I've had this for a year now with no issues at all. I haven't touched it since the initial setup and playing around with the temp ranges. The app is basic, but honestly how often do you need to use it to adjust your temp once you are dialed in to where you want it? I have not had issues with wifi connections either. Only maintenance I do is cleaning the probes off every 3 moths or so with a brush. I also have a temp sensor on the Red Sea ATO that tracks within 0.5 degrees of this controller and I keep a tight 77-78 range.

lost calibration after 6 months....its set to 120 degrees and I have my apex controlling my temp for the time being until I can replace with something better...spend money somewhere else

Bought two of these (with 600W heaters) for one of my big tanks, they came with dual temp probes, seemed accurate and worked great... for awhile. The calibration on both went bonkers at about te same time around 9 months later. I figured it would have been the probes so I tried to get replacements for them, I found out the two are wired together and cannot be replaced (without a little soldering etc.) Even InkBird told me they could not offer replacement probes. So although the controllers may be good it's all junk thanks to what may be just cheap probes, which can not be replaced (I didn't catch that little snag). BRS made it right by the way, all went bad just prior to the warranty running out.

This controller has saved my tank more than once from disaster. I like it so much I bought two of them! I will admit the app and getting it set up first time is a little clunky but the two I got have worked just fine ever since. The first one has been in service with me for 18 months and when I moved and set up tank 2 I got another one. Would recommend to anyone that needs to heat a tank! 4 stars because set up can be a bit confusing.

I have had my Inkbird wifi heater controller for a few weeks now. The temperature of the 32 gallon biocube has remained between 78 and 79 degrees- exactly as I have it set at. It is so nice to be able to check on the temperature when I am away and be reassured that all is well, especially after losing all my animals with a failure of the the old type of heater with the built in thermostat. I believe the Inkbird is great value and I would buy one again.

Have been using this controller for 3 years I’ve had 0 issues. I needed to learn what the error codes were and why they showing up. Since I learned the why I’ve eliminated them all together. I tested its calibration and it was needed adjusted by .5 degrees and that was all. Very good controller. Most of the reviews of people saying they’re getting errors or can’t connect to WiFi really must not have read its instructions. I wouldn’t say this is a plug-n-play controller but if you take the time to learn how to use it then it’s great.

I have 2 of these and they are very good. The temperature is very accurate. I compare the temp to my Apex and it is always spot on. I did have some issues connecting it to WIFI but after working with their support I was able to get it working. The trick is to have near-field on, on your phone and touch your phone to the unit while it is pairing. After doing this I was able to get both going in seconds. Their support was very friendly and quick to respond. I would highly recommend the product.

I have no idea why E5 pops up seldomly when ambient temperature of the room doesn't change. I have no idea why they thought shutting off the heaters during this code was a good idea. I mean if the tanks temp is dropping what good would heaters turning off do? Why not keep heaters on during code to minimize temp drop vs exacerbating the issue. Waste of money. Piece of garbage design. BRS needs to pull this from their website. How many bad reviews does a product need before BRS acts? Protect your customer's and stop selling this piece of garbage!

After a few months, the two temperature probes lost calibration. Even thou the probes are inches apart, they read 3 degrees different. As a result, an alarm/error goes off every night at 4 am. I bought a new controller (not an inkbird) can't wait till it comes so I can throw this piece of crap in the trash where it belongs.

Saw a lot of reviews about having problems connecting and when I got mine I also had issues. I read the r2r post below and it connected first try. So majority of the wifi issues are user error. The app is pretty good so far and very simple. Pretty much plug and play but you have to be able to read a manual and do minimal googling. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/inkbird-306a-wifi-issue.839501/

I foolishly gave BRS the benefit of the doubt on these after reading the reviews. My unit functioned flawlessly for 6 months, but then errored out at midnight dropping my tank from 78 to 74 degrees. Be sure to have a backup heater in the tank at all times if you want to use this. Mines going in the garbage….

