making upgrades to my 1202 gqf

[chad e]

I have a 1202 gqf with dual wafer thermostats. I was wanting to change it over to electronic thermastat or digatal. Was wanting to see if anyone had had done this or had any good ideals.

 

[HatchCraft]

The simplest option is the GQF electronic thermostat . Easy to install but pay close attention to the instructions as the thermostat will be ruined if wired incorrectly. 100.00 with shipping. Cheapest digital is the inexpensive stc1000 type. They work well however the temperature differential is similar to a wafer thermostat, over shooting and under shooting the desired temp by 1/2 deg F or so and still uses a mechanical relay and like a wafer thermostat, subject to eventually fail. Maybe 25.00 To get accurate and stable to a 1/10 deg or so you will need a good quality PID controller , PT 100 sensor and a solid state relay. They are not to difficult to wire and incorporate an auto tune function to achieve a high degree of precision and accuracy . Make sure the PID controller has an ssr driver to control the solid state relay, as some controllers are mechanical relay only Around 100.00 or less. Retain one wafer thermostat wired in series with the heating element for an over temperature backup thermostat.

 

[chad e]

I was thinking about using the GQF electric thermostat or a digital thermostat from incubator warehouse. Has anyone used one?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I was thinking about using the GQF electric thermostat or a digital thermostat from incubator warehouse. Has anyone used one?

Mine has both a wafer and a digital controller. Look into installing a 5 gallon water reservoir. Forced air incubators can go through a lot of water. No problem for a while with my current incubator but do get a few back up parts like thermostats. A couple of big sponges to help keep the humidity up the final few days is a good addition.

 

[R2elk]

I have a 1202 gqf with dual wafer thermostats. I was wanting to change it over to electronic thermastat or digatal. Was wanting to see if anyone had had done this or had any good ideals.

I switched out the main wafer controller on my GQF 1200 with one of their electronic thermostats probably around 20 years ago. It worked okay but I had to constantly make adjustments if the room temperature didn't hold steady. A couple of years ago I switched out the electronic controller for a Spyder digital controller. Now I set the temperature and forget about it. If the room heats up the controller decreases the heater output to maintain a constant temperature. If the room cools down, the controller increases the heater output. It works great for me.

I did have to redo the incubator wiring so that the controller is only controlling the heater. I also put a switch on the fan and turner circuit so that I don't have to unplug the incubator to turn it off. The only problem with that is that you must be sure that the fan is turned on before you turn the controller on.

This is where I got my Spyder controller.

http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

There are other digital controllers that will work fine such as the STC-1000 and it is also much cheaper.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/all-purpose-temperature-controller-stc-1000-with-sensor

 

[HatchCraft]

I have installed dozens of the GQF electronic thermostats over the years. You would want the adjustable temp model not the preset temp one. They are reliable but the temp may drift a little with changing room temps. Never used the incubator warehouse thermostat.

 

[chad e]

Thanks for all of the information. I just looked at the spyder digital thermostats which one did you get R2elk? Where did you put your temperature probe ?

 

[chad e]

HatchCraft the GQF thermostat i was looking at was the 3255. Where can you find the PID controller that you mention? I have a GQF 1502 also and when I take the temperature at egg level I get a deferent reading than digatal readout.

 

[HatchCraft]

auberins.com has large selection of controller as well as relays and sensors. They will answer any question you may have , just tell them it's for an incubator. Controller syl-2352 works well. I prefer the controllers with duel displays that show the set temperature and actual temperature. The single displays show only the actual temp. You need just a basic controller no bells and whistles. I use mostly the autonics model tks4-14cn on my incubators . They have a very fast sample cycle of 50 ms . Have been happy with the omron E5CN-Q2MT-500 with a slower sample cycle of 250ms as well. Controller don't come with a house so you need a box of some kind to mount it in or it can be cut into the incubator cabinet. simple pt 100 sensor and a solid state relay rated at 10 amps or more and you are set. Oh, you will need some wire to connect the controller. Sorry I am not smart enough to post links to products, haven't learned that trick. The GQF 3255 is the right thermostat. The digital readout only indicate the temperature at the sensors location. You may still have hot and cold spots in the cabinet. This a result of air flow patterns of a particular incubators design. The PT sensor will have a long wire lead and may be position closer to the center of the incubator for better temp control.

 

[HatchCraft]

Examples of mounting the PID controller in my incubators.