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External sensor for Hailea Chiller questions?


Heavyd

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I am running a Hailea HC300 chiller on one of my tanks and am finding that the flow I am getting through it is insufficient (running an Eheim 2217). The chiller is measuring the temperature in the reservoir and thinks the water is cooler than it is, so it keeps switching on and off. I have been researching connecting an external temperature sensor, so that the chiller is responding to the the actual tank temperature rather than the temperature in the reservoir. The other alternative is to plug the chiller into a temperature controller that will manually turn off the power to the chiller when the tank reaches the desired temperature. I have already tried connecting an inline water pump to the system and have had poor results.

I would prefer to only have to connect an external sensor by unwiring the internal sensor and rewiring the external one. Otherwise I'm looking at getting an STC1000 temperature controller (link below). My only concern is about switching the chiller power off whilst it is running:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/All-purpose-Temperature-Controller-STC-1000-Whit-sensor-/320628773067

Has anyone performed either of these modifications? Can anyone suggest what external temperature sensor would work with the Hailea chiller?

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Got one of these on my rack system.

Paid $18 form Hong Kong (2 weeks delivery).

Easy to use and easy to hook up.

Well worth it.

I set the chiller to about 2 degrees lower than the setting you want to run the tank at.

The controller is set up at 26.5 degrees with .5 degrees +or-.

In other words the chiller gets powered on at 27 degrees and off at 26.5 degrees.

My heater is set at 26 degrees.

If it gets cool then the heater will be switched on at 26 degrees and off at 26.5 degrees.

It doesn't bother the chiller at all, the same thing happens when the chiller's built in thermostat switches it off.

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Excellent. Thanks for the feedback and tips. I went and ordered the units already. I may have some more questions for you when I get it and it comes time to install it.

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Well, I received the STC1000 yesterday and wired it up today. So far seems like a great little unit and has been working well. The temperature the probe was showing was off by +0.9oC, so I recalibrated it against my Sera thermometer. I set the temperature to cool to 24oC and to kick in at 24.7oC. Has been working ok for 2 to 3 cool cycles so far. Without this controller the chiller would only cool down to 24.8oC before switching off. Will see how it runs over time.

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Nice...by the sounds of it your instructions my be a little clearer.

There are 4 settings that you can change (F1-F4 on my unit).

F1 is the desired temperature.

F2 is the variation before cutting in or out.

F3 - not sure.. would like to know what this is for, mine is set on 1

F4 is the calibration variation.

Do you know what F3 is for?

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F3 is the compressor delay time. It basically protects the compressor from switching on again too soon after it switched off. Default on mine was 3 minutes.

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