Thornes cabinet thermostat alternatives

[David1976]

I built my own large warming cabinet that takes 15 supers and it is excellent at maintaining the desired temperature. I have a thornes warming cabinet for doing 2 buckets at a time however and the temperature dial is dreadful.

I was contemplating swapping the turn dial for an stc1000 or similar. Had anyone tried this and did it work/was it easy enough to do?

Cheers.

 

[Anduril]

What I have done with the Thornes kit, after making my own cabinet, was to plug the unit into a 2 gang socket attached to an Inkbird PID. It would be simple to use the STC1000 temperature probe inside the cabinet after turning the dial of the Thornes unit to 60°C and you would get a more accurate reading. It is easy to do and it works well.

 

[Jules59]

I salvaged an unwanted chest freezer (which still worked, amazingly) and converted it to a freezer / warmer. It uses a XH-W3001 temperature controller for both the freezing boxes /frames and warming honey - depending upon what I plug in.
https://bit.ly/3VORh3ZI installed two STC1000 controllers in my greenhouses several years ago and could have used one again but I think the XH-W3001 is easier to setup and is rated for 10 amps.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I salvaged an unwanted chest freezer (which still worked, amazingly) and converted it to a freezer / warmer. It uses a XH-W3001 temperature controller for both the freezing boxes /frames and warming honey - depending upon what I plug in.
https://bit.ly/3VORh3ZI installed two STC1000 controllers in my greenhouses several years ago and could have used one again but I think the XH-W3001 is easier to setup and is rated for 10 amps.

I use the W3001 as well for my warming cabinets. Cheap and easy to install.

 

[pargyle]

I salvaged an unwanted chest freezer (which still worked, amazingly) and converted it to a freezer / warmer. It uses a XH-W3001 temperature controller for both the freezing boxes /frames and warming honey - depending upon what I plug in.
https://bit.ly/3VORh3ZI installed two STC1000 controllers in my greenhouses several years ago and could have used one again but I think the XH-W3001 is easier to setup and is rated for 10 amps.

I use the W3001 as well for my warming cabinets. Cheap and easy to install.

They look to be a very tidy (and cheap - as low as £3.55 each !) - however - a word of caution to those thinking of using these - virtually all heating devices require an earth connection - you need to ensure that there is earth continuity alongside the wires to and from this unit which just connects and switches the neutral and live wires.

If you don't know what I'm talking about - get someone who knows about electrical things to connect it all up.

If your appliance is not properly earthed you are risking a life threatening shock.... 220volts and a 13 amp fuse in the line has the ability to kill you.

 

[Newbeeneil]

They look to be a very tidy (and cheap - as low as £3.55 each !) - however - a word of caution to those thinking of using these - virtually all heating devices require an earth connection - you need to ensure that there is earth continuity alongside the wires to and from this unit which just connects and switches the neutral and live wires.

If you don't know what I'm talking about - get someone who knows about electrical things to connect it all up.

If your appliance is not properly earthed you are risking a life threatening shock.... 220volts and a 13 amp fuse in the line has the ability to kill you.

Well said Philip, although for a warming cabinet you would never use a 13amp fuse. A 3amp fuse should would be more than adequate.

 

[pargyle]

Well said Philip, although for a warming cabinet you would never use a 13amp fuse. A 3amp fuse should would be more than adequate.

The tube heater that I have in the warming cabinet came fitted with a 13 amp fuse ... I changed it for a 5 amp but I'm not sure a 3 amp would cope with the draw when it switches on ...3 or 5 amps won't kill most healthy people but beware if you have a pacemaker fitted !

 

[blackcloud]

Four 300mm tube heaters and an inkbird itc308 wifi is what I use.
I can control the stat and look at historical temp performance on my phone while at work.

 

[Anduril]

Before, this goes any further and off track the OP has asked, if instead of the dial can the STC1000 be fitted to replace the dial. Which there are 2 ways of doing, either remove the dial and temperature sensor that came with the Thornes one and wire the heating cable straight into the STC1000 or the way I suggested which is non invasive and plug the dial into a plug socket attached to the STC1000 and turn the dial to 60°C. Using the sensor of the STC1000 to maintain a more accurate reading.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

yu can buy 'plug and play' STC1000's now so no need to fiddle with any wiring

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I'm not keen on the Thorne's heating cabinet. Before I made my own cabinet I asked a friend to liquify a bucket of honey for me. I got it home and it was still over 60degC. It had been in his Thorne's cabinet for days.
I used the honey for marmalade.
I'm a bit OCD, I guess, and put a seperate thermometer in the cabinet to double check my STC1000 is working.
. . . . Ben

 

[Sutty]

I'm not keen on the Thorne's heating cabinet. Before I made my own cabinet I asked a friend to liquify a bucket of honey for me. I got it home and it was still over 60degC. It had been in his Thorne's cabinet for days.
I used the honey for marmalade.
I'm a bit OCD, I guess, and put a seperate thermometer in the cabinet to double check my STC1000 is working.
. . . . Ben

I've recently used an old fridge (switched off) and a pair of 40w thermostatically controlled dimplex tube heaters, a WiFi connected thermometer (govee) in the top of the fridge let me get the thermostats set for 40C, and I could monitor it remotely. There was a slight variation you could see as the thermostats cycled on & off.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dimplex-...XMXBSXgEzIqwo88CPYgaAnTiEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://uk.govee.com/collections/ho...EKVklEBRanZDvHZrzebPukLwEbm-uj7YaAnzsEALw_wcB
The thermometer was cheaper on Amazon.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Tried a tubular heatfeeder in the insulated box I built and it didn't work for me. It had an internal thermostat which made it's own mind up about what temperature it wanted. Switched to an incubator heating element. The Thorne warming cabinet uses a "heating cable". My friend had a problem with that cable I remember. Cabinet went back to Thornes.

I like the simplest option for David1976 would be the second option from Anduril above;

or the way I suggested which is non invasive and plug the dial into a plug socket attached to the STC1000 and turn the dial to 60°C. Using the sensor of the STC1000 to maintain a more accurate reading.

I'm an electrical numpty but I managed to wire up my cabinet, I think safely, though the pargyle post above has me wondering. Used some instructions found here written for an aquarium heating system.
I'd be tempted to disconnect the heating cable, dump the Thornes temperature dial and sensor and reconnect to a temperature controller of your choice. It's not rocket science (but then apparently rocket science isn't that hard).

 

[David1976]

It turns out, it's an easy job to swap the thorne controller for an stc1000 and it works perfectly.