My Octagon 20 arrived yesterday and...

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
The Octagon is more hands on than the Rcom. I was gonna buy the rcom but I
got the deal on the oct40. I love it.

I fill the wells every 5 days or so and the wetbulb lasts 2 days if I'm lucky.

My base is yellow plastic. It feels like it could crumble in your hand but it is still
strong.

When you start hatching and pull out the egg seperators you can see the eggs a lot
more easily. It's not nearly the same as your rcom but it's ok.

Desert humidity??? Yikes. Gonna have to add a lot of napkins. Next week when I'm
at day 18 I'll take a pic showing how I boost the humidity.

The strongest point is what you said about temps. It holds it dead on.

Last hatch was 100%. 25 eggs, broke 1 putting it in, 1 didn't develop(infertile),
23 chicks hatched and all survived. The eggs were not shipped. I candles tonight
and have a 50% fertility on two different sets of eggs shipped from two different
states.

Don

 

[fallenweeble]

hi cara,
i have an r-com too and i love it.
just wondering what made you decide to get the octagon?
it will be interesting to see which one you favor after trying both - what a great experiment.
happy hatching!

 

[Cara]

I wanted a second incubator, and thought about getting a cheap one, but I didn't want to have one that I was reluctant to use and didn't trust. I knew I wanted an automatic turner, and I didn't want anything styrofoam as I wanted a more robust one that would last a long time. The old Octagon 20 is a good value (if you buy direct!) compared to other incubators on the market, and quite a bit cheaper than the R-COM 20. You can get the old model Octagon 20 for $219; I got the old model Octagon 20 DX (digital package) and autoturner cradle, and wet bulb thermometer for $299. I ordered it direct from Brinsea, but some companies on Ebay have it for over $400! The new Octagon 20 is around $368? from Brinsea, but I don't know whether that includes the turner. I paid $380 something for my R-COM, but it was on sale then. Each September Brinsea have back to school sales on some models, and they also occasionally have cosmetically defective ones that come with the full warranty but are discounted a lot. Unfortunately I missed out on one of those! They had R-COM 20s for $299!

 

[twigg]

The new Octagon 20 is more directly comparable with the R-Com as it has built in humidity control.

The R-Com is expensive, but it includes humidity control (correct me if I'm wrong), which was always an option on Brinsea and Lyon. And not a cheap option either.

 

[Cara]

Yes the R-COM has digitally controlled heat and humidity.

 

[aberfitch]

I wonder why they choose to use such cheep feeling plastic for the octagon. Since the same company makes both the rcom and octagon. why is one so much thicker and robust and the other frail and thin? I bought the humidity controler from them and it too is made of cheap material. I have seen packing material (what electronics usually come in) that are thicker. I am just confused.