I have been trying for days to connect to the WiFi with no luck! I have tried all options and none work, I have confirmed that I am on the 2.4GHz and it just doesn’t connect. Very frustrating since that’s why I bought it. Tried to connect on different devices as well but nothing.

These units work great. I work for a small aquarium maintenance company and we utilize these on the majority of our client tanks, as well as in my personal tanks at home, with few issues. The E5 and E4 codes written about in so many reviews don't indicate a problem with the controller, rather problems with your tank or controller set up. So many 1-star reviews are clearly folks not reading the instruction manual, and not looking at the settings flow chart. You get the E5 code when your heater is on for longer than your setting for continuous heating (CT), which comes automatically set at 6 hours. Either increase CT or check to see that your heater is big enough to heat your tank volume. E4 is the code for temperature difference between the units two probes. Typically we install the probes in separate locations in the tank, to monitor for temperature differences within the tank. Increasing flow in the tank and around the heater corrects this issue.

Frustrated. My account credential is gone w/ new app. Does not easily connect to WIFI.

I’ve had the controller for a few months and it only lasted that long. Thought I got lucky and got one that didn’t have an E5 code. Nope. I’ll be on the lookout for a temp controller that can actually be called reliable now.

Have been using this since October 15th. I get the E4 and E5 alerts daily. The temperature fluctuates 1-1.5° all day. 5 days after I installed it the alarm woke me up at 5am and the temperature had dropped down to 72°. The alarm was going off for about 5 minutes before I was awake enough to grasp what was happening. The temperature had to of been dropping for quite awhile before it alarmed. Had to add another heater in the tank to warm it up and it’s still there as a safety net. The WiFi is a complete pain yo figure out as well. The design and idea of this product it good. The performance is disappointing. I am wanting to return but not sure if it is too late. I have two of the non WiFi models, work great as an fyi.

1. Instruction manual is suboptimal. There is no good trouble-shooting area. 2. The product is unreliable - Unable to consistently connect to Wifi, and if the power goes off - the controller may not restart properly 3. The E5 Error is a twice daily issue - sometimes - the unit 'beeps' other times it does not. So - you go to the tank and the temperature is down to 70. (its a freshwater discus tank - so the temp was set at 83) 4. When the E5 Error does beep - the excuse from BRS was listed as - 'the heater is not responding'. However - the temperature never was higher than the maximum. Instead - the temperature drops when the heater is automatically shut off by the E5 error. 5. There is supposedly a setting which can be adjusted by the App. If you can't get the app to connect to your controller - it's impossible. Given the poor reviews from multiple sites - It surprises me that BRS still sells this.

My temperature graph on my Apex looks like mountains it lets the temperature drop to 76 then raise it to 78 and does this all day Do not recommend if you’re looking to keep a steady temperature

I have two units and they keep my system at the perfect temperature. But the suction cups for the temp probes are really bad! They are thin and get mangled during packaging, so they aren’t always usable.

Should come with a disclaimer!!! Unless you can easily disable 5g on your router the wifi function will not connect, Sounds simple and it may be for you. No matter what I tried I could not connect it. So no app control no push notifications to your phone, None of this will work. The wifi function was the only reason I bought it. I suggest you make absolutely certain you can disable 5g on your network before you buy. It will ONLY connect to 2.4ghz.

I wanted to give this 5 starts as it worked great for a while. I loved the wifi connectivity and it was easy to use. The problem I had was after about 9 months it stopped heating. If you powered it off and back on, it would start heating and work for a while but then just stop after several hours. I replaced the controller with a new one, different brand sold by BRS and the heater works fine now. So it was definitely the controller.

After stopping the E4 errors for a couple days, sadly they returned. Having followed the instructions from the InkBird support folks I reached back out. My unit was defective. They promptly shipped me a new one and so far after 4 day with the new unit, no more E4 messages. I did notice when I added the replacement unit to the InkBird app it the device info said “v 3”. I suspect they did a hardware update to improve the device. Several folks seem to have been suffering from the E4 error. I really like this unit. So simple to use and now very reliable. The support provided was top notch. I was surprised they were so responsive for being an over seas company.

