Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator

[artsyrobin]

Quote: bet thats why i can't find it!! Got it in spring 2012....

 

[Mahen100]

Robin, I wouldn't worry about it. By comparison, my TV is a flat screen, and I don't worry that it is not the latest "curved screen" version. A flat screen does its job...as will the mini without the cool-down.

 

[artsyrobin]

well i've used it this long without it- i had just found out about the feature, thinking i was missing something..

 

[Mahen100]

well i've used it this long without it- i had just found out about the feature, thinking i was missing something..

I have an hypothesis about the "cooldown" feature that needs a controlled study to verify. I am among the folk who have had difficulties getting the mini's humidity optimal in the humid conditions of my location. Experienced people who have shared their practices with the Brinsea mini in humid locations sometimes recommend "incubating dry" or not adding any water to a chamber until lockdown, or using small bottle caps fitted into a chamber to reduce water surface area prior to lockdown.

Now back to the "cooldown" feature. When I have used cool down in a hatch, starting on seven days after I set the eggs, the egg weights in grams "seems to me here" to progressively loose a better percentage of original egg weight. My hypothesis is that if the recommended water is added to a chamber AND the cool down feature is turned on a week into setting, that practice may lessen the excessive humidity in the 'bater that can occur if the bater is in a humid environment. The Brinsea instructions simply say the "new" cool down feature better mimics the mama hen leaving the brood nest to defecate and feed. I think its value may be relative to what happens to the Mini's sometime excessive humidity at recommended levels of water.

 

[Ozarkhomestead]

My Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator turning motor died after one use. Ugh. I ordered a replacement motor, but it did not come with directions that Brinsea promised. Has anyone here replaced the turning motor?

 

[Mahen100]

My Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator turning motor died after one use.  Ugh.  I ordered a replacement motor, but it did not come with directions that Brinsea promised.  Has anyone here replaced the turning motor?

I have not replaced a motor. The brinsea comes with a warranty. Was it new when you bought it? Contact brinsea about your motor/ problem at

Email Contact:-

[email protected]

[email protected]

phone Brinsea:
Toll Free Phone:
(888) 667 7009

 

[joed1223]

So, I purchased the Brinsea Mini Advance a few weeks ago. Turned it on, set the temp etc and set some Marans eggs. Out of curiosity, I purchased the "Brinsea Spot Check" thermometer to confirm the temp is correct. To my amazement the temp at the top of the eggs is only 98 degrees with the temperature control set at 99.5 degrees. So, I'm thinking that the unit is not properly calibrated.
The next thing I do is contact a friend who had just purchased the same exact incubator. He let me check the temp on his unit and curiously enough his mini also has the exact same reading just above the eggs. He was in the process of his second run and his first run did not turn out well. I compared the spot check to two other thermometers with known accuracy and everything checks out.
It seems that both units are calibrated the same but, both read 1.5 degrees lower than the recommended 99.5 degrees. So the question is, are these units calibrated correctly? Is the temp supposed to be 98 degrees at the top of the egg in a Brinsea Mini?
Any ideas? Anyone with a similar issue?

 

[joed1223]

Any thoughts on above post??? Anyone having the same experience???

 

[Peep-Chicken]

Any thoughts on above post??? Anyone having the same experience???

I have never actually checked my mini's temperature. If this happened on two, could your thermometer be off? Can you recalibrate the spot check?

 

[song of joy]

So, I purchased the Brinsea Mini Advance a few weeks ago. Turned it on, set the temp etc and set some Marans eggs. Out of curiosity, I purchased the "Brinsea Spot Check" thermometer to confirm the temp is correct. To my amazement the temp at the top of the eggs is only 98 degrees with the temperature control set at 99.5 degrees. So, I'm thinking that the unit is not properly calibrated.
The next thing I do is contact a friend who had just purchased the same exact incubator. He let me check the temp on his unit and curiously enough his mini also has the exact same reading just above the eggs. He was in the process of his second run and his first run did not turn out well. I compared the spot check to two other thermometers with known accuracy and everything checks out.
It seems that both units are calibrated the same but, both read 1.5 degrees lower than the recommended 99.5 degrees. So the question is, are these units calibrated correctly? Is the temp supposed to be 98 degrees at the top of the egg in a Brinsea Mini?
Any ideas? Anyone with a similar issue?

Yes, I had the same issue with my Brinsea Mini Advance. I actually had two Spot Check thermometers and they both read to within 0.1 degree of each other, indicating the incubator was maintaining a temperature of 98 rather than 99.5. I recalibrated the incubator. To do this, make sure the incubator has been closed a couple of hours, and check the reading on the Spot Check thermometer. Push all three buttons on the control panel, and it should take you to the calibration menu. Push the up or down buttons to enter in the reading you took from the Spot Check thermometer, and then move through the rest of the menu. After you save it, the incubator will recalibrate. After a few hours, you should get a reading of 99.5 on the Spot Check, which should be the same as the temperature reading on the display panel. Hope this makes sense. After the recalibration, I successfully hatched out 4 of 5 barnyard mix eggs on Day 21, so the recalibration was apparently successful and the right thing to do.

Don't be concerned if the display reads 99.5, and the Spot Check reads from 99.4 to 99.6. That's close enough, and sometimes it's difficult to get it to recalibrate exactly right.

I had purchased another Mini Advance on ebay, and it was actually 2 degrees too warm. So glad I recalibrated it, or I would have cooked the eggs!