I have had a cooler laying in my shop for a while, and the other day, I thought to myself, that would make a great incubator. Heres the great part. The cooler is a coleman 5640 Thermoelectric cooler.. So, why is this so great? Because the cooler can heat, or cool itself when plugged into a 12 volt circut. It also already has circulating fans. The only part that is missing to make it an incubator, is a thermostat to control the heat. I cleaned up the cooler the best I could, and gave it a test run to see if it even worked anymore. To power it, I robbed a power supply out of an old computer I had laying around. When I first plugged it in, It was in cool mode.. Not what I wanted. The fix to get it to heat instead of cool is simple though. I had to reverse the power leads. Now that I got it to heat, the next step was to see what temperature it would acheive. After 2 hours of running, it was up to 120f. Too hot for a bator, but a VERY simple fix. Just install an adjustable stat. On my incubator that I am currently running, I used the thermostat out of a fish tank heater. I have several more laying around, so this will be the stat of choice in this incubator as well. Heres some pics of the basic cooler, and the heating system that coleman was generous to include with this model cooler:
The inside dimensions of the cooler are approx 1 foot deep, two feet tall, and 1 foot wide. It will be a pretty small incubator, but I am guessing there is enough room to hold 50 or so eggs. This is a project I am just starting, and these are the steps that will be required to complete it.:
1: Cut out front door on cooler, and install a window
2: Install stat, and possibly a light
3: Make an egg turner that will fit in the cooler
4: TEST
So, these four steps should take very little time. This has to be the easiest DIY cooler idea I have thought up, or seen for that matter. Fan forced, and almost all the parts are already in place from the factory.
My main reason for using this cooler, and its already in place heating system, is because it is 12 volts. Where I live, our power from the utility company likes to go out often. With this cooler incubator If the power goes out, all I have to do is take it out to the car, and plug it in the cig lighter, and viola, back in business.
I will take pictures of the build process, and update this thread as I make progress.
Jason
The inside dimensions of the cooler are approx 1 foot deep, two feet tall, and 1 foot wide. It will be a pretty small incubator, but I am guessing there is enough room to hold 50 or so eggs. This is a project I am just starting, and these are the steps that will be required to complete it.:
1: Cut out front door on cooler, and install a window
2: Install stat, and possibly a light
3: Make an egg turner that will fit in the cooler
4: TEST
So, these four steps should take very little time. This has to be the easiest DIY cooler idea I have thought up, or seen for that matter. Fan forced, and almost all the parts are already in place from the factory.
My main reason for using this cooler, and its already in place heating system, is because it is 12 volts. Where I live, our power from the utility company likes to go out often. With this cooler incubator If the power goes out, all I have to do is take it out to the car, and plug it in the cig lighter, and viola, back in business.
I will take pictures of the build process, and update this thread as I make progress.
Jason
