Brower Top Hatch THI20

[BradnKellie]

I recently purchased a Brower Top Hatch incubator on eBay. I have wanted one for a long time and finally found a price I could live with.

The unit powers up and appears to operate but it won't shut back off. The temperature just keeps rising. I unplug it to keep it from melting. It reached 140 degrees at one point.

I have inspected the circuit board and wire connections and haven't found anything that looks out of the ordinary.

It should be noted that I did unplug the remote temperature probe from the circuit board and the unit just kept going.

Any ideas??????

 

[quintinp]

I recently purchased a Brower Top Hatch incubator on eBay. I have wanted one for a long time and finally found a price I could live with.
The unit powers up and appears to operate but it won't shut back off. The temperature just keeps rising. I unplug it to keep it from melting. It reached 140 degrees at one point.
I have inspected the circuit board and wire connections and haven't found anything that looks out of the ordinary.
It should be noted that I did unplug the remote temperature probe from the circuit board and the unit just kept going.
Any ideas??????

I have had a lot of problems with my Brower Top Hatch incubator. I have the old THI10, and the thermostat went out on me the first day I had it. It was already used when I got it. I have done a ton of stuff to it, here are a few pictures of what it looks like now.

First things first, is that I completely did away with the little 60 watt candelabra base bulb. I then bought a new thermostat. It is a Bi-metal thermostat. I wired the Bi-metal thermostat to a crock pot heating element. You can see the nylon coated heating element wrapped around 4 porcelain insulators. I also added 2 fans. My incubator is now keeping a thorough air temperature of 99 to 100.

My problem I am dealing with now, is that the egg turner motor has stopped working. I have to buy a new one.

 

[BradnKellie]

I took out the original thermostat and installed a PID controller. The temp is now rock solid!!

 

[quintinp]

I took out the original thermostat and installed a PID controller. The temp is now rock solid!!

Could you show me what that is. I haven't heard of one before. I would be interested in hearing about it.

 

[BradnKellie]

Here is a photo. I mounted it in the base where the old dial adjustment screw was. It uses a standard thermocouple that I put in the same place that the Brower thermister was. I am also using a 25 watt bulb instead of a 60 watt. This lets me maintain a +/- 0.3 degree range.

 

[quintinp]

Here is a photo. I mounted it in the base where the old dial adjustment screw was. It uses a standard thermocouple that I put in the same place that the Brower thermister was. I am also using a 25 watt bulb instead of a 60 watt. This lets me maintain a +/- 0.3 degree range.

That looks extremely cool. I have always been one to use the mechanical working thermostats, but that looks easy to use, and APPARENTLY it works great.

Where did you get that one, and how much was it?

 

[BradnKellie]

I got 2 of these on eBay a couple of months ago. I am goin to put the other one in my brooder. The nice thing is that they can be used for heating, cooling or both.

 

[BradnKellie]

I gave $25 each