Brinsea 190, & other cabinet incubators, Positives & negatives please

[mediazeal]

Quote:
That seems to be common. I've spoken with 2 others with the same issue. I'm having the same experience. It just doesn't put out enough water. And it's noisy.

Someone else on here called them, and they weren't helpful. They just said it works fine, and brushed her off. I LOVE the incubator, but the pump is lacking, and so is their customer service.

I've been keeping my vents a bit too closed for my tastes, but seem to be getting good hatch rates nonetheless. I'm not hatching in the 190 though, I'm moving eggs over to my old hovabator where I know I can increase humidity. I also have a never ending staggered hatch, so it's easier to not be constantly raising and lowering temperature in the whole incubator.

I'm glad the pump was free, because it doesn't work well enough to warrant the price. I'm sure it would be fine in a humid environment, or attached to one of their smaller models.

I have a little bowl of water in the bottom to add humidity.
I have the humidifier and it does run alot.
I have to fill the water tray everyday where I live so the humidifier buys me time so I dont' worry.
had great hatches all year last year.

I have the vents all the way open so there is plenty of air, but it makes me work a little harder at humidity.
temp is rock solid and with the digital humidifier I always know where I am, how much water surface to add (tray at very bottom with water) etc.

good luck with yours

 

[perolane]

Quote:
I have not heard great things about the Reptipro. It is basically a dorm room refridgerator with a reptipro sticker on it. It doesn't have a good method for ventilation.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/6ad2/

Not sure about the Dickeys.

Have had nothing but excellent results using these little fridge-bators...85% to 100% hatch rates...if they came in larger size, no doubt that's what I'd buy.

 

[sheilawagner]

Quote:
I just had to laugh, Perolane, that's a pretty funny statement, but it is TRUE and I totally agree with you. Thanks for making me laugh and chuckle to myself today.

 

[perolane]

You're welcome!

 

[k2chickens]

this thread is a good one and since there has been no action in it the last few days i figured i would rant a little about whats on my mind for my first future cabinet bator purchase

The three it came down to was the 2x2 from Dickey, the Ova Easy 190 EX from Brinsea, and the "New" 1502 Sportsman from GQF.


Now this thread has been geared mostly towards the 190, and i must say after reading everything here it really has gone from my #1 choice, to my #3 choice. I was smitten by the clear door and automatic humidity pump and digital cabinet control. Then the humidity problems started to be posted, along with the noisey water pump, and not to mention the less than sub par customer service experiences have read. So onto the Dickey i went. I found nothing bad about this bator at all what so ever. It was being hailed as just as reliable as the sportsman "if not better". I loved how it was built with better quality wood than the 1502 sportsman and offers top notch "so iv'e herd" customer service. Just that fact that Mr. Dickey "builds cabs to last" made me want to buy it right then and there. But there were a few things that were holding me back from making my final decision. The thermostat was electric and obviously a great one, but it was lacking a major bell and or whistle that i am just sold on....Digital Control. The last thing was egg capacity, it was easily large enough for me, but had i wanted to go crazy this spring and try and hatch in the neighborhood of 250 to 300 in one huge hatch all at once "which made me think of actually selling chicks to turn a profit" the 2x2 would not be able to hatch that type of number. Enter the "New" 1502 Sportsman.

I'm just going to come right out and say it, im a sucker for glits and glam, bells and whistles......a HUGER sucker at that, but not to the point i just blindly purchase things without doing heavy amounts of homework on them first. This is why i was drawn to the 190 first and foremost, because its the prettiest lol! But as i have already stated, it's not my first pick any longer. Now the two major things i love with the "new" 1502 sportsman are as follows, the Digital command LCD display with push button controls, and the fact that you can't go to a poultry supply store or website without seeing parts and upgrades for sale. Now i know some people might take that and say "well if there are parts available everywhere then they must breakdown all the time and be junk", not true. As i mentioned before the 1502 sportsman has been hailed right along side any Dickey bator you can think of, they are just as reliable and failure rate is slim to none. I just like the fact that you can swap, upgrade, and mix and match parts to fit your exact or ever changing hatching needs. It's basically the Honda civic of the cabinet incubator world, it's reliable, GREAT on gas, easily customizable, and will basically last forever until you just run it right into the ground lol. Now if i wanted to get into pricing and shipping costs and what company is offering that promotion at that give'in time i could, but then i would be here forever because you could go back and forth on that subject all.....day....long. But since it should be obvious which bator i am leaning to now, i can tell you what the best price "with a bunch of accessories" i have found for the "New" 1502 sportsman.

Bator, 6 plastic egg trays "270 egg capacity total i believe for the entire bator", automatic humidity bucket control, Clear acrylic front cabinet door, and 1 extra Hatching tray " on top of the one that comes with it stock" for a grand "SHIPPED" Total of $909.00 Now because i'm so ate up with hatching my banty egg's....i think that is a nice and fair price. Others may not agree, but it all depends on how much you want it, i personally am tired of throwing my money away to trust expensive hatching eggs on even the best styro bator out on the market right now "1588 Genesis". It's give'in me 99% hatches, and it's give'in me 10% hatches, i believe it has alot to do with trying to hatch in december and how the heat fluctuates on and off in my new home. But i can X all that out when i finally raise enough money to get my "New" 1502.