So like others have said, I have been getting a bunch of E4 errors. After doing some research, I discovered that InkBird does not recommend placing the temp probes too far apart. They are for redundancy, not taking the temps in different parts of your tank. If you get an E4, it means the two probes are reading more than 3 or 4 degrees different. My problem went away by placing the probes near each other. Now if I get the E4, it indicates a possible bad probe. Every other feature is great!

Worked fine for a few months and since then have had endless issues - constant E4 alarms, now the calibration is completely off, the temperature probes are not reading correctly.

This is awesome! Had to watch a few YouTube videos to figure it out but its working great! Wish I would have gotten a second one of these instead of the basic aquatop plug temperature control

Set up was easy and the app is user friendly. I was checking it often and now I leave it. It’s accurate and gives me peace of mind. With the app you can check it anywhere!

Bought this unit and it worked great for 4 months. Randomly went out of Calibration and I could never get it to hold calibration. Made a warranty Claim and they sent a new one. 6 months later it’s doing the exact same thing. I would never recommend this product to anyone.

Plug in, download app and it just works. Instructions could be better.

Lasted only 17 months but was very stable/accurate before it died. Why not get something like an Aqua Logic controller for $186? Yes, it's more expensive, but the math works--my first Aqua Logic controller TR115SN (also sold here) lasted for 14 YEARS (170 MONTHS)!!! So you can get 10x$60 of these controllers for $600, or a single Aqua Logic for $186.

Works awesome and accurate. WiFi connects and stays connected no problems

It works just as it is supposed to. easy set up, I check my tank temp. from work Absolutely awesome

had 2 of these that didn't work properly, despite correct wifi, also return errors when plugged into cobalt heaters - junk

I've had 2 of these. First one worked great for over a year....then one day it started with E4 errors and despite cleaning the temp probes, it still wouldn't work. Bought a 2nd unit and have had it for two months now. It constantly looses calibration and decides the temperature is 5-10 degrees different from Apex probe (which I check regularly and is extremely accurate). I get High Temp, Low Temp and E4 errors all the time. Wish there was a reasonably priced wifi/cloud controlled alternative, I don't like relying solely on my Apex....I like a minimum of two levels of control.

This thing is junk. Don't waste your money. My controller is 8 months old, and for 3 or 4 months I get "E4" 3 or 4 times a day because it thinks my sump and tank are 5°F different in temperature, it randomly thinks it has no power, etc. Tech support wants me to remove the system from the tank for a whole day.... it's 40 degrees outside. The controller is garbage and the support isn't any better. STEER CLEAR!

I actually love this product. It tracks temperature accurately, cuts power when appropriate and has easy to read and use app and display. The reason I only gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is the instructions. I primarily use mine as a back up to the internal thermostat of the heater to make sure I don't get runaway temperatures. The instructions don't give any clear way to do this. I had to get on a reef2reef forum to figure this out and even then it is somewhat convoluted. Once I figured out the proper way to do this, the unit has worked flawlessly.

I own two of the ITC-306A units (on separate tanks) and one is pretty stable and the other keeps me up at night, it's always doing wild temperature swings from 71.5-82 degrees. Both are set up the exact same way. The current temp reading on my unreliable unit is always wrong. I wrote Inkbird and got a horrible answer from them. My only thought is to buy another temperature controller and heater to have double redundancy in my tank.

I have had two of these recently and both have had issues. Neither has been able to accurately determine the temp. I would check with multiple sources and calibrate them and within a day it was off. I would get frequent E4 errors (temp difference between probes abnormal. So, I bought a second one and now I get E4 errors every time it turns on. The worst part is Inkbirds customer service. I sent in 4 separate emails with only one reply and when they replied they asked if I had an error message and I replied yes it was in my email still no reply, so their customer service is nonexistent.

See the other reviews about getting the unit in AP mode, and your router must be in 2.4 mode not auto. Once connected it is flawlessly keeping tank within 1 degree with 2 300w heaters.

