THE Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco Thread; Hatches, etc. (PICS)

[Toxic Chicken]

Thanks guys. So, essentially I just bought this incubator as my homemade one was cooking them, and now you're telling me that these are innacurate and cook them too...fantastic. Sigh.

I thought that Brinsea "factory calibrated" them? And quote the booklet " All Brinsea incubators are designed first and foremost to provide the best control of temperature possible"...

Mine came factory calibrated at 103F Adjusting it was a pain, that tiny little red knob hidden under the cap is not fun to deal with. I also had an issue with temp variation. With the unit flat I got 99.5 With it tipped the top eggs were over 100 and the bottom ones were 98 something. I emailed customer support and they basically told me to buy the auto turn cradle which turns the eggs constantly to compensate for the temp variation. So I got the turner. It works fine now. I guess.

 

[immyjay54]

Thanks guys.

So, essentially I just bought this incubator as my homemade one was cooking them, and now you're telling me that these are innacurate and cook them too...fantastic. Sigh.

I thought that Brinsea "factory calibrated" them? And quote the booklet " All Brinsea incubators are designed first and foremost to provide the best control of temperature possible"...

Squawkbox,
Just to maybe make you feel a little better. When I very first got my Brinsea (last year) I turned the temp knob 1/2 turn to turn it down. I have never touched it since. Right now I have 14 RIR eggs in it and the humidity is 41, temp is 100. I just turned the incubator back. Sometimes it will gain one degree when it is turned with front facing down but not always. Most of the time my temp is right on 99. I have a Genesis 1588 sitting right beside it with another 14 RIR eggs in and the temp is 99.1 and the humidity is 41. I have incubated many biddies in my Brinsea and all I have to do after putting the eggs in is about every third day is add water to the back trough. Other then that I don't bother it at all besides turning it about every 8 hours. I did not buy the turner. I personally do not hatch in it. I did once but don't like the size for hatching. I hatch all my chicks in another hova bator. I have been having super duper hatches. Even on shipped eggs I've been having hatches that are always over 50% and mostly 75% or higher. If you go to my site and look through the incubation page you can see how things have been going with me. I am really pleased with my Brinsea and will probably be getting another one or two and then use both my hova bators as hatchers next year.
The little glass therm in my Brinsea usually reads between 100 and 101 but I go by the one that I bought at Wal Mart, hygrometer.
My site if you want to take a peek is http://jimspetsandpoultry.weebly.com
Good luck to you. I wish you the best
Jim

 

[Toxic Chicken]

I'm glad to hear you have good hatch rates. I haven't had my brinsea very long. Now that I have it set up right I hope to have better hatches with it. The thermometer that came with mine reads at 101 but the one I put at egg lvl reads 99.5 so I guess I have the temp correct now. I'm trying dry incubating. I also hatch in a different bator. I hope I have it set up ok cause the brinsea is now full of expensive shipped eggs.

 

[Squawkbox]

Okay, so both of your thermometers in the brinsea are innaccurate then?
I don't have a spot check, so how am I supposed to check if the thermometer in mine is correct?

PS, when I got mine and turned it on, it settled at about 101, and I fiddled with the knob until it read 99.5 or so.

 

[yinepu]

Thanks guys.

So, essentially I just bought this incubator as my homemade one was cooking them, and now you're telling me that these are innacurate and cook them too...fantastic. Sigh.

I thought that Brinsea "factory calibrated" them? And quote the booklet " All Brinsea incubators are designed first and foremost to provide the best control of temperature possible"...

Nope.. Brinseas are designed to make the company as much money as possible... and their "factory calibration" is a joke....

Mine works well........

for now
.. after you buy about 6 or 8 of them you may change your mind a bit...
some are lemons.. some are ok.. some start out ok then take a nose dive when you least expect it...

Mine came factory calibrated at 103F
Adjusting it was a pain, that tiny little red knob hidden under the cap
is not fun to deal with.
I also had an issue with temp variation. With the unit flat I got 99.5
With it tipped the top eggs were over 100 and the bottom ones were
98 something. I emailed customer support and they basically told me
to buy the auto turn cradle which turns the eggs constantly to compensate
for the temp variation. So I got the turner.
It works fine now. I guess.