Rant Over

 

[dak]

Good rant! Now buy that sucker and give us some honest feedback on it. Whatcha waiting for, huh, huh!!!!

 

[Lark Rise]

I knew I shouldn't have clicked on this topic. Being a newbie, I'd never even heard of a Dickey incubator, but now that I know they are located in Millen, GA, 45 minutes from my home, and especially considering I drive through Millen all the time on my way to visit my son in college, I'm in trouble!

 

[sheilawagner]

Here is my update, and the pics setup for those of you who were keen to know how I'm resolving the humidity issue.


This was the original plan I had to solve it. Put an additional tray on the top level, to provide extra evaporation surface, and use the provided tubing to put water in there using a syringe.

You can see the top level shelf has been used for the extra tray, the bottom 3 levels are hatching trays. The sponge that was provided by Brinsea is in the evaporation tray.

Immediately after I put the tray in and thought about it, I decided against it. So I took the tray out, for fear of spilling water down onto the eggs, and used a large mug instead. That was set up last night for lockdown.

I found this larger tubing from a hardware store, which is part of a water purification pump (used for camping/hiking), or you can try finding it at REI or outdoor activity stores, where they sell hydration packs, they come with tubing, and the size can fit through the Brinsea vent holes. These tubes are too large to fit into the Brinsea hole for the tube at the extreme right. You can also try finding hose or tubing from an aquarium shop or pet store. I have found that the water pump works perfectly, it pumps a huge amount of water directed into the Brinsea evaporation tray.

With this tubing set up, I have the large thicker tube going into the Brinsea evap tray, and the small tube going into the mug. As you can see from the pic, the larger tube fits perfect in the vent hole, and I can keep it opened or closed, up to about one third 1/3 open with the tube in place. Because the tube in the vent hole, I won't be able to close it ALL THE WAY, but I don't mind because I want to keep the vents at least a bit open during lockdown anyway for more fresh air supply to the eggs.

The greatest thing about the Brinsea 190 is that it is truly able to maintain your set temp like a brick. Even if I open the door up, to do something, the temp quickly returns back to set within a few minutes. That's pretty impressive given it is a huge incubator. Last night, the temp stayed constant at 99.8 or so, and the humidity stayed up there around 65%.

This morning, I tried to pump water in with the thicker tube, it worked great. But the small tube with the syringe idea didn't work, so I pulled that out, and now I just have the thick tube going into the Brinsea tray. I am doing all this without the humidity pump, as you can see. So I don't have to deal with the noise. The temp is holding well at 99.6-8 and humidity is holding at 65%.

I will update you guys on how often I have to add water manually over the next few days of Lockdown.

Sheila

 

[k2chickens]

Quote:
wow, that's great news!!! So the pump your using is just a hand pump im guessing?? And you just pump the water from a holding source like a filled bucket or container filled from your sink or something like that into the brinsea holding tray?? So that cup of water you have on the top is what got your humidity to where you need it huh? Or was it a combination of being able to add more water in with the larger tubeing into the bottom tray with the cup up top? You just HAD to post all them pretty pictures of your pretty 190 didn't you?

You know, i've always liked the 4 fan setup over the classic larger single blade fan in the Dickey and 1502.....well dang it now i'm starting to like the 190 again lol. Still tho, i hate that you have to do all this extra work " even tho its not really hard or anything" just to get your humidity levels where they need to be.

 

[sheilawagner]

Here are some points the design team at Brinsea can consider working on to improve the 190. And perhaps all of you other Brinsea 190 owners can add on, and let them know our feedback. One person (buyer) may not matter, but if a 100 of us put our voices together, maybe Brinsea will hear us then. I am sure many of us have already expressed our feedback regarding the loud noise of the Humidity pump, and while it may work sufficiently well for the table top incubators, I find it not substantial enough for a large cabinet incubator, such as the 190.


1. Design the white evaporation tray to be deeper, or broader, to create more evaporation surface for increasing humidity. Move the fan back deeper so that the evaporation tray can go back deeper, or to have a larger surface space. So that we do not have to compromise on fresh air supply during lockdown by closing up all the air vents.

2. Increase the size of that small hole (on the extreme right side) for the Tube to allow the buyer (user) to decide if they need to use a thicker tube to increase water flow to the tray.

3. Design the water pump to allow for use of a thicker tubing, to increase water capacity from the humidity pump.

4. Install a light feature at the back or the top of the incubator interior, so that the user will not need to use a torch to see when gauging how much water to add to the tray.

5. Increase the gap space between the 2nd and 3rd shelf level by a few millimeters. When I used the upper cover tray for each hatching tray, there was a bit of a tight fit to push the trays with the cover lid into the shelf.

6. To test the design and function of the unit in extreme climate conditions such as deserts, or at high elevations, or inside a house at winter time, or in places with very low humidity levels. The issue is not with the temperature, it is mainly to control and maximize humidity during Lockdown.


My hope is that Brinsea will read this thread, and take our concerns and feedback into great consideration and include these improved features, since we are the best Focus Group that they could ever want, and we are providing this useful feedback without and monetary gain. I urge all of you fellow hatchaholics to add on in your ideas and thoughts on how we can help improve Brinsea in their designs.


Sheila