Incuview Incubator

[sm2teach]

It would make a decent hatcher

But then you wouldn't get the beautiful view and easy cleanup the Incuview offers.

 

[Sydney Acres]

I tried one hatch with a borrowed still air little giant, and that told me everything I didn't want in an incubator. The $49 doesn't include the egg turner, which you can buy separately but that basically doubles your cost. So while the little giant is cheap, and many people will be able to get eggs to hatch in it quite well, there are a lot of problems with it. The instructions that come with it are terrible. The heat is uneven. The thermostat adjustment is basically an unlabelled stick, so if you want to change your temperature you just turn it "a little" and then see what happens. If you need to make a second adjustment, you have no way of knowing how much you turned the stick the first time, so literally each adjustment is a crapshoot unless you gerryrig a dial onto the stick. It takes forever to get to temperature. It can go over temperature significantly if it overshoots while heating up. You need to buy a separate temperature and humidity reading, which can really increase the expense if you get a good one, or lead to more inaccuracy if you get a cheap one. It is made of styrofoam, which is great insulation but impossible to properly clean because it is not a smooth surface, so your incidence of navel infection in chicks increases with each subsequent hatch. The water well is underneath the eggs, so you cannot add water to the wells without threading a tube down between the eggs or potentially getting the eggs wet. Alternatively, you can take up space in the incubator itself with additional water bowls and avoid the water wells (which are really nothing more than a pattern of ditches in the styrofoam. It is VERY difficult to keep the humidity steady. You have to choose between blocking up one of two vents to thread a tube down into the humidity wells to refill it from the outside, or opening the machine every time to add or remove water (or other evaporative surface) to adjust the humidity. And every time you have to open the machine to do anything inside, the temp and humidity are off for hours. I'm sure that I would have learned to work with it if I had tried several more hatches, but after one attempt I was just done. I would never recommend it to anyone, even if their total budget was only $49. I'd use a heating pad in an ice chest before trying that again. I might still get a 0% hatch, but at least I'd be able to clean the thing properly.

 

[Ozarkguy]

I tried one hatch with a borrowed still air little giant, and that told me everything I didn't want in an incubator.  The $49 doesn't include the egg turner, which you can buy separately but that basically doubles your cost.  So while the little giant is cheap, and many people will be able to get eggs to hatch in it quite well, there are a lot of problems with it.  The instructions that come with it are terrible.  The heat is uneven.  The thermostat adjustment is basically an unlabelled stick, so if you want to change your temperature you just turn it "a little" and then see what happens.  If you need to make a second adjustment, you have no way of knowing how much you turned the stick the first time, so literally each adjustment is a crapshoot unless you gerryrig a dial onto the stick.  It takes forever to get to temperature.  It can go over temperature significantly if it overshoots while heating up.  You need to buy a separate temperature and humidity reading, which can really increase the expense if you get a good one, or lead to more inaccuracy if you get a cheap one.  It is made of styrofoam, which is great insulation but impossible to properly clean because it is not a smooth surface, so your incidence of navel infection in chicks increases with each subsequent hatch.  The water well is underneath the eggs, so you cannot add water to the wells without threading a tube down between the eggs or potentially getting the eggs wet.  Alternatively, you can take up space in the incubator itself with additional water bowls and avoid the water wells (which are really nothing more than a pattern of ditches in the styrofoam.  It is VERY difficult to keep the humidity steady.  You have to choose between blocking up one of two vents to thread a tube down into the humidity wells to refill it from the outside, or opening the machine every time to  add or remove water (or other evaporative surface) to adjust the humidity.  And every time you have to open the machine to do anything inside, the temp and humidity are off for hours.  I'm sure that I would have learned to work with it if I had tried several more hatches, but after one attempt I was just done.  I would never recommend it to anyone, even if their total budget was only $49.  I'd use a heating pad in an ice chest before trying that again.  I might still get a 0% hatch, but at least I'd be able to clean the thing properly.

the 9300 model has an digital display for temp and humidity as well as a Teflon grid similar to the incuviews completely upgraded for 2014 perfect for a tight budget. I had the previous model and it was hard to keep temp steady. The 9300 is so new probably not many people have it yet if anyone does a review would be nice.

