Incubator R-COM 20, worth it?

[happyhensny]

I bought 2 Brinsea Eco 20's. Awesome incubator and I have hatched chicken (of course!), domestic duck & goose, call ducks, migratory ducks, pheasants, peafowl and quail all with fantastic hatch rates. The Rcom are cool though.

 

[jhangfk]

Rcom 20 pro is much better than Brinsea 20 RX, Rcom pro is a one piece of equipment with one lead for incubator, egg turner and water pump, where is Brinsea Advance RX is two pieces equipment with three electrical leads for incubator, egg turner and humidity. Space saving incubator. Rcom 20 standard is also good and cheaper than Rcom pro. Rcom 20 Std need adjustment after 18 or 19 day for humidity increase and after hatch need adjustment of temperature and humidity and teaches you lots knowledge about incubation. The Rcom 20 Pro does everything for you automatically and you get not much knowledge except reading from manual.

 

[ngj693]

where can u get these brooders

 

[ClayRust]

I have the R Com 20 Pro with USB. It was a lot of money but works great. Just keep water in it and it does everything by itself. Love it. Hatch rate has been really good too.

 

[jhangfk]

I don't think Rcom sell brooders, but available from Briensea.

 

[KristineY]

This thread convinced me to buy an R-Com 20 and I just wanted to add that we are completely satisfied with it. Set 20 eggs in the standard chicken egg tray on 4/12. Today is day 21 and so far we have 16 chicks (out of 18 eggs, 2 were infertile or stopped developing and were removed). Last 2 haven't pipped yet but they still have time. Only negative is that some eggs were too large in the tray and would not turn automatically. We ended up turning them manually 3x a day. Next time we will try the universal tray and limit to maybe 14 eggs. Before lockdown we removed all of the eggs into a box (lined with egg trays and a heating pad) and placed a piece of vinyl cabinet shelf liner over top of the 20 egg tray (nubby side up) (was a suggestion from another BYC thread) Glad we did! Hatchlings are more comfortable and have footing and cleanup will be much easier.

The only other negative is the size of the incubator for hatching chicks. We ultimately had to break down and open it up to take the first 10 out to make room since the hatchlings were laying all over the other hatching eggs. Opening it doesn't seem like much issue because the automatic humidity and heat came back up quickly once it was closed.

Overall we are very happy with our R-Com 20 and would highly recommend it!

 

[Melabella]

This thread convinced me to buy an R-Com 20 and I just wanted to add that we are completely satisfied with it. Set 20 eggs in the standard chicken egg tray on 4/12. Today is day 21 and so far we have 16 chicks (out of 18 eggs, 2 were infertile or stopped developing and were removed). Last 2 haven't pipped yet but they still have time. Only negative is that some eggs were too large in the tray and would not turn automatically. We ended up turning them manually 3x a day. Next time we will try the universal tray and limit to maybe 14 eggs. Before lockdown we removed all of the eggs into a box (lined with egg trays and a heating pad) and placed a piece of vinyl cabinet shelf liner over top of the 20 egg tray (nubby side up) (was a suggestion from another BYC thread) Glad we did! Hatchlings are more comfortable and have footing and cleanup will be much easier.

The only other negative is the size of the incubator for hatching chicks. We ultimately had to break down and open it up to take the first 10 out to make room since the hatchlings were laying all over the other hatching eggs. Opening it doesn't seem like much issue because the automatic humidity and heat came back up quickly once it was closed.

Overall we are very happy with our R-Com 20 and would highly recommend it!

Thank you for the update to this! I secretly wish for one of these, in the meantime, I chug along with my little Brinsea Mini Advance. I think it is a good think I can only hatch 7 at a time, as I was a horrid math student, and would quickly fall victim to chicken multiplication!

Is the unit quiet? I thought I read somewhere that it had an annoying alarm that couldn't be shut off? Perhaps I am remembering wrong.
Congratulations on your great hatch.. that is wonderful percentage. What did you hatch?

MB

 

[KristineY]

You and I both on the math!! My husband wanted to get the larger R-Com and I said the same thing! It would have been better during the hatch if we had the R-Com 40 with 20 eggs (babies wouldn't have been crawling over each other. I'm sure my husband would have wanted to fill it up though! He's as bad as I am with this!

The R-Com 20 is fairly quiet (it's self-adjusting heat and humidity constantly, but it's no more noisy than one of those small room humidifiers. We kept it in a spare bedroom so we didn't hear the little turning jingle (sounds like an ice cream truck) but I do believe there is a way of silencing it. We bought it from Strombergs. I spent quite awhile on-line comparing prices and found that their unit price worked out to be the least expensive because shipping was free. It comes with the universal tray only but I bought the 3 trays from another source but I'm not sure I would use the standard egg tray again. (Worked well for the legbars but my larger Ameraucana eggs and Cali White eggs wouldn't turn in it. I am setting

We hatched out Crested Cream Legbars and a few pure Ameraucanas and the balance are EE's (Ameraucana roo crossed with a California White, Buff Orp and Australorps. Trying to get some nice light green layers and increase egg size and production. One of my egg customers wants all green eggs. Lol.

I cleaned the R-Com and am ready to fire it up again tonight with more CCL's and Blue Ameraucanas. I think my husband will be working on coop #5 soon!!

 

[katiec11]

Bumping this great post and hoping to here fom some people that commented early on...

I have been offered one of the pro 20 from a lady whom I know incubates a lot. It's $350 (I'm in Australia where they retail for $700+)

My only concern is the running life and if anyone has had problems with it in the long run??

Thanks! I'm so excited my first incubator but want it to be the right one

 

[chonsey]

Just got an R-Com 20 for a great price on Ebay , getting ready to set my eggs in the incubator in a couple of days. Any suggestions on the best setting for the egg turner for best hatch rate -
Chicken eggs - 1 hr, 2 hr, or 3 hrs? I'll be starting with the 3 hrs since they are shipped eggs. R-Com MAX 20 has a 2 year warranty.