Cleaning Your Incubators

[Asha_Gail]

I wonder if @The Moonshiner has any suggestions on the Easiest incubator to clean after hatching eggs, since he has tried quite a few brands of incubators?

I recently saw Moonshiner's (at least I'm pretty sure) Pepsi Machine Incubator thread and I'd definitely be curious to see how he'd clean it, or other incubators for that matter.

The easiest to clean for me have always been the littlest ones, but that's due to the reduction in surface area. I really think the cleaning element of incubators may be overlooked when designed. (That and lids...)

 

[MysteryChicken]

I haven't tried using rubbing alcohol as a disinfectant before, I think I might incorporate that into my routine. Thanks for sharing!

I use it as a sanitizer for the bottom, & turning tray after washing in hot water, & dawn dish soap.

You're Welcome.

 

[Asha_Gail]

My current process:

I start by taking it all apart. My turning tray is removed prior to hatch so its rarely dirty. Lid, base tray, and bottom (water tray). Its too big to put in my sink and I don't have a bathtub so outside I go!

I grab my "kit" which is a pile of stuff specifically for cleaning my incubators. 3 rags, dish soap, old toothbrush, and a bucket.

First step, I take the toothbrush and start dry scrubbing the base tray and water tray. Most of the debris flake off. Then, I mix up some warm soapy water and pour it into the water tray with the base tray sitting in it and then leave it to soak.

While that soaks I move back to the lid, using one of the dry rags I wipe out all the fuzz. This last time I used an air compressor with an attached wand to gently blow out the fuzz that was stuck in the fan and electrical. I am never going back! Easiest it has ever been to clear out the fuzz! Magical!

Once the lid is done I move back to the soaking trays. I take rag #2 and roughly wip everything down, still in the water, to get all the heavy bits. Then I go back with the toothbrush to get the crevices and stuck on bits.

I drain the soapy water then rinse, rinse again, then I use my last rag to wipe off the excess water. Lastly set out to air dry for as long as I can.

My incubator is fairly big, bulky, and overall awkward to handle. For my next hatch I'm gonna start incorporating disinfecting too just to play it safe (I typically use fairly warm water to kill germs). I'm planning to do roughly 10 hatches this year so hopefully I find more slick ways to clean things!

 

[kattabelly]

I pull chicks and the main two pieces of empty shell out as they hatch, which limits the amount of fluff that gets into the upper section where all the electics and fans and whatnot are. Post hatch, remove the cloth / shelf liner / whatever that I put in at lockdown and most of the other smaller pieces of eggshell will come away with that. Remove the plastic tray the eggs were sat on and brush off any remaining debris.

All parts other than the top section with the electical bits get washed with soapy water, rinsed and dried. Top section gets the same treatment with a well squeezed-out cloth, taking care not to get it wet enough for water to drip into the electrics, then dried. The thin tubing between the filling chamber and the other water compartment gets cleaned with a pipe cleaner while I'm doing the base it's housed in. Make sure the whole thing is visually clean and properly dry before putting it away.

Sections that will be in contact or close to the eggs also get wiped down with isopropyl before setting eggs.

 

[Asha_Gail]

I pull chicks and the main two pieces of empty shell out as they hatch, which limits the amount of fluff that gets into the upper section where all the electics and fans and whatnot are. Post hatch, remove the cloth / shelf liner / whatever that I put in at lockdown and most of the other smaller pieces of eggshell will come away with that. Remove the plastic tray the eggs were sat on and brush off any remaining debris.

All parts other than the top section with the electical bits get washed with soapy water, rinsed and dried. Top section gets the same treatment with a well squeezed-out cloth, taking care not to get it wet enough for water to drip into the electrics, then dried. The thin tubing between the filling chamber and the other water compartment gets cleaned with a pipe cleaner while I'm doing the base it's housed in. Make sure the whole thing is visually clean and properly dry before putting it away.

Sections that will be in contact or close to the eggs also get wiped down with isopropyl before setting eggs.

I hadn't thought to use a liner of sorts to catch the shell bits and what else! Super cool!

 

[kattabelly]

I hadn't thought to use a liner of sorts to catch the shell bits and what else! Super cool!

Shelf liner like this is popular with quite a few folk I think, mostly because it also provides a good non-slip surface for newly hatched chicks to walk on. It can be washed and reused too.

 

[Asha_Gail]

Shelf liner like this is popular with quite a few folk I think, mostly because it also provides a good non-slip surface for newly hatched chicks to walk on. It can be washed and reused too.
View attachment 4309656

Oh thats awesome! I was only doing a hatch a year (if that) for a while so I wasn't bothered by the cleaning but now that I'm doing more frequent hatches I'm doing more cleaning. Where did you find yours at?

 

[kattabelly]

Oh thats awesome! I was only doing a hatch a year (if that) for a while so I wasn't bothered by the cleaning but now that I'm doing more frequent hatches I'm doing more cleaning. Where did you find yours at?

I'm in the UK so naming specific shops probably won't be helpful unless you are too, but I'd expect you could find that type of shelf liner in most supermarkets or hardware / household goods type shops.

 

[Tex452]

HP being Hydrogen Peroxide?

I'm usually so good about cleaning after the hatch but this last time I took my time waiting to clean it...

Yes hydrogen peroxide.
I try to get as much dust off of the fans as I can, I tried compressed air but that didn’t work too good because of the moisture in the can, I just blow on them as hard as I can.
I guess I could take them to the air compressor and try it.

 

[Tex452]

I have an NR360, and I really don’t love cleaning it!! The water chambers are kind of pain once full of fluff and egg shell, and the top part with the fan and all the wiring is near impossible to clean all the fluff out! The more I hatch though, the better I think I get at cleaning the darn thing. I do an initial clean of the tray, egg turner and water chambers to get the large debris out as much as possible. On the tray the eggs sit on, I use hot water and dish soap and rinse. Then I wipe the tray with a 1:10 ratio of bleach to water, let it air dry, and then wash again with hot soapy water and dry. For the water chambers, I use the same 1:10 ratio of bleach water and fill them to about half way to sanitize the bottom portion. While it’s soaking for about 10 minutes or so, I use several q-tips to get into the crevices and clean with the bleach water that is soaking in the chambers. That seems to work the best for all the little hard to reach spots. After about ten minutes I rinse the chambers really good to get rid of all the bleach water.

For the lid I get a paper towel damp with the bleach water and wipe out the surface of the lid as much as I can, too, then go back with just a wet paper towel with water. I probably don’t need to do that but bleach can degrade plastic so I’d rather get it off the surface after it’s done it’s sanitizing work.

This last time, I got a can of compressed air to try and “defluff” the fan and electric compartments. I’m not sure how effective it really was, but, it made me feel better to at least try, lol. I also stuck a q tip up there and cleaned the little blades of the fan. That got quite a bit of it, but it will never be “out of the box” clean up there again, lol! The lid is not supposed to be turned upside down, so I do my best to keep it upright, but that also makes it a lot harder to clean up there.

I’ve been known to hold the vacuum hose to the fan compartment as well to suck out the fluff. That also wasn’t super effective

I use a wooden skewer with a point on the end, stuck into a rag to get the hard to get places.