Absolutely disgusted

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

I know that LG incubators get hated around here, but my original incubator was/is a still air LG without turners. Once I tweaked it to my specifications, it worked pretty well. So, when I had a little extra money and someone offered to sell me another LG still air WITH turners, I bought it. Let it run a day or two, adjusted temps, all seemed well. The thermometer kept falling through the turners, but it was a "set it and forget it" situation with turners right?

Wrong.

Put my eggs in a couple of days into the ownership of this beast and checked temps once in a while, but had a hard time as the thermometer kept falling through...so imagine my surprise when I candled eggs on day 4 and ALL 13 leghorn eggs had BLOOD RINGS! I also have 2 bantam eggs with blood rings and 33 RIR eggs in there that are questionable but I can't see well enough to decide if they are dead or not yet. I thought it was bacteria. So...I transferred all the RIR eggs to my old LG standby for the duration of the disinfect of the new incubator. Let it air dry after treatment and turned it back on all night with no eggs in. Checked temp this morning (again thermometer had fallen but I fished it out) and imagine my surprise and distress to read a temp. of 117!!

I am so mad right now. I hate having little lives lost, but this isn't only an emotional blow, it's a financial one as well because we had a waiting list of buyers for the chicks we would have had. Now we are out the money we paid for the eggs and any gain we would have had before this piece of crap incubator cooked all of our chicks.

The guy I bought it from is a local poultry dealer and is well liked in my local poultry circle and as I am fairly new to chickens at all, I don't want to make too much of a stink about it b/c I don't want to taint potential relationships with other people in the circle...but I will not let this go completely either. I removed my turner to let the new LG sit on without turner for a while and so I can chart the temps...I believe the problem is the turner motor as it felt pretty hot. If, however, the removal of the turner doesn't fix the issue, I will contact the seller because I wouldn't have bought it if I knew it had temp problems...he told me when I bought it that it came from a third party who gave it to him as a trade for some chickens.

I really didn't think this guy would pull this on me so I'm hoping he will be as apologetic as I think he should be. Beginning to think that only forced air LGs work with turners...

Thanks for reading my rant!

 

[redhen]

I never had ANY luck using the turner in my LG..
Something ALWAYS went wrong.. the turner got jammed or it overheated...
Last time i incubated, i hand turned and i had a great hatch...
I'll never use that stinkin LG turner again...

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Quote:
not that I am happy at your problems, but you have NO idea how much better I feel that I am not alone!! thanks for the pick me up!

 

[gumbii]

my friend just hatched 10 out of 46 or whatever fits in his LG turner with a still air incubator with a PC fan inside... he's just gonna go get a ronco temp controller and stick it in there...

 

[RareBreedFancier]

BigDaddy'sGurl :

The guy I bought it from is a local poultry dealer and is well liked in my local poultry circle and as I am fairly new to chickens at all, I don't want to make too much of a stink about it b/c I don't want to taint potential relationships with other people in the circle...but I will not let this go completely either. I removed my turner a little while ago to let the new LG sit on without turner for a while and so I can chart the temps...I believe the problem is the turner motor as it felt pretty hot. If, however, the removal of the turner doesn't fix the issue, I will contact the seller because I wouldn't have bought it if I knew it had temp problems...he told me when I bought it that it came from a third party who gave it to him as a trade for some chickens.

If the guy you bought from is a local dealer and he got it as a trade for chickens he's not the person you should be mad at. You should be mad at the person who gave it to him. I'm betting the dealer didn't know there was an issue because he would not have accepted it as a trade if he'd known.

If he's well liked locally it doesn't sound like he'd be the sort of dodgy dealer to knowingly sell faulty equipment. Think about it, a bad reputation is bad for business.

I'm terribly sorry about your eggs, I've had issues my last two hatches and I know how bad it feels when you lose them.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Here is a copy of the message I sent the seller, minus the salutation so that he can remain anonymous if he comes to this board:

I just wanted to message you to let you know that the incubator is having some issues. I know I bought it used from you and you had no idea whether it worked or not, and I'm not trying to get my money back or anything, just thought maybe if you knew that it isn't working that you would be aware that who you got it from maybe traded it for a reason. No offense to them if they didn't know, but I don't think you storing it for a few months would have affected it as negatively as if you had been using it. And while I believe you that it was in storage, I can't help but wonder if the former owner didn't know it had problems and that's why they traded you with it. I plugged it in that first night and let it run empty with the auto turner on for the whole night and even next day. The thermometer kept falling through the trays but when i would fish it out, the temp seemed fairly stable. So, I put 48 eggs (capacity with turner) in and let it go. I candled the eggs after four days and found that every egg I could see into had a "blood ring" which means that the embryo died shortly after beginning to form. My first thought was bacteria so I moved the eggs to my older and reliable LG incubator and cleaned the thing top to bottom, inside and out with sanitizing solution I got the recipe for online (I did do this the night I got it, as well) and let it air dry all evening before turning it on to run empty again to see if there was any other issues. The turners I cleaned and turned back on as well. Within 4 hours I noticed that the temp. was at 106 F so I turned it down. 2 hours later it was 108F. Turned it down again but 2 hours later it was even higher. Turned it down and left it all night empty and on and woke up in the morning to 119 degrees F! When I opened it up, the motor from the egg turner was very hot to the touch so I removed the turners thinking "whew! it was just the turner motor on the fritz".... So, since yesterday I have been trying to regulate the temp WITHOUT the turner in it, and it is not cooperating. If I turn it down, it drops to 94 F but if I adjust it even a hair, it jumps to 106. I don't know if the thermostat is going out or what, but opening vents isn't even working at this point. Keep in mind that I have another LG that I have had pretty good results with and have used heavily, so I don't think it's something i am doing wrong. As you probably know, when incubating eggs the optimum temp range is 99-102 F so I feel fairly confident that the reason my eggs have all been dying is that the incubator has spiked much higher than the embryos could handle. I have used 3 thermometers to check the temperature, so I know it isn't a faulty thermometer...



Anyway, again, I am not wanting you to feel bad or begging for my money back and I am sorry if I wrote too much but I wanted you to know that this wasn't something I haven't tried to fix or didn't know what I was doing with. I know that you would have never sold it to me if you thought it had a problem...I'm pretty good at figuring out a person's character and I know that you wouldn't have duped me. And hey, I'm still working with it, it may just have a super sensitive adjustor, who knows?



Just thought I would let you know what's going on!



Hope you're not irritated i messaged you with bad news!


**And rarebreedfancier, you are right. I shouldn't have been angry at all at him in my original post here, I was just frustrated. If he got it from a third party I am mad at them... I'm just bummed right now. This was supposed to INCREASE my hatch rates and I thought it would help me and all it's done is cost me money now.

 

[magistradomina]

That would make me sooo mad!! I'm so sorry!

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Well it's official. 48 eggs I had originally placed in the "new" incubator 5 days ago and all are dead. I knew the leghorns were yesterday, but I used a high powered light to candle the remaining bantams and RIR eggs and ALL had blood rings. Cracked each one because I figured that if even ONE had a heartbeat I would stop cracking immediately and take a chance that the others HAD a chance. Nope. Not one live embryo. One thing that made me feel a little better was that EVERY one that had some level of development by this time had a ruptured yolk from (I assume) decomposition.

The upside, you ask? (There always is one, you know) The same day I placed these 48 eggs in the "new" LG, I also (against my husband's advice, lol) bought a smallish styrofoam cooler and 5 watt bulb and rigged a homemade bator with margarine lids as vent covers (LOL), placed 15 eggs inside, and have been checking the temps religiously...and guess what? The 12 RIR eggs, 2 bantam and 1 quail are doing beautifully! See? I spent 2.00 and have life. i spent 45.00 and have misery. Ugh.

Also, the incubator seller contacted me back! He was extremely apologetic and said that he had some contacts who were wanting to sell him several incubators with turners and he would gladly give me another one for free. I thought that was nice, but about an hour before he messaged me I noticed the incubator in question was actually holding steady at 101 F...and now, some 4 hours later, it is still at 101... Advice?

 

[josh]

LG's are very tempermental. It only takes just a small bit of movement to make the temps jump. I have one and it is hard to get them right. You are probable moving the thermostat more than you think. If you have it at 101 it is probable ready to go. You need to put the turner in and have it running for a few hours before you put in eggs because the turner will absorb heat and the motor will put off heat.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Quote:
Thanks for the info! I have another LG: my original incubator and it is like polar opposite of this one. You have to make a drastic turn on the "increase" side to raise the temp more than 1 degree, and if you turn it to "decrease", it immediately shuts off and cools a degree or two. I used to complain on occasion about it...now it is a Godsend! And about the turner: I will NOT be trying that again. So long as my temp stays stable I am not rocking the boat, lol.