 

[MargaretYakoda]

the 9300 model has an digital display for temp and humidity as well as a Teflon grid similar to the incuviews completely upgraded for 2014 perfect for a tight budget. I had the previous model and it was hard to keep temp steady. The 9300 is so new probably not many people have it yet if anyone does a review would be nice.

Go for it. Maybe start a thread for the new Giant.
But it isn't likely to be as easy to clean, and it certainly won't have that VIEW!

That said, yes. Maybe there is something to it to make it worth owning. But I'll leave that discussion to others, since I'm happy with my IncuView so far.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
Ozarkguy is right -- I looked up that specific model and the 9300 has a digital temp and humidity control, which could totally change the hatching experience. Now, it's still got all the other issues, and at only $49 you know that the temp and humidity electronics aren't going to be top of the line, but just having better control of those two things would have made a huge difference, and possibly made the other issues tolerable. So I apologize for publicly trashing something that I haven't used. I had used the 9200, and assumed that the "3" in the 9300 was a typo. For only $49, if you have a tight budget it might be worth a try on a non-critical hatch, as long as the buyer realizes that they're really not getting a $175 - 300 machine for less than fifty bucks.

 

[sm2teach]

My Incubator Warehouse order came in today!

The thermometer/hydrometer is showing 1/2 to 1° warmer than the built in thermometer. I have some bulb thermometers at school so I am going to run and get a couple tomorrow to test and see which one is right. Has anyone had experience with the probe thermometer from incubator warehouse? How accurate is it? What have been your experiences with the built in thermometer?

I won't be ready to set eggs for another few weeks.

 

[homeshow]

No thermometer problems with mine.

 

[ErniesFlock]

Mine seems to be pretty bang on for numbers... I am in a humid area I assume since all hydrometers are reading upper 60's%. Half of my eggs (we are at day 17) are looking like the aircel isnt quite big enough in my opinion. Anyone have a remedy for increasing the size with only 3 days left? Id hate to lose half of my batch because of not big enough aircel. I cant seem to find any info so I am asking for someones expertise please and thank you

 

[MargaretYakoda]

If you've got access to a good dehumidifier, you could try putting the Incuview in a room with the dehumidifier. If you do that, be sure to check humidity levels and air cell size frequently.

Mine seems to be pretty bang on for numbers... I am in a humid area I assume since all hydrometers are reading upper 60's%. Half of my eggs (we are at day 17) are looking like the aircel isnt quite big enough in my opinion. Anyone have a remedy for increasing the size with only 3 days left? Id hate to lose half of my batch because of not big enough aircel. I cant seem to find any info so I am asking for someones expertise please and thank you

 

[ErniesFlock]

Ok day 18 is here and I am a nervous wreck. I decided to go with manual turning as I was able to put 37 eggs into the incuview without the turner. Of those 37 I have currently 31 that all appear to have developed. My temp has stayed very much around 99 - 101 at its hottest during a heat wave here last week. It contiuously worked at getting the temp down I was amazed at how that little engine made by Incubator Warehouse kept going the last 3 weeks.

So now I am about to do my FINAL aircel outline and lock er down. I have def struggled with the Marans eggs with no surprise. I cant see jack apart from the faintest indication of an aircel. I do have concerns with a number of eggs that o appear to have not big enough aircels. I hope its just me being paranoid and they are where they are suppose to be. However... my humidity says for the last 3-4 days it is approx 60%-70% average 65%. The little indicator on the Incuview puts the needle just at the top of the first zone of humidity what is considered safe. My question now is do I need to add the water to bump the humidity or should I ride it out another day and hope the aircels develop further. I am in no trouble with humidity according to all 3 of my hydrometers.

If someone could weigh in on this with any suggestions as to should I bump humidity or wait Id be appreciated.

Ok now I am going to go lock them down and go have a heart attack. Also I have video documented the last three weeks and we will give a final review on youtube. As it looks now we are so grateful that we went with the Incuview what a beautiful little machine especially for the price. Very nice quality.

Wish me luck.

TBC