Calibrating an incubator

[Stephanie8806]

Okay, so I just got my NR360 and it’s been running for about 6 hours. It actually got up to temp and was stabile super quickly. I have two thermometer+hygrometers inside and I’m wanting to know what you guys think, as far as calibration goes. Pictures below...

I figure, 2 of the 3 temperatures are right at the 99.5 ballpark, and there’s a couple percent spread between each device. I’m only incubating 15 eggs and there’s space for 22 so I could keep these devices in during incubation.

I’m thinking the temperature is fairly accurate, being confirmed by 2/3 of the thermometers. With the 3 hygrometer readings being 32%, 35%, and 37%, I’m feeling prone to going with something right in the middle of all 3, being 34-35%. My goal was to incubate at 99.5-100 degrees, and a “dry incubation” of ~35%... So I’m inclined to think that I have it about right???

Let me know what you guys think!

 

[MarkJr]

Have you checked calibration on hygrometers?

 

[Stephanie8806]

Have you checked calibration on hygrometers?

I’m not sure how to do that....

 

[MarkJr]

Ice water mostly ice is 32⁰ if the probe is put in a bag and sunk into the ice water it will level out at 32. Make adjustments accordingly.

Table salt and water are used to calibrate the humidity. I use a tablespoon of salt and half tablespoon of water. Mix it up and put in a small open top container that will fit inside a zip lock. The salt will be the consistency of wet sand, but not pooling liquid. Put your container of salt in bag. Put hygrometer inside next to, but not touching the salt (don't want to damage the sensitive parts) Seal the bag and wait 8-12 hours. You should have 75% humidity. Adjust accordingly.

This will give you spot on measurements. Then your numbers showing like above should net awesome results.

Hope this helps

Mark

 

[Stephanie8806]

Ice water mostly ice is 32⁰ if the probe is put in a bag and sunk into the ice water it will level out at 32. Make adjustments accordingly.

Table salt and water are used to calibrate the humidity. I use a tablespoon of salt and half tablespoon of water. Mix it up and put in a small open top container that will fit inside a zip lock. The salt will be the consistency of wet sand, but not pooling liquid. Put your container of salt in bag. Put hygrometer inside next to, but not touching the salt (don't want to damage the sensitive parts) Seal the bag and wait 8-12 hours. You should have 75% humidity. Adjust accordingly.

This will give you spot on measurements. Then your numbers showing like above should net awesome results.

Hope this helps

Mark

That does help a ton, thank you! I’m going to feel like such a scientist

 

[MarkJr]

I hatched one batch. I had a lovely lady answer some easy (for her!) questions and I was off to the races.

I prefer my broody to do the work now.

Keep us up on how your hatch goes!

 

[Stephanie8806]

I hatched one batch. I had a lovely lady answer some easy (for her!) questions and I was off to the races.

I prefer my broody to do the work now.

Keep us up on how your hatch goes!

I only am incubating because I don’t have a reliable broody currently... or any roosters for that matter. But hopefully hatching solves the latter problem! It is definitely in my eventual plan to have a broody hen be my primary means of hatching, and home fertilized eggs be the brood!

I am, however, enjoying learning about this process. It’s pretty neat, and a good skill to have in the long run.

Thanks, I will most certainly keep you all updated! I’ll probably start a thread once the time comes

 

[Mellowmalt]

you can calibrate humidity but if you try to calibrate temperature without a lab you will do more harm than good. There is no good way of calibrating temperatures at home apart from comparing yours to several other devices. If you have a body thermometer for example they are generally quite accurate so you could stick one of those in there and see what it measures (stick it in, press button and close lid as fast as possible.

If you try calibrating it with ice you will end up with bad readings!

To me those sensor readings seem perfect. Humidity can fluctuate by +-10% so don't worry about the humidity as much. I personally trust the govee the most so I would say your temp is between 99.2 and 99.5 with the thermopro at 100.9 being 1.5 degrees off but 99.2-99.5 is perfect.

It all looks spot on to me. My thermopro thermometer is my least reliable one too

 

[Stephanie8806]

you can calibrate humidity but if you try to calibrate temperature without a lab you will do more harm than good. There is no good way of calibrating temperatures at home apart from comparing yours to several other devices. If you have a body thermometer for example they are generally quite accurate so you could stick one of those in there and see what it measures (stick it in, press button and close lid as fast as possible.

If you try calibrating it with ice you will end up with bad readings!

To me those sensor readings seem perfect. Humidity can fluctuate by +-10% so don't worry about the humidity as much. I personally trust the govee the most so I would say your temp is between 99.2 and 99.5 with the thermopro at 100.9 being 1.5 degrees off but 99.2-99.5 is perfect.

It all looks spot on to me. My thermopro thermometer is my least reliable one too

Okay! Thank you so much for your input! We primarily use our thermopro for home+outdoor temp, and with that it doesn’t matter to me as much about accuracy but I did get the govee specifically for this. I do have two more of them, but I assumed they’d all be calibrated the same because they’re the same brand.

This has all been such a learning process! I’m looking forward to my first hatch!