diy incubators!?

[HatchCraft]

Has anyone made and incubator with another heat source, ie not a light bulb?
i wouldn't mind having a go at making something, but don't like the idea of a light bulb turning on and off.

I've made hundred incubator using elements other than lights. The type of element depends on the design and size of the incubator. I'm assuming you will be using a fan to distribute the heat. Lights are ok but don't work well if you are going to use a pulse proportional type thermostat, as the light will flash rapidly. In the comments PTC heater elements were mentioned, that's one type I have never used but understand they are safer as the temp is self limiting. You should always us a thermal cutoff switch (45c to 50c) for safety if not using a secondary thermostat. Never more wattage than you need, like a 1500 watt space heater in a shoebox. I have seen fires. Metal cased elements will have thermal inertia, slower to heat up and cool off. This can cause temps to slightly over or under shoot the set point, but can be beneficial to slow the on-of cyclic rate of thermostats with mechanical relays like wafer thermostats. Nichrome coil wire heaters have the fastest response time, I keep a bulk roll of it. The element is stretched over ceramic insulators. I have used a lot of strip heaters both finned and non finned. .The non finned are usually attached to metallic heat sink of some kind. I use ceramic tube resistors as well. Incubator warehouse sells fan heater combos. I use something similar call a axial fan heater. The heater bolts directly to a 120mm axial fan, but can be pricey. Some pic of element I have in my shop, plus the safety cutoffs.

 

[Dogface208]

@HatchCraft Do you have any recommendations for pulse proportional thermostats? I found a dual thermostat/humidistat plug in model that looked super easy to use, but would prefer the other kind of thermostat.

Edit: Ugh, and now I've found out there are dimmer thermostats?? I don't know which one would be better for either PTC or heat cable.

 

[Acre4Me]

I built a primitive styrofoam one with lightbulb on a dimmer switch. The bulb was pretty low wattage, and never was turned off and was rarely dimmed. I placed bulb on one side of the cooler, with a barrier to diffuse the heat. Heat rose, Cooled, cycling the air. Worked pretty well with no fan, but not perfect. I’m considering other designs, but overall if you use a lightbulb it doesn’t need to cycle on and off. Good luck, there are lots of good ideas out there.

 

[HatchCraft]

@HatchCraft Do you have any recommendations for pulse proportional thermostats? I found a dual thermostat/humidistat plug in model that looked super easy to use, but would prefer the other kind of thermostat.

Edit: Ugh, and now I've found out there are dimmer thermostats?? I don't know which one would be better for either PTC or heat cable.

I don't have any experience with the plug and play type controllers. I think the pluig and play controller would be a good choice for your first build. I use industrial PID controllers Omron and Autonics mostly . The controller, dc controlled solid state relay and PT100 sensor runs me a little over 100.00 For the money you get precision, stability to .1 deg F and reliability. With that being said, I don't think incubators require this level of precision to hatch eggs. I use a lot of wafer thermostats as well and they have a 1.0 deg F on-off differential. This is a pic of the controller I'm installing in a hatcher now.

 

[Dogface208]

Ok. I found all the plug and play pulse thermos are made for herp keepers, so I think I'll just get one of those. Thanks for all your help!

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

You could use a ceramic heat emitter bulb if you don't like the idea of a light bulb turning on and off all the time.