DIY Incubator with wafer thermostat HELP

[ollyclarkson]

Hi!

I've built an incubator with two 60w bulbs and a gqf wafer thermostat - just tried it and the thermostat isn't turning off the bulbs, they just flicker and dim a bit when the wafer presses the switch.

I'm confident I have it wired right, what have I done wrong? Have I fried the thermostat by using two 60w bulbs?? It smelled a bit funny at first when it tried to turn off the bulbs? Any ideas? I have some eggs arriving at the end of the week so need to fix it ASAP!

Thanks,

Olly

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi

Glad you could join the flock! I'm sorry but I dont have experience of home made incubators. But if you type in the search box " Home made incubators" there are many threads and articles on different home made. Hope you are able to sort your issues out soon so you can set your eggs.

Best of luck and hope you enjoy BYC

 

[ollyclarkson]

Thanks.

Turns out that the thermostat had some kind of override so that it wasn't switching off entirely when the temperature was reached. This was so that if it was controlling a heating element the element wouldn't cool down so much that there was a long lag time between the thermostat switching the element on and the temperature responding.

It was just looked like a little resistor connected between the terminals, I cut it off and hey presto, the incubator is working fine!