Reddit reviews Inkbird AC 100 to 220V ITC-100VH Outlet Digital PID Thermostat Temperature Controller 40DA SSR White Heat Sink K Thermocouple
We found 3 Reddit comments about Inkbird AC 100 to 220V ITC-100VH Outlet Digital PID Thermostat Temperature Controller 40DA SSR White Heat Sink K Thermocouple. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
✨✨PID and ON/OFF Control Mode with high standard self-adjust function💫💫Multiple temperature sensors (K, S, Wre, T, E, J, B, N, CU50, PT100)💫💫Self-adjusting function and intelligent control of the instrument to ensure the long-term stability.💫💫Accuracy of displaying and controlling 0.1ºC💫💫Character: PV: 4 digital 9.9mm height Red LED Letters. SV: 4 digital 8mm height Green LED Letters
You will need a pid temperature controller, water pump, and heating unit, as well as some basic things (a bit of sheathed wire, things to cut and strip it, screwdriver, electrical tape) to wire everything up. The controller and heater can be substituted for cheaper components. You should also get a resistance thermometer (search on ebay, it's like $1) to get higher accuracy than a thermocouple.
pump
controller
heater
I hope this will help.
Might want to consider a spa panel. You'll see this in quite a few DIY setups for controllers for boilers mostly in home brew builds but that's just because home brewing is more popular then home distilling, but they work for distilling as well.
Spa panels are used if you do not have a GFCI breaker setup. Apparently this is overall cheaper route then installing a new GFCI breaker in your fuse box.
Also for $4.00 less then that controller you could buy this which is a PID controller + 40AMP SSR + heat sink + Thermocouple. This setup allows you to monitor the temperature as well specifically set a temperature instead of depending on a separate analog thermometer. So you get far far more for less money.
Here is the build I will be making soon. Just waiting on some new projects to fund it.
Mine came with a 40A 240V SSR (Solid State Relay). I've used it with both a 240V 1500W and a 120V 1200W element.
You are planning on using 240V to run the heater, right? That'll put you at just over 10A, which is nothing for that SSR. If you try to use 120V, you need to make sure that your circuit can stand it, and my guess is that it cannot. Most residential 120V circuits aren't meant for a 20A load, neither the wiring in the walls nor the plugs or receptacles; even though the circuit breaker might say 20A.
Here is the one I used, I think. http://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-100-Thermostat-Temperature-Thermocouple/dp/B01489AQAW
edit: I should confess that I know more about controls than I do about distiller boilers (not much). /u/sillycyco raises a good point. The PID controller that I linked switches too slowly; you might be able to tune it to work satisfactorily, but that would probably not work as well as a variac or thyristor based controller, or a combination of the two (which would be needlessly complex).
Those SSRs are good though, and they're useful in either type of control system. I didn't like the one controller in your OP post though because I didn't see a triac in the kit and the kit doesn't list one; which would make it operate about as good as my wrong suggestion would have.edit2: The stilldragon site says SSR, but it's actually a Phase Angle Controller which isn't the same thing.