PID, ramp/soak do i need it?

[olie25]

hi guys im re doing my heat system, first time around i went with ultra cheap ebay controllers its time to change to something with instructions in english..lol what i am wondering is should i get a ramp/soak model, what the hell does ramp soak even do i have looked around a bit but i cant seem to get my head around the usefulness of this feature. having said that i know headmonkey and other long time builders use them??

[vinman]

I do not use a ramp soak PID. I bought mine from lightobject.com. I forget the exact model but others here use them also JLD612 I think. Mine have been no trouble at all. Any trouble I get is usually from a loose wire in the thermocouple.

[rnordell]

The nice part about having ramp/soak is the ability to turn the heat off after the specified dwell time, and if your epoxy requires it, do multi-step temperature profiles. I'm thinking of changing my autoclave over to a controller with ramp/soak. Right now I'm using the JLD612 and a timer/alarm on my phone to remind me when the temp needs to change.