ITC-1000F Operational Temp Range

I’m trying to use a 4.9 cubic foot chest freezer as a refrigerator. I wired in the (110V) ITC-1000F controller and although it does seem to be (somewhat) working in a general sense, it has a really wide temperature swing.

I wired it using the ‘both-ends-of-an-extension-cord’ method with a junction box in between, all outside of the unit. I’ve also wired it several other ways, which all worked, but with the same low-temp-reading result.

I’m not sure how to best treat the original freezer thermostat, but I’ve exhausted several different ways of handling that, too (low-setting-but-operational, short, open, etc.)

On the ITC-1000F itself, I set the (Fahrenheit) TS to 38, the DS to 1, the PT to 0, the CA to 0, the CF to F. There seems to be a ‘paperwork-vs-unit’ discrepancy whether terminal #1 or #2 should be the hot lead, I’m using terminals #1 (and cooling terminal #7) as the hots, and then have #8 as the hot-feed/switch-leg to the fridge, which does read as correct on an electrical tester.

I have terminal #'s 3 and 4 as the sensor leads, and I’m not using heating terminal #'s 5 and 6 at all.

So what happens in real time after getting it to within the correct temperature range to begin with is, when the controller screen hits 39, the cooling light comes on, and then the reading still goes to about 39.5, which is fine, but then as the actual cooling process begins, with the heating indicator light coming back on correctly right at 37, the screen reading goes all the way down to 30.5 (on average) before it stops it’s downward swing and starts slowly climbing back up again.

I’m not sure if that’s the actual temperature in there or not. I do have a separate temp-gauge in addition to the sensor in there, but I would have to open the door to read it, and I don’t think it’s reading reacts quick enough for me to know what it actually would be anyway.

Is it really cooling that fast and (much too) far, all the way down to 30.5?? Or is it the ITC-unit’s reading and/or the sensor itself just going a little haywire??

I have the sensor just draped over the back wall of the freezer/fridge and about halfway down, not exactly sure what an optimum location for it would actually be.

P.S. I originally purchased 2 ITC-1000’s, and already swapped one for the other and I get the same result. TIA for any info/help on this matter.

Hello,
Please check that when the temperature reaches 38F and the cooling indicator light of ITC-1000 turns off, does the freezer stop working?
If yes, it means there is no problem with the output of the ITC-1000. This may be because after the freezer is started, the residual temperature inside the freezer keeps the temperature down. Maybe you could increase the target temperature setting of the ITC-1000 a bit based on this feature so that the residual temperature of the freezer reaches the target temperature you want to achieve.

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OK, I’ll try that and try to even things out a little, - - thanks Tania