I have 12 of these. I use them on my freshwater planted systems for clients that don't utilize Co2 (for Co2 systems I use an apex). I initially had some connection issues at clients where they don't have separate 2.4ghz, and 5ghz SSID's. However after doing some research (wasn't easy to find) I found a forum where Inkbird suggested putting the controller in AP mode during setup. Once I did that I was able to connect to all my clients that only broadcast a 5ghz SSID (Virtually all routers are dual band, but will "favor" 5ghz, so if you try to use the quick connect with Inkbird's app it won't connect). The manual will give you directions in how to put it in AP mode, but they don't explain WHY you would want/have to do that. I've never had any disconnects after setup in AP mode, they have all worked flawlessly for months. Of my 12 controllers one of them started to have a "temp difference between two probes error" I emailed Inkbird with my error and receipt and they sent out a new unit that arrived in a couple days no questions asked. Great customer service. Only negative I would say is I wish I could disable the audio alarms if there is a issue, its a nuisance to my clients, and the push notifications are fine.

This thing has been a big improvement for my tank automation. It took some fiddling to get the Temp Settings right, but once I got it going, I feel a lot more confident when away from my tank for several days at a time. Before I couldn't trust the built in Thermostats of the heater's themselves and would see much wilder swings. Pros: - Can trust my Temp to stay within a 0.5 Degree range, or any other range I desire. - Can adjust the ranges on the fly, which helps if I need gradually increase or decrease the tank temp. - Can view history of temp for spikes or drops Cons: - The alarm system is a little annoying. Sometimes false alarms at just minor over/undershoots. - The Temp History chart in the app cannot be zoomed in, so it's difficult to see the finer temp cycles.

Once I figured out the connection issue with the app, it's been great. If you have Xfinity gateway, you need to connect your phone to the 2.4ghz wifi before adding the controller in the app. The Xfi gateway manages both 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz simultaneously. My phone automatically connects to the 5.0ghz by default, but the controller is 2.4ghz (as stated) and so they never sync'd or added in the app. It just kept saying check connection and try again. Very frustrating! After doing some research, I manually disabled my 5.0ghz wifi and reconnected my phone to the 2.4ghz network and then tried installing the controller on the app... Success! After pairing, I re-enabled the 5.0ghz wifi, reconnected my phone and now everything is working flawlessly. Perhaps this is common knowledge, but for us non-tech savvy people, hopefully this helps some one else with the same connectivity/app issues as me. Cheers

Only had for a few months before it failed overnight. Randomly went out of calibration from 78-79F to 150F. luckily my apex informed me of the cold temps in the tank and I was able to correct it.

As the title and others have said biggest draw back is that it will only connect on a 2.4ghz Wi-Fi connection not even Bluetooth compatible. Huge feature of being notified on phone when something goes wrong and can’t utilize it. Also they should really let be known that this is the only way to use it on your phone.

so i have had this for about 1 year now and the only thing i have found that i dont like about it, is the suction cups,they have worn out do to the uv or age.. (i keep 2 probs at either end of my 180) they just dont stick for more then a day or 2, the app and set up were a breez. i have had zero temp worries. for the first about 3 months i had an old therm floating in the tank that i would check daily, it was always spot on, you can adjust trhe time the heter is on. and set the on off temps. if i were on the fence, i would buy it again fore sure.

This temperature control works great. It holds my tank temperature fluctuation to under the 1 degree (.6 degrees to be specific) of the tank temperature setting. The safety setting work as intended and the APP is great with all information and alarms sent directly to your smart device. Programming and calibration is a breeze, especially if you use the app to program the settings. The only thing I think would be a great addition would be if the temperature probes were replaceable like the older models.

Over temperature alarm works, but there is no UNDER temperature alarm. I'd opt for using two or three Ink Bird ITC-308 Wifi with under and over temp alarms. Two or three controllers are better than one. And using Apex as a third or fourth backup temp control in the case of a stuck on failure which will causing overtemp. Don't use high cost Apex power supply as primary temp controller because it can't be replaced very cheaply as the Ink Birds can be.

