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do you have a link to your PID controller?I have built and hatch tons of chicks from my incubator. Used a 3 door drink cooler like you'd find at a convenience store. All digitally controlled, automatic turning with PID timer, countdown timer and more. Will hold 1728 chicken eggs with my current trays, probably 6-10 thousand double stacked quail eggs. I used 2 of the ceramic cone coils as was posted a few back. I think mine are 550 watts BUT they only get hot enough to glow when I initially turn the unit on. Once it's up to temp it's feathered by the electronic controller. I have 3 fans, 2 up top moving 200 cfm, 28 watts each, one squirrel cage type down at the bottom, 40 watts. I recently put the bottom one in, didn't need it as it was doing well so I might take it out. Running this, after it gets up to temp, about 15 minutes, it's basically like running an ordinary light bulb. Haven't noticed any difference on my electric bill either. Cabinet has door lights, fluorescent tubes. Considering this is an insulated cabinet, hold the temp pretty well. I also have a lab probe inside connected to one of my laptops, super sensitive, allows me to chart the temp the entire incubation time. Temp stays within 1/10th over or under 99.5. For the turner motor, I used a 1.8 rpm stove auger motor, about 20-25 bucks. Built my racks out of 1 1/4" aluminum angle. Everything is standard 115v except the countdown timer. It is 12 volt DC so I had to use an adapter. I'll post some photos if anyone is interested. But my main point in this post is the ceramic wire coil elements work quite well. They might cause you problems though depending on how you are setup as the ceramic hold/radiates heat so on a manual wafer thermostat it would probably blow right past your tem setting until the element cooled. That was my reason for going digital. The programmable (PID) temp controller is a smart controller. It cuts in and out as the temp starts rising so it comes up in a controlled manner and once it gets close to my set value, 99.5, it basically cuts off and lets the temp keep rising as it knows where the temp will end up based on it's having learned the performance of the element and if it stops or goes down it kicks in a little to get it up to temp. This process keeps your element, if it still has heat radiation after the power to it is off, from continuing to increase the temp beyond your desired temp. Hope that made sense.
You can use the ceramic cones but if you are using a wafer thermostat I would probably use something different. Back in the 90's I did make an incubator, out of a fridge, using a wafer thermostat and the ceramic cone. At that time I wasn't using the temp probe connected to a computer to tell me exactly what was going on inside. I hatched tons of chicks, I'm talking thousands. So it will work but your results may vary and if you're setup to accurately monitor your temps you'll probably find it overheats a fair bit and your temp swings are probably going to be fairly large. Going digital you can keep it within .1 above or below your desired temp, if your cabinet is insulated in some manner. The more insulation, the tighter the control will be.
Didn't mean to hijack, just passing along some of my 'learned the hard way' and over long periods of time knowledge.
Dave
I have built and hatch tons of chicks from my incubator. Used a 3 door drink cooler like you'd find at a convenience store. All digitally controlled, automatic turning with PID timer, countdown timer and more. Will hold 1728 chicken eggs with my current trays, probably 6-10 thousand double stacked quail eggs. I used 2 of the ceramic cone coils as was posted a few back. I think mine are 550 watts BUT they only get hot enough to glow when I initially turn the unit on. Once it's up to temp it's feathered by the electronic controller. I have 3 fans, 2 up top moving 200 cfm, 28 watts each, one squirrel cage type down at the bottom, 40 watts. I recently put the bottom one in, didn't need it as it was doing well so I might take it out. Running this, after it gets up to temp, about 15 minutes, it's basically like running an ordinary light bulb. Haven't noticed any difference on my electric bill either. Cabinet has door lights, fluorescent tubes. Considering this is an insulated cabinet, hold the temp pretty well. I also have a lab probe inside connected to one of my laptops, super sensitive, allows me to chart the temp the entire incubation time. Temp stays within 1/10th over or under 99.5. For the turner motor, I used a 1.8 rpm stove auger motor, about 20-25 bucks. Built my racks out of 1 1/4" aluminum angle. Everything is standard 115v except the countdown timer. It is 12 volt DC so I had to use an adapter. I'll post some photos if anyone is interested. But my main point in this post is the ceramic wire coil elements work quite well. They might cause you problems though depending on how you are setup as the ceramic hold/radiates heat so on a manual wafer thermostat it would probably blow right past your tem setting until the element cooled. That was my reason for going digital. The programmable (PID) temp controller is a smart controller. It cuts in and out as the temp starts rising so it comes up in a controlled manner and once it gets close to my set value, 99.5, it basically cuts off and lets the temp keep rising as it knows where the temp will end up based on it's having learned the performance of the element and if it stops or goes down it kicks in a little to get it up to temp. This process keeps your element, if it still has heat radiation after the power to it is off, from continuing to increase the temp beyond your desired temp. Hope that made sense.
