Inkbird WIFI thermostat — worth it?

[rja]

Hello all,
I’ve seen horror stories on heater failure. Never experienced it myself thankfully. Anyway, I went ahead and purchased the Inkbird WIFI thermostat and I plan on running it with my eheim jager 100w. As I get corals and fish that are worth more than my entire tank’s equipment, I begin to question where things could go wrong. This super expensive system cannot fail due to a $30 heater. Although the jager is VERY reliable in my experience. Should I invest in a different heating element? Does anyone have experience with the inkbird+eheim jager? I think I’ve added redundancy to overheating but obviously no redundancy to heater failure. Maybe I could add two heaters? Like a 100w and 50w? (Biocube 29) Maybe that’s overkill.

 

[blaxsun]

Most of us that run Inkbirds run a pair of heaters for redundancy. Some of us also run a tertiary heater as a backup.

 

[exnisstech]

I'm running 2 of the inkbirds. One drops wifi once in a while but they keep temp fine. Like blaxun I run 2 heaters but not a third seperate. I have a couple of Jager heaters that are over 10 years old and going strong tho they are used for new salt mix now that I've moved to titanium heaters instead of glass in the tanks.

 

[Jekyl]

I would never have a tank without a heater controller. The wifi part isn't necessary though.

 

[Sean W.]

Yes 10/10

If you live in a hot climate, there is an inkbird that does heat and cooling. Here in SoCal I have a fan hooked up during the summer months that the inkbird also controls.

The wifi is nice because it can send you notifications to your phone if the temperature is too high/low.

-Sean

 

[Tomlagoon]

Had an INKBIRD fail. Using a Finnex now.

 

[discostew]

Yes 10/10

If you live in a hot climate, there is an inkbird that does heat and cooling. Here in SoCal I have a fan hooked up during the summer months that the inkbird also controls.

The wifi is nice because it can send you notifications to your phone if the temperature is too high/low.

-Sean

Which one is this? I have the wifi 308 (blue one)

 

[BanjoBandito]

Heaters are the “bound to fail” weak point in any system. I run 2 elements through an inkbird then into the apex. A catastrophic heater failure is no fun. Don’t cheap out on it.

 

[knockout]

Two heating elements are a must, each should be able to run your tank without the other, I have one in the sump and one in the display should the main pump stop and for feeding time which I keep the pump off for 2 hours, if you use an Apex this is an easy setup, though it can be accomplished with any controller

 

[SPS2020]

Have had issues with InkBird in the past. The most reliable IMHO is Ranco. Couple that with your Apex for redundancy.

 

[rja]

Two heating elements are a must, each should be able to run your tank without the other, I have one in the sump and one in the display should the main pump stop and for feeding time which I keep the pump off for 2 hours, if you use an Apex this is an easy setup, though it can be accomplished with any controller

My only issue with running dual heating elements is space in the back of my AIO. I could find a smaller heater but as of now, there’s likely no chance I could fit two 100W Jager’s in there