I purchased a T-306A and immediately had issues with it staying calibrated. It would heat my tank up to the desired temp but then shut off both heaters and never turn them back on. Came down to my tank around 74 when I keep it at 78.5. I figured it was defective and contacted InkBird support. They never responded to my message so I tried to exchange it for a new one. The second one had the exact same issue.

There are 2 temp settings. The controller shuts off at the highest setting, and turns on at the lowest setting. Sounds good right? If there is a power outage or the aquarium drops below the lowest temperature for any other reason, the heater does not turn itself on. Most of us want to keep our tanks between 77 and 78 degrees or so. If the tank drops to 75, The heater will not turn on. it only operates between those temperature settings. That's a major flaw for those of us who experience power outages. There is an alarm, but that doesn't do much good if you're not home. I noticed this when I filled my brand new aquarium up with water, and set the temperature parameters I wanted, and the tank wasn't heating up. Risky. I will be hooking up one of my heaters up to my apex for sure.

Works great and was easy to set. The wifi wasn't easy to install but it was the app that didn't install correctly. After a uninstall and reinstall it was easy and works great.

Hooked up to 2 Cobalt NeoTherm 150s as a back up in case one overheated or went out. I calibrated with the Thomas Scientific Traceable Thermostat sold by BRS. It could not hold a calibration, drastically off every time I checked it. Woke up one morning to find my tank at 74 degrees! Unacceptable. The NeoTherms work much better by themselves.

I have had this for 3 months now on a RS XL300 paired with the BRS 300 watt heater and it has been flawless. Tank temps stay at 78 degrees. The WiFi feature is very nice also. I can check in on the temp while I'm away from home or even in another room. I liked the combo so well I purchased another controller and heater to have on hand as backups just in case.

Had the older brs inkbird on my 300g. It was ok had to recalibrate every once in a while but it was always pretty close. Moved the old version to my wife’s cube and bought 2 of these for my 300 and they are junk. Have to recalibrate daily sometimes twice a day. If the temp stayed close I would be ok with them. Unfortunately I’m seeing swings of up to 3 degrees. So it’ll put my tank down to 74 degrees before heaters kick on then it takes forever to heat a tank back up that size.

Recently purchased....only connects to 2.4 not 5.0 WIFI. Somewhat complicated and didn't hold temp properly. Had for a week...few false alarms...shut off heaters twice.... woke up to tank 75 degrees. Tossed it

Broke in less than two weeks. Want a new probe while under warranty? You only have to wait over a week for them to mail it so u may as well just go and buy yourself another heater right? Noooo it’s totally fine for your aquarium to fluctuate drastically in temperature!!! Don’t even worry about it!!! I’m Not wasting any more of my time explaining why this is a trashy company. Buy the product and find out yourself!!

I really want to like this unit, I purchased the standard non wifi version bull reef sold prior to this. First off the wifi feature seems pointless, doesn't send push notifications for alarms. Also I dont want another app to look at. Plus side is this has two temp probes, downside to this version is to replace the temp probes you need to disassemble the unit instead of simply plugging in a new probe. Make sure to calibrate the temp probes in a bucket of water full of ice, and re calibrate th unit every so often.

I purchased 2 of these units luckily my Apex is the fall back. These things CANNOT hold their calibration. Contacted Inkbird directly as it's not BRS' fault. The Wi-Fi part works well but the internals of these are horendous.

Holy smokes was this a good purchase. I was just looking for something uncomplicated and inexpensive, but with redundancy built in. It's definitely that, but I had NO IDEA the mobile app would be so killer. First, it's a breeze to connect to WiFi. Crazy simple. Second, it's got a brilliant interface... everything is clean, modern, and cloud connect. It's not hard to figure out at all. I've bought a LOT of stuff over the last few months with my new build, and I think this little Ink Bird might be one of the most pleasant surprises across all of those purchases. I really can't recommend this enough. P.S. Ok, just one gripe. They don't include screws for it or the heater-power dongle. I know, any screw will do but it would have been a nice touch. Not everyone has screws that small lying around.