Brinsea humidifier not working?

[naadarien]

I can't seem to get the humidifier to work. The water level is stagnant and the humidity is low the incubator.

I finally took the incubator off the humidifier and found another way to raise the humidity, but I'd like to figure out what is wrong. The tubing all looks good. I see no holes. Ran water through them. Had no leaks, but still the humidity in the incubator was consistently in the low 30's even though I had the low end set to 40%.

Anyone else with this humidifier and had issues with getting it to work? Hoping to have less problems with the next batch of eggs. Thanks!

 

[Schroeder]

I have experienced problems in getting the Brinsea humidifier to start. Once it gets going, everything is fine. I take the end out of the incubator and suck the water through. This takes a little while, and must be done intermittently to allow the pump to catch up to the increased suction demand you have created. Once the tubing is mostly filled, I reinsert the end into the incubator and give it a few hours. So far this always has worked for me, but I now set up everything several days in advance just in case.

 

[naadarien]

That is worth a try.

I tried changing the height of the unit in relation to the incubator thinking that the vacuum suction wasn't working right, but that didn't seem to work. SMH. How hard can the physics of this be?

Thanks so much for your input.

 

[Tuhmu]

Did you use the sample piece of tubing that it came with or cut your own? I had the problem right away with that I used a piece I cut which was just a little bit to long and thus didn't work. After digging through the box some more I found the piece just for that, and it worked. But it does take awhile the first time, you can almost watch the water moving through it and its going at a snails pace.

Also, make sure the incubator is fully closed on both sides, I made this mistake on my last hatch. the pump kept running and running but the humidity just wouldn't go up! Was so frustrated, then I realized my mistake

.

 

[KYTinpusher]

If the pump is moving, but water is not being moved, make sure you have no pin holes in the tubing. Then there are a couple of things you can try that I have found helpful. First, try to put the humidity pump up so it is higher than the incubator. Let gravity help move the water. Next, I usually prime it when I first start it out. When the pump is moving, pinch the tubing on the side toward the incubator with both hands. Slowly move the pinch closest to the incubator toward the incubator to remove the air in the tube. Let go of the pinch closest to the pump. Unless you have a hole in the tubing, it should remain flat until the pump fills the tube with water. Once the entire length of tubing is filled with water, let go of the pinch closest to the incubator. The tubing should remain filled with water now and the pump will work as it is supposed to.

Also, the longer the tubing, the harder the pump has to work to push the water. You can try cutting the tubing shorter, if that is possible. A few air bubbles in the tubing won't hurt, but if you are seeing a lot of bubbles, you may have a pinhole leak in the tubing somewhere.

Good luck!

 

[naadarien]

I did bits of both: I used the tubing that came with it (the middle piece, the part that goes through the incubator lid, and the tube that hangs in the water) and I cut new (the tube that goes from the unit to the tube in the incubator). It didn't matter. None of the tube is kinked and there appears to be no holes in the tubes.

Yes the incubator was sitting in the slots properly. Heat-wise, it has been steady, and that shouldn't be true if the lid was off. Plus, because of the water at the bottom, the humidity stays even. It won't drop below the high 20's. It just won't go much higher than that.

The tubes were dry when I tested them for air holes so no water had gone through them.

But this is curious. You said: "I had the problem right away with that I used a piece I cut which was just a little bit to long and thus didn't work."

Are you suggesting the length of the tube was an issue? How long is yours, from the humidifier to the incubator? I guess that piece could be too long (since that is the piece I had to cut myself), but how odd. It would be nice if the instructions mentioned that possibility. Ugh. I am willing to try anything at this point though so what info you can provide would be great.

Thanks!

 

[KYTinpusher]

Can you post a picture of the humidity pump, showing the tubing at both ends? Maybe we will see something you are not.

 

[naadarien]

Quote:
Thanks!

I am definitely realizing this process needs some tweaking. Silly me to think it might be easy. :-D

 

[naadarien]

Can you post a picture of the humidity pump, showing the tubing at both ends? Maybe we will see something you are not.

I will hook it back up later today and take a pic.

I am hesitant to mess with it since the eggs are at day 18-ish and as first time mama hen, I am fussing over every little thing with these eggs. Every day I feel like I killed them.

But I hear I am supposed to up the humidity at this point so hooking it back up now may be good timing anyway. I'll get back to you...

 

[KYTinpusher]

Your humidity should be about 65% for lockdown. If you want to work on the pump without risking getting the humidity too high during lockdown, just remove the end of the tubing from the incubator (leave the rigid tubing in place and just disconnect the flexible tubing) and place it in a bowl to catch any water while you are working on it. This way you can set the humidity level at a point to keep the pump running while you are working on it.