Incubator Face-Off! comparison and review

[shmooborp]

Howdy Y'all-
Its been a good 10+ years since I've been on here and I am feeling excited to jump back into a passion my younger self once had.
I use to LOVE building my own incubators from random scrap parts and would hatch many batches ( mostly successfully!) with my other bird friends. Since then, many different varieties of incubators have become available to the general public ( the dominating World of Amazon is truly mind blowing) and I figure why not try a few different small batch table top incubators against each-other to see which ones I fancy most- a review process of ease, accuracy, and functionality.

This is going to be a little like "Whos Line Is It Anyway?" because there aren't really any rules and everything is made up.
I will be setting things up in different rooms ( changes factors) and using a staggered hatch method (whoah). I will also be incubating multiple species together until their lockdown day ( controversial I know, but it has been done.)

I am starting with 3 different incubators. All relatively approachable but each more expensive In succession.

We have:
The Janoel12- forced air and auto turner- 6-12 egg capacity
The Kebonnix - forced air and auto turner- 12 egg capacity
The NR 360- forced air and auto turner - 22-24 egg capacity

I know there are a ton of bator threads and this has likely been done before ( I've seen reviews on each of these)
but if you want to follow me on my mad man mission, come along!

 

[Huntmaster]

Howdy Y'all-
Its been a good 10+ years since I've been on here and I am feeling excited to jump back into a passion my younger self once had.
I use to LOVE building my own incubators from random scrap parts and would hatch many batches ( mostly successfully!) with my other bird friends. Since then, many different varieties of incubators have become available to the general public ( the dominating World of Amazon is truly mind blowing) and I figure why not try a few different small batch table top incubators against each-other to see which ones I fancy most- a review process of ease, accuracy, and functionality.

This is going to be a little like "Whos Line Is It Anyway?" because there aren't really any rules and everything is made up.
I will be setting things up in different rooms ( changes factors) and using a staggered hatch method (whoah). I will also be incubating multiple species together until their lockdown day ( controversial I know, but it has been done.)

I am starting with 3 different incubators. All relatively approachable but each more expensive In succession.

We have:
The Janoel12- forced air and auto turner- 6-12 egg capacity
The Kebonnix - forced air and auto turner- 12 egg capacity
The NR 360- forced air and auto turner - 22-24 egg capacity

I know there are a ton of bator threads and this has likely been done before ( I've seen reviews on each of these)
but if you want to follow me on my mad man mission, come along!

Welcome back.

 

[shmooborp]

Up first, I had 12 Runner Duck eggs shipped to me. 6 white, 6 blue.
Air cells are a bit jumbled, but everyone arrived in tact.

I split the eggs between the Kebonnix and the Janoel12 after setting them up and letting them run for 2 days first to check for stability and temp flux. it seems they both hold pretty stable for now at least, within a full degree. humidity doesn't change much either.
Eggs were put in late Friday night so today would mark 3 full days. I will check for vitality in a few more days.

I also just got a Govee for each, to try and track true readings better.

I have a mix of chicken and goose eggs coming end of this week to put in the NR 360!

 

[shmooborp]

Welp. I trusted a shotty thermometer and I think my Janoel12 was about 4 degrees lower than the thermometer said it was, the last few days.
Bator and device were reading about 100 on the dot- just cross checked with a meat thermometer, a govee and a liquid one and they all said it was only holding at about 95/96.
I have a feeling the eggs stayed in just shy of correct temps and possibly lost their vitality. Dang!

The good news is, my govee says the janoel12 itself holds a steady temp ( within .2 of a degree) but it just wasn’t the right temp.. :/

This is the thermometer not to be trusted- 4+ degrees off is too much for me.

 

[amandam1903]

Howdy Y'all-
Its been a good 10+ years since I've been on here and I am feeling excited to jump back into a passion my younger self once had.
I use to LOVE building my own incubators from random scrap parts and would hatch many batches ( mostly successfully!) with my other bird friends. Since then, many different varieties of incubators have become available to the general public ( the dominating World of Amazon is truly mind blowing) and I figure why not try a few different small batch table top incubators against each-other to see which ones I fancy most- a review process of ease, accuracy, and functionality.

This is going to be a little like "Whos Line Is It Anyway?" because there aren't really any rules and everything is made up.
I will be setting things up in different rooms ( changes factors) and using a staggered hatch method (whoah). I will also be incubating multiple species together until their lockdown day ( controversial I know, but it has been done.)

I am starting with 3 different incubators. All relatively approachable but each more expensive In succession.

We have:
The Janoel12- forced air and auto turner- 6-12 egg capacity
The Kebonnix - forced air and auto turner- 12 egg capacity
The NR 360- forced air and auto turner - 22-24 egg capacity

I know there are a ton of bator threads and this has likely been done before ( I've seen reviews on each of these)
but if you want to follow me on my mad man mission, come along!

Interesting! I am using the NR 360 along with that same thermometer you posted. I just added it on day 5 when I candled my eggs. NR was steady at 100.0 with humidity from 48-55 and 11/17 of my eggs looked good. But the thermometer is reading about 5 percent lower humidity and 1 degree temp lower. Now I can't decide which one to go with.

 

[shmooborp]

Interesting! I am using the NR 360 along with that same thermometer you posted. I just added it on day 5 when I candled my eggs. NR was steady at 100.0 with humidity from 48-55 and 11/17 of my eggs looked good. But the thermometer is reading about 5 percent lower humidity and 1 degree temp lower. Now I can't decide which one to go with.

My NR 360 seems much more reliably stable than the little cheap other two. I would say your NR 360 is likely calibrated fine and you probably also received a well calibrated Thermohygrometer (they can lose calibration) but mine was certainly off compared to a few other cross references. When in doubt, try a few good quality ones.
most reviews say that a liquid thermometer is going to be most accurate.

 

[shmooborp]

Update on day 5, runner duck eggs!
in a shocking turn of events, somehow I didn’t kill the eggs with low temps the first few days.
After candling today only 2 eggs showed no development out of 12 shipped eggs.
One in the kebonnix, and one in the Janoel12.
My govee says each bator is stable within 1 degree or less and has been holding consistent. I did put some light cloth swaddles around the base like a scarf of them at night to keep them from swaying too much.
I am suppose to be getting a bunch of bantam Cochin and a few Toulouse eggs to put in the NR 360 tomorrow!

 

[shmooborp]

Seccond set of eggs came to put a first batch into the NR 360.

A little dirty on some, I decided to wash the single dirtiest one.
Unfortunately one of the goose eggs was rotten upon arrival. It smelled bad, was a little damp but no cracks. Dark one in photo. It started to ooze as it heated up from its pores so I quickly pulled it and threw it out.

I set them last night and this morning things seem stable - no other bad eggs. 23 bantam Cochin and 2 Toulouse!
I’m trying a dry method with these and will be separating the Cochins away come lock down for them into a different bator.

 

[BantyChooks]

Following along - interested.

 

[killmak]

Who needs a fancy incubator when its more fun to build one yourself. I was not impressed with the prices of incubators when I started a few years ago so I made my first incubator out of a hello fresh box. Took apart an old lamp to attach the heater and used an Arduino uno kit I had to set up the lamp and temp/humidity readings. Added a PC fan and programmed the settings and bam super cheap incubator. Every year I have rebuilt it and tweaked it. This year I upgraded to use a home depot 102L storage bin to make it my permanent incubator. For $80 I built an incubator that can comfortable hold 50 eggs and all parts are easily replaceable and repairable.

I rambled on there, I will be following along as I enjoy all of the incubation comparison threads.