Reviews by Hannah15

I bought this thing mostly just to use as a hatcher. I have an Rcom that I love that I incubate with. It worked fine for that purpose for a while. Although it is incredibly difficult to clean, because there are too many nooks and crannies that you can't get to.

I did end up getting a turner for it, and that had to be replaced under warranty. I really haven't used this thing much at all, and it has been stored in the house for the entire time I've had it (3 years, I believe). I had to replace the fan a month or so ago because it was noisy and clearly going bad. Then, just today, I cleaned it and then plugged it back in (it had been off for a few days), and it won't heat. Brinsea doesn't even sell heating units for this thing on their website, so I guess I'm just out several hundred dollars (and potentially eggs that I have no where to move). I can guarantee I won't be replacing it with another Brinsea. Maybe it'll make a good doorstop?

After a couple of bad hatches in a styrobator, I decided to replace my incubator. I bought a Rcom Pro 20, which I love. However, I didn't really want to hatch in it, for several reasons. I wanted another incubator just for hatching, but my main requirement was that it be plastic. I also didn't want to spend a fortune, since I already spent quite a bit on the Rcom. The Brinsea Eco met these requirements, so I opted to purchase it. All in all, this incubator works very well, though I had a couple of problems.

The incubator is reliable once it is set to an appropriate temperature. However, do NOT trust the "preset at 99.5" temperature. Mine was 5 degrees off out of the box, and would have killed my peachicks had I trusted it. It is easy to calibrate, so it isn't too much of an issue, but it is a little misleading to state that it is preset at that temperature when it is actually no where near it. I have read that some people had trouble getting the humidity high enough for hatching, but I did not have any trouble with this. I simply filled both of the troughs with water and covered the entire bottom of the incubator with paper towels that were dipped in the troughs acting as a wick. This kept the humidity high, even after opening the incubator (over 60% for me). Also, temperature was recovered very quickly, even after the power went out. It had dipped quite a lot during that time, but I have no idea how long it was out, so I will not hold that against the incubator.

This incubator is tough to compare to my other incubator, because it does not have all of the functionality. However, that leads to my second problem with it. Since at this time I did not need extra frills, I did not want to spend an additional $200 for the Advance model. I am able to buy the turner separately, which I appreciate in case I decide that I would like a second fully automatic incubator. However, I wish that I was able to add the humidity pump as well. Unfortunately, it is integrated with the Advance model, so is not an option to add to the Eco model. In fact, for my purposes, the humidity pump would be more useful than the automatic turner.

There are a couple of other minor problems. First, because of the design of the top, it is not simple to clean in it. Fuzz builds up in it from hatching. Second, large chicks (I hatched peachicks) do not really have enough room to stand up in it. I did not have any problems with this in my first hatch in the incubator, but I am a little nervous about slipped tendons because of this.

After a couple of poor hatches with a styrobator that was several years old I was able to talk my husband into a new incubator. I read about bacteria build-up in the styrofoam incubators, so one of my main requirements for the new incubator was that it was plastic, so it could be easily cleaned. I did quite a bit of research, and don't need anything for large amounts of eggs, but wanted something that was fully automatic. I also preferred the option for eggs to lay on their sides with automatic turning because I wanted to incubate peafowl. For all of these reasons I decided on the Rcom Pro 20.

This incubator truly is plug and play. I can set it to do absolutely everything automatically, even change humidity, turning, and temperature for the last three days. I have only had one hatch so far in this incubator, but it was successful. I got an 80% hatch rate on shipped peafowl eggs. Considering that my hatch rate was less than 20% on two sets shipped chicken eggs just prior to this, from about the same distance and the only difference was the incubator, I feel that the incubator should receive a lot of credit for that. (I also have a second set of shipped peafowl eggs in there currently, and as of right now at least 60% are developing, possibly more.) I think that having the automatic turner helps, as I work out of the home and having the automatic turner allowed the eggs to be rotated far more often. It also allows for more accurate humidity control. The humidity never varied more than 1 degree from where it was set, while it was a constant battle with the styrofoam incubator to keep it at a set amount, and I usually had to have it either high or low and hope to average a correct amount. The humidity and temperature are recovered after opening the incubator within about a minute. The humidity was set right on when I received it. The temp may have been slightly high, but since I knew it was within half a degree and I couldn't get thermometers to agree, I left it.

There is one drawback to this incubator, though I am not sure it really matters. I did not know this until after I purchased it, but the instruction manual states that the warranty is void if eggs are actually hatched in the incubator. Obviously, after the warranty is up this is not a deterrent. However, it is something that purchasers should be aware of. I opted to purchase a base level Brinsea (Eco 20) for hatching, but I know that many people hatch in the Rcom successfully, and since it comes apart for cleaning, I'm not sure it is that big of an issue. But it is something to be aware of.