Could you turn a commercial drink fridge into an incubator?

[guinea fowl galore]

well long story short we have this shop and when we bought it it came with one of those commercial drink/sandwich fridge and every time I look at it it just screams incubator. well to me anyway, to everyone one else it screams rubbish.
This is a photo I got off the internet that looks similar to the fridge we have.

So what do you think? could you turn it into an incubator? how would you do it?

 

[Jessiewoodard57]

what a score! it could by done. Commercial equipment is well insulated so it should work well.

 

[donjr721]

that would make an awesome incubator, i believe someone else on here did it using one of those. look in the home made incubator section. i already have ideas for you after just reading your post.

take the guts out of the bottom (compressor, condenser coil, etc.), if the fridge has two evaporator fans in the top, they might be good for the air circulation, some of those units only will have one(just as good), so long as it doesn't move too much air. i would also put some small holes in the side for fresh air. you could put two or three light bulb bases in the bottom, put a large pan on the bottom shelf above the lights for humidity, and put the thermostat somewhere in the middle on the back. i would wire a reostat (dimmer switch) to control the intensity of the lights so they would stay on all the time and maintain the proper temperature, using the thermostat for more of a limit switch to prevent over heating. man, that thing would hold a ton of eggs. i would frame in around where the shelves mount with one by twos or something so you could stretch 1/4" hardware cloth (that way when the chicks hatch, they won't fall through). install a pipe on one side so you could add water to your pan without opening doors too much, would definately recommend some sort of mechanical egg turner, (that would be a lot of hand turning if it was full of eggs). if your fridge has flourescent lights in it, you could use them as a heat source also. you could even use an electric heat element (similar to what would be used as a defrost heater, some reach in freezers have defrost heaters attatched to the evaporator coil which is located at the top inside of the freezer) i know you said yours was a fridge, but you could buy a defrost heater and wire it up behind the evaporator coil and the fan(s) would circulate the heat inside, if you did this, you would want your water pan up on the top shelf, as heat and air going over water will raise humidity.

sorry if i wrote too much. i know a lot about commercial fridges and freezers, heating and air. that's what i do. i just built my first incubator, and i don't know a lot about incubating eggs yet, mine are due to hatch this friday Nov. 12.

oh, and don't forget, you got to put in a disco ball. (LOL, just kidding)

 

[donjr721]

i just noticed in the picture, no doors, if this is the open style one, it will still work. on these, the evaporator may be in the bottom, with a fan that moves the air up a chamber in the back wall of the cabinet, then the cool air falls down over the product, some of these will still have the evaporator in the top with fans in the bottom pushing air up the chamber and across the coil.

needless to say, this will make a good incubator. enough about fridges and evaporators, that thing is an incubator, a big one.

good luck with whatever you decide to do with it.

 

[Surehatch]

Give it a try, why not!

 

[aprophet]

if you can come up with the ones that already have doors and were freezers they are insulated much better then the one you have. If you decide to remove freon without being certified to do so do not post about how you did it on line the EPA has been cracking down on that the last 5 years or so. if you can come up with a case that is used as a hot food case it will be better for the purpose you are try to achieve.

 

[acid_chipmunk]

It would probably work well, but one with a door or doors would be better. Then everything already seals. We turned an old grocery store pepsi fridge into a bator and it works great! Holds temp and humidity very well.

 

[iluvsedward]

try it!