incubator ideas! post your ideas for home made incubators, whether they work or not~

[kellyn]

I... surrender! That post ain't never gonna be right! I think people can get the gist of what I mean to add for better temperature control...

BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus: what'd you use for heating? I've heard lots of people having great success with fish-tank incubators. I wanna build one now! Ijust need a fish tank... your name is the most complex BYC pen name yet.. wow. I had to look at it four times to get it right! But anyways; what's the temperature of the room your tank is in? 70* is perfect and should be cool enough to not die of sweating and not kick your electric bill through the roof.

Try setting he room temp at 70, putting a warm towel over your incubator, and if that's not enough, add a higher wattage bulb. As long as your temps stay betwen 97-101 for the most part, you should have a decent hatch.

P.s! If is still doesn't work, don't give up!

 

[quintinp]

I think that a water heater thermostat can be made to work in certain environments.

I was never capable of making a water heater thermostat work to my needs in a fridge or cabinet incubator. It really depends on the volume of the incubator as to what the thermostat can handle.

I am saying that in a cooler incubator, water heater thermostats work GREAT!

Mine held temperature variations of 4 degrees in a fridge or cabinet incubator.

With a water heater thermostat it was Trial and Error for me. I have learned a few techniques to make the incubator work very nicely.

I use a wafer thermostat in my cabinet incubator, and didn't have problems with it.

It is just how much money you are willing to spend and how much tinkering you are willing to do to get something to work right.

MONEY was my situation, when I started my cooler incubator I didn't have the money to go out and buy a wafer thermostat, so I bought the water heater thermostat, and learned some new tricks to make it work better, and for the inexperienced, I share all of my knowledge from my experience.

 

[kellyn]

Thermostat is Heart of Inc. Wafer thermostat are proven .Incubator Warehouse makes a digital unit that's been good to me.about $50. Ranco 111000 makes a tough unit and controls well but no decimal places Whole # only about $50. on ebay been good to me too.Useing water heater thermostat s are kind of like shaveing with an AXE. My tip for today...cva34

I think you have a point. A water heater thermostat is a waste of a perfectly good 10 bucks.

 

[quintinp]

I think you have a point. A water heater thermostat is a waste of a perfectly good 10 bucks.

EEEeeek!!!. You guys are killing me. If there is any problem you have with it, I would definitely like to help with your displeasure of the thermostat.

 

[kellyn]

Maybe one of these days I'll get a ranco. I don't have a thermostat one the incubator at school. It actually works perfectly. Stays always 101-99*. 70 degree room temperature.

Quintip: you mustve done yours right. This weekend I'll try and fix mine better.

 

[quintinp]

I would enjoy helping you fix this problem you are having.

 

[kellyn]

Could you post a picture of what yours looks like? My incubator is in use, but I only use the light to add xtra heat when it's under 70* out. It oucassionally gets too hot so I have to constantly monitor it.

I may use it on another 'experiment' incubator later on; I already have an idea of what to do~

I must have brain damage... every time I finish an incubator, I just HAVE to start on another one! Sometimes I swear I spend more time on that than I do tending my chickens! Yeah, I think I have some type of 'build another incubator' disorder...

 

[quintinp]

Sure, one thing you should do is place the thermostat within an 1 1/2 inches from the light bulb. The thermostat should have holes drilled into it to let warm air into it, and make it react faster to changes in temperature. The light should be between a small fan, and the thermostat.

I will give you some pictures of the heating, and placement of the thermostat in relation to the fan and light bulb.





When the fan is placed facing the bulb and the thermostat, when the light bulb cycles off, it still releases heat, and with the fan blowing the light bulb, it cools the light bulb, and cools the thermostat, and makes the thermostat react faster, and give you very steady temperatures.

If you want to see other pictures of the incubator, just ask or look on my page, I just wanted to show you the heating in my incubator.

 

[quintinp]

By the way, here is a link to a video on how to drill holes into the thermostat.

 

[Cpntherfan]

By the way, here is a link to a video on how to drill holes into the thermostat.

that guy lives down the road from me, lol and motivated me to build my coolibator