I have owned many smaller incubators made by
Brinsea, they were the best choice in small incubators at one point.
I bought 2 - 390's a couple of years ago they cost me around £800 each at the time, I also bought the hatching baskets - here are my thoughts ....
For a start the build quality is not good, the magnetic strips that keep the door shut will eventually fall off, mine did after about a year.
They are impossible to clean out - unless you are an Orangutan. They are very deep and your arms will not reach to the back of the incubator - I am 6ft 4" and my arms can not reach the back.
Realistically you can only hatch in the bottom of the incubator using the
Brinsea supplied hatching baskets, which means you can only set around 100 eggs max at a time. If you stop the trays from turning and set the entire contents of the incubator to hatch mode the following happens:-
1) If you level off the trays and fill with hatching eggs eventually the trays will tilt slightly this will make it very difficult to remove the trays as the bar at the front means the trays have to be perfectly level to remove the baskets.
2) The hatching baskets fit very tightly onto the selves with 0 headroom. This means you have to drag the trays out - quite forcibly (bearing in mind the trays will have tilted in hatch mode) . The hatched chicks toes, stick out from the perforated bottom of the basket
as you drag the trays out toes and feet can get damaged.
Some other points to note are as follows.
There is very little room around the trays and the internal walls of the cabinet - air circulation is very poor, if you get a thermometer and place it at various locations around the incubator, the temperature variation can be as high as 4->5 degrees F
The stepper motor is very low quality, for the number of eggs turned - it will pack up after about 1->2 years with continuous use. OK if you are a hobbyist - but no good for semi-commercial use and at £800 I would like to think this is a commercial incubator.
I think
Brinsea are living on their past reputation on this one, I would suggest this is a cheap re-badged Chines import - it is definitely not worth £800 .
Can't comment on the quality of their small hobby incubators but personally definitely look elsewhere if you need the capacity that the 190's & 390's provide.
I will attach pictures of defects shortly
