using dual heaters of different makes and sizes in two different tanks.