can i use a thermostat from an iron . what items have t-stats ?

[bahamas]

hey yall i just foundout that irons and toasters have thermostats and my mom just threw away two old irond and a toaster. I could have used the thermostats within. Can i use the thrmostats for my lamp in the incy ?PS what kind of house hold items have t-stats ?

 

[bahamas]

well >????

 

[Ridgerunner]

I haven't done it so I cannot speak from experience. I'd be surprised if some people haven't been able to get some of these to work. What you want out of a thermostat is one that can be adjusted to keep the temperatures in the range you want and that cycles on and off over a very small range.

I'd think the iron thermostat and maybe a water heater thermostat could be set in the temperature range you want. I'm not sure you could set a toaster thermostat that low. A cook stove or heating element like that would have a thermostat in it too, but again I'd think they would be hard to set low enough. Heating and cooling systems have thermostats as do air conditioners. Can they be set high enough?

I don't know how tight a range these operate under. Some thermostats will let the temperature drop by several degrees before they click on, or maybe they warm up several degrees above where they are set before they click off. That would not work real well in an incubator.

Good luck! Maybe someone with actual experience will see this and answer now that people are waking up.

 

[bahamas]

thnx again for the info !

 

[esthermgr]

I have no aptitude for electrical diy projects, but if you do some research online you might find out more about this: I've read of people poking holes to enlarge the air intake in thermostats to make them adjust to a lower temp range. Maybe that will help.

 

[darkmatter]

If you are that much of a DIY Do it Yourself, this pdf has instructions for making your own thermostat, along with anything else you want to make involving incubators:

http://www.fastonline.org/CD3WD_40/LSTOCK/001/agrodoks/34-e-2004_screen.pdf

 

[aprophet]

I think the thermostat on an iron is going to be a rheostat just like a dimmer switch as long as the ambient temp stays exactly the same you are ok but when you open the bator or the ambient changes you will have to wait for temps to settle then readjust it again a thermostat does this for you.

 

[Junglebob]

I think I'd try and find an old electic brooder or incubator with a wafer thermostat. You might get one very cheap if the heating element is out on it. I have the feeling you are going to have a hard time keeping others in the narrow range you want. If I found a wafer thermostat, I'd get a replacement wafer for it if possible, some feed stores still keep them. You might loose all your eggs you are hatching if you try to economize too much on a thermostat.

I looked at the link darkmatter gave and the thermostat there is of the type the wafer thermostat is, so that might work if you want to go to all the work to make the disks, which you could buy for $12 maybe less. The wafer disks work with a micro switch when they expand enough the switch turns the power off, they cool down a little and it goes back on. My thoughts for most thermostats a swing of 6 degrees isn't a problem, you want water at 130 degrees and it gets to 136, no big deal. You want your incubator at 101 degrees and it gets to 107, you've got problems.

One thing that did come to mind that is regulated at temperatures closer to an incubator is a yogurt maker. I think they keep the yogurt between 110 and 120 degrees. Maybe that thermostat could be regulated down a little. I guess if you are experimenting and just putting in say 6 eggs it might be worth a try, you wouldn't be out much.