NONE of mine were calibrated right when I got them.. the worst two were "factory calibrated" at 82 and 123ºF

kind of funny that in order for it to work "properly" you have to spend more..... (lol.. fits in well with one of my previous comments)

 

[Toxic Chicken]

Okay, so both of your thermometers in the brinsea are innaccurate then?
I don't have a spot check, so how am I supposed to check if the thermometer in mine is correct?

PS, when I got mine and turned it on, it settled at about 101, and I fiddled with the knob until it read 99.5 or so.

The thermometer that came with mine is correct.
It is 101 up top at the elevation of the glass thermometer, it is 99.5 at egg lvl in the tray.
This is the temp variation I was having issues with (when you turn the incubator,
the eggs up top are warmer 101 than the eggs on the bottom 98)
Brinsea customer service said turning the incubator often
and the thermal mass of the eggs will keep the temp of the eggs stable.
/shrug. I thought that's what the fan was for, but whatever. My first hatch
was 4 out of 8 and the eggs were not shipped. I only turned them 3x a day.
now I have the turner and I hope to have better hatch rates. I really really want
to love this incubator. Time will tell.

 

[Squawkbox]

Thanks for the replies everyone and nice website Jim.
Toxic chicken - You mention the thermal layers, I thought the point of a forced air incubator was so that the temp throughout is even all over, unlike a still air?

So, when I incubate in this thing should I just set the built in thermometer at 99.5, wing it and see how it goes?

I wish products were quality made and built to last like they used to be!

 

[immyjay54]

The thermometer that came with mine is correct.
It is 101 up top at the elevation of the glass thermometer, it is 99.5 at egg lvl in the tray.
This is the temp variation I was having issues with (when you turn the incubator,
the eggs up top are warmer 101 than the eggs on the bottom 98)
Brinsea customer service said turning the incubator often
and the thermal mass of the eggs will keep the temp of the eggs stable.
/shrug. I thought that's what the fan was for, but whatever. My first hatch
was 4 out of 8 and the eggs were not shipped. I only turned them 3x a day.
now I have the turner and I hope to have better hatch rates. I really really want
to love this incubator. Time will tell.

I can check my records but I can say that my very first time with the Brinsea, I had 15 shipped eggs and I paid $128.00 for a dozen + shipping. The breeder sent me 3 extras. I put them in the incubator. I didn't touch anything other then turning it 3 times a day, 9 AM - 5 PM - 1 AM then about every third day I lifted the tray and put water in the back trough. On day 18 I candled the eggs, 3 were clear so I know they were not fertile. 12 made it to lock down. 10 hatched just fine. One pipped upside down and did no more and the last one was dead in shell. So it must have been fine. As I said, that was my first time with the Brinsea. I put 8 eggs in it a week or so later, 6 hatched fine, 2 were clear. A little later I put 13 eggs in, 3 were clear on day 18, put the other 10 in lock down and all hatched. I have 14 in it right now that have been in there since the 9th and my temp/humidity is doing great. I'll post how the hatch on these go in a couple of weeks. I don't bother with it at all. I don't even think of changing anything. I think I've used it 8 times since I got it and since I set the temp before the first usage, I have not touch anything. I put my sponges in the trough, fill it almost full with water, plug it in wait for an hour or so, put in my eggs and let it do it's job. Even a broody hen will rarely hatch every egg.
We've got to understand that these are man made machines and there is always room for error.
I called the company once about my hova bator because my temp didn't seem to stay where it was supposed to be and they ask me what my hatch rate was and I told them 14 out of 17 hatched and they said it must be okay so I left it alone.
I only tried the dry hatch one time and it was a total disaster so I don't do it anymore. I keep my humidity between 40 and 55 or so for first 18 day then when I move them to hatcher it is in the high 70's. This is what works for me. I can't say for sure how many I've hatched since December but it is well over 100.
I'm not telling anyone to do what I do but it works for me. You all will have to try and see what works for you. We all live in different places, some have different ways of heating in the winter, some have dry climates some have more humid climates. We can't all do the same things. Different thing effect these incubators I guess.

