Brinsea mini advance incubator

[moglet]

Hi everyone
I have a Brinsea mini advance incubator, I've only used it 3 times. When I set the temperature to 37.5 C I assumed that would be the right temp for hatching hen eggs. I've recently bought a glass mercury thermometer from Brinsea and had it running for 6 days now as a test and the glass thermometer is only showing just 37.0C while the digital thermometer on the incubator lid is showing 37.6C.
I have tried wet hatching (which was rubbish) 2 chicks survived only for a few minutes which upset me so much I vowed I was never going to hatch again, the breeder I bought the eggs from told me to try dry hatching, (why he didn't tell me that in the first place!) so I did try again and I managed to hatch 3 silkies through dry hatch method, but I assume the temperature was exactly the same as its showing now. Which thermometer reading would you go by? I don't want to have to send the incubator back for re-calibrating because the transport companies throw everything around in the lorry regardless of whether it's marked fragile or not! Is there any other way of gauging the temperature to see how accurate it is? Thanks Carole (UK)

 

[Pork Pie]

Are there no details on how to calibrate your incubator in the user guide? You could send a mail to Brinsea and ask them - I've found them to be very helpful. I guess you could always get another thermometer and test that against your other two readings.

 

[moglet]

Hi Thanks for replying, I have the user guide and it suggests returning to Brinsea every 2 years to be recalibrated and suggests it's not carried out by the user. but it gives the calibration menu in the guide. I think as you suggest I'll try another thermometer, I just hope my Brinsea octagon eco is running at the correct temperature because all that this incubator has is a glass mercury thermometer suspended on the lid of the incubator so I don't have any other way of checking the temperature. But I am told that these glass thermometers are supposed to be accurate.Think I'll get a 2nd thermometer for this one too.