You can use the ceramic cones but if you are using a wafer thermostat I would probably use something different. Back in the 90's I did make an incubator, out of a fridge, using a wafer thermostat and the ceramic cone. At that time I wasn't using the temp probe connected to a computer to tell me exactly what was going on inside. I hatched tons of chicks, I'm talking thousands. So it will work but your results may vary and if you're setup to accurately monitor your temps you'll probably find it overheats a fair bit and your temp swings are probably going to be fairly large. Going digital you can keep it within .1 above or below your desired temp, if your cabinet is insulated in some manner. The more insulation, the tighter the control will be.
Didn't mean to hijack, just passing along some of my 'learned the hard way' and over long periods of time knowledge.
Dave
I have built and hatch tons of chicks from my incubator. Used a 3 door drink cooler like you'd find at a convenience store. All digitally controlled, automatic turning with PID timer, countdown timer and more. Will hold 1728 chicken eggs with my current trays, probably 6-10 thousand double stacked quail eggs. I used 2 of the ceramic cone coils as was posted a few back. I think mine are 550 watts BUT they only get hot enough to glow when I initially turn the unit on. Once it's up to temp it's feathered by the electronic controller. I have 3 fans, 2 up top moving 200 cfm, 28 watts each, one squirrel cage type down at the bottom, 40 watts. I recently put the bottom one in, didn't need it as it was doing well so I might take it out. Running this, after it gets up to temp, about 15 minutes, it's basically like running an ordinary light bulb. Haven't noticed any difference on my electric bill either. Cabinet has door lights, fluorescent tubes. Considering this is an insulated cabinet, hold the temp pretty well. I also have a lab probe inside connected to one of my laptops, super sensitive, allows me to chart the temp the entire incubation time. Temp stays within 1/10th over or under 99.5. For the turner motor, I used a 1.8 rpm stove auger motor, about 20-25 bucks. Built my racks out of 1 1/4" aluminum angle. Everything is standard 115v except the countdown timer. It is 12 volt DC so I had to use an adapter. I'll post some photos if anyone is interested. But my main point in this post is the ceramic wire coil elements work quite well. They might cause you problems though depending on how you are setup as the ceramic hold/radiates heat so on a manual wafer thermostat it would probably blow right past your tem setting until the element cooled. That was my reason for going digital. The programmable (PID) temp controller is a smart controller. It cuts in and out as the temp starts rising so it comes up in a controlled manner and once it gets close to my set value, 99.5, it basically cuts off and lets the temp keep rising as it knows where the temp will end up based on it's having learned the performance of the element and if it stops or goes down it kicks in a little to get it up to temp. This process keeps your element, if it still has heat radiation after the power to it is off, from continuing to increase the temp beyond your desired temp. Hope that made sense.
You can use the ceramic cones but if you are using a wafer thermostat I would probably use something different. Back in the 90's I did make an incubator, out of a fridge, using a wafer thermostat and the ceramic cone. At that time I wasn't using the temp probe connected to a computer to tell me exactly what was going on inside. I hatched tons of chicks, I'm talking thousands. So it will work but your results may vary and if you're setup to accurately monitor your temps you'll probably find it overheats a fair bit and your temp swings are probably going to be fairly large. Going digital you can keep it within .1 above or below your desired temp, if your cabinet is insulated in some manner. The more insulation, the tighter the control will be.
Didn't mean to hijack, just passing along some of my 'learned the hard way' and over long periods of time knowledge.
Dave