I'd bet that if we checked the eggs under a mother hen, the temp of the eggs closest to the breast bone would be warmer then the ones on the outer perimeter of the nest.

 

[jmc]

the O20E directions state explicitly that this unit is not at all necessarily factory calibrated. So if you have expected yours to be so, right out of the box, the error has been in fact on your part.
Brinsea says the O20E MUST be set beforehand by the user to get proper temps.

Remember, what you really need is to get the temperature INSIDE the egg, which is NOT the same thing as the air temperature at all. Hovabators with forced air, as well as LG forced air have definite temp. variations even with those fans going. So take note of this.

I do not use an egg turner on any of my three units. I have been using them almost constantly since last October.

I have just moved 40 more into lockdown for hatch on Monday.

I am setting another 48 tomorrow.

And I am very glad to have my bators set for the INTERNAL EGG TEMP. now, and not the mere air temp., WHICH IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO LOOK FOR. It is the internal egg temp. that counts. and this is (always) LOWER than what the air temp. is. In order to get correct egg temp., my glass thermometers have to say about 101.5 degrees F.

Remember, the notion of 'getting a "lemon"' is nothing new at all. This will also apply to incubators. One could write a book 1000 pages long about how many new, gorgeous cars have been purchased--all with rave reviews--that have been lemons...............and then there was my 1973 Pinto ('Lemon' anyone!!!!!??) that I had up well over 100,000 miles!!!!

So, one imperfect ANYTHING "doth not the whole shmeer make".

Ya folla?

Here's to another fine hatch

 

[babymakes6]

I can check my records but I can say that my very first time with the Brinsea, I had 15 shipped eggs and I paid $128.00 for a dozen + shipping. The breeder sent me 3 extras. I put them in the incubator. I didn't touch anything other then turning it 3 times a day, 9 AM - 5 PM - 1 AM then about every third day I lifted the tray and put water in the back trough. On day 18 I candled the eggs, 3 were clear so I know they were not fertile. 12 made it to lock down. 10 hatched just fine. One pipped upside down and did no more and the last one was dead in shell. So it must have been fine. As I said, that was my first time with the Brinsea. I put 8 eggs in it a week or so later, 6 hatched fine, 2 were clear. A little later I put 13 eggs in, 3 were clear on day 18, put the other 10 in lock down and all hatched. I have 14 in it right now that have been in there since the 9th and my temp/humidity is doing great. I'll post how the hatch on these go in a couple of weeks. I don't bother with it at all. I don't even think of changing anything. I think I've used it 8 times since I got it and since I set the temp before the first usage, I have not touch anything. I put my sponges in the trough, fill it almost full with water, plug it in wait for an hour or so, put in my eggs and let it do it's job. Even a broody hen will rarely hatch every egg.
We've got to understand that these are man made machines and there is always room for error.
I called the company once about my hova bator because my temp didn't seem to stay where it was supposed to be and they ask me what my hatch rate was and I told them 14 out of 17 hatched and they said it must be okay so I left it alone.
I only tried the dry hatch one time and it was a total disaster so I don't do it anymore. I keep my humidity between 40 and 55 or so for first 18 day then when I move them to hatcher it is in the high 70's. This is what works for me. I can't say for sure how many I've hatched since December but it is well over 100.
I'm not telling anyone to do what I do but it works for me. You all will have to try and see what works for you. We all live in different places, some have different ways of heating in the winter, some have dry climates some have more humid climates. We can't all do the same things. Different thing effect these incubators I guess.

I'd bet that if we checked the eggs under a mother hen, the temp of the eggs closest to the breast bone would be warmer then the ones on the outer perimeter of the nest.

I tried the dry hatch method over and over again, and kept having dismal hatches-mostly with shipped eggs. I now do like you do-40-50% for the incubation period and raise it to 65 or higher for hatching. I am getting the best hatches I have ever gotten! I have never been able to hatch turkeys, until last week-I set 13 eggs, one was rotten, 2 were upside down and died, and the other ten hatched with no problems at all.