Do you use a secondary temp/humidity meter?

[peachRN]

I keep reading that you should always double check your incubator's humidity and temperature because they might be inaccurate. I bought these little meters on Amazon and they had pretty good reviews, but after 4 hours in the incubator (a brand new never used Nurture Right 360), the incubator says 100° and 24-25% humidity while the separate meter says 99.2° and between 10%-14% humidity--and that's after I added water to the incubator to see what would happen. I set another one on top of the incubator and it's reading 18% humidity. My house's thermostat is saying humidity is around 20%.

I'm leaning toward trusting the incubator and just getting rid of the extra temp/humidity meter. Does anyone have a good solid brand that they use to double check, or do you just trust your incubators?

I'll add that there are no eggs in the incubator, I'm just doing a test run to see how it holds temp/humidity.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Temp is vital, humidity is secondary, definitely have a couple thermometers, those look like the ones I use, I have 3 and as long as they are within 0.5 degrees of one another I’m happy (temp varies from 99-100.5 depending on location in incubator, room temp, drafts, etc). Humidity can be hard to control n little bubble incubators, the nr360 is better than my Amazon cheapo but you want to aim for an average, sudden drops or spikes are fine (except after eggs hav pipped!). Incubation is more art than science, find what works for you, learn from your mistakes and keep trying!

 

[Sefirothe]

Do not trust the incubator settings. I had to set mine like this to get 99.7F and 35% humidity.

Most people here swear by the Govee ones.

I use SwitchBot.

 

[tviss711]

I know this is controversial, and I’m not saying what I do is “good” nor am I recommending it, and I won’t do it forever (sorry!!)

but…. I haven’t used a secondary thermometer or hygrometer in my NR360. (I’ve only done two hatches so far, on my 3rd now so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt.)
1st hatch, 6/7 fertile eggs hatched, 2nd hatch 19/19 eggs hatched (couldn’t believe it!)

We will see how it goes with this next hatch. I was nervous about not using a secondary to be sure of my temps especially, but it seems the calibration is decent (at least out of the box on mine). OR, I’ve just been incredibly lucky, which is entirely possible.

After this next hatch, I will be ordering a secondary just to make sure everything is as accurate as possible, and so I can adjust my incubator if it isn’t ideal. I can’t remember why I didn’t order one for my last hatch, I must have just forgotten. I’d say as a rule, it’s always a good idea. And based on what I’ve read poking around the forums, I’ll probably be buying the Govee brand. But, I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t have at least some faith in my NR360 at the moment!

 

[Debbie292d]

I have 3 Brinsea 56EX auto incubators and always check 24 hours ahead of starting them up for the season. This year, two of them were spot on, whilst the older one is off nearly a full degree.

Over time, I've accumulated about a dozen thermometer/hygrometers as I use them in the brooders too, plus the coops. Most are Govee. Those are nice as if they're off, they can be calibrated to be correct. All the Govee ones are at least Bluetooth, and one or two are wifi.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Weather station that sends info to wall monitor by my chair. Old mercury thermometer on the shed. DW has one of those decorative multi color bubble tubes that I don't understand on her secretary's desk.

 

[peachRN]

I know this is controversial, and I’m not saying what I do is “good” nor am I recommending it, and I won’t do it forever (sorry!!)

but…. I haven’t used a secondary thermometer or hygrometer in my NR360. (I’ve only done two hatches so far, on my 3rd now so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt.)
1st hatch, 6/7 fertile eggs hatched, 2nd hatch 19/19 eggs hatched (couldn’t believe it!)

We will see how it goes with this next hatch. I was nervous about not using a secondary to be sure of my temps especially, but it seems the calibration is decent (at least out of the box on mine). OR, I’ve just been incredibly lucky, which is entirely possible.

After this next hatch, I will be ordering a secondary just to make sure everything is as accurate as possible, and so I can adjust my incubator if it isn’t ideal. I can’t remember why I didn’t order one for my last hatch, I must have just forgotten. I’d say as a rule, it’s always a good idea. And based on what I’ve read poking around the forums, I’ll probably be buying the Govee brand. But, I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t have at least some faith in my NR360 at the moment!

I have my NR 360 up and running again (I'm about to throw in my first ever batch of hatching eggs), and the humidity is reading 10% on both of my mini thermometer/hygrometers, but the NR360 says 25%. My home thermostat says it's around 22% in my house so I'm trusting the incubator's numbers. I did bump the temp up to 100° though, because both thermometers were reading 98-99° at the 99.5° setting. Fingers crossed for me!

 

[Smokerbill]

I have a NR 360 incubator and never saw humidity levels that low. I have a secondary meter inside the unit and it always reads around 10 points lower humidity compared to the built in meter, ~45% compared to ~55% shown on the built in.

Temperature runs about 1 degree cooler inside than the built in thermometer registers, so I set the incubation temp to 100.5°F, and eggs always hatched at 20 to 21 days.

A few questions for you...

Are you closing the adjustable vent halfway as described in the instructions?

Are you sure you're placing the top securely in the bottom section? It's kind of tricky to get it positioned correctly so there are no gaps that leak air.

Do you fill the "A" water pot section at least halfway full from the start?

 

[peachRN]

I have a NR 360 incubator and never saw humidity levels that low. I have a secondary meter inside the unit and it always reads around 10 points lower humidity compared to the built in meter, ~45% compared to ~55% shown on the built in.

Temperature runs about 1 degree cooler inside than the built in thermometer registers, so I set the incubation temp to 100.5°F, and eggs always hatched at 20 to 21 days.

A few questions for you...

Are you closing the adjustable vent halfway as described in the instructions?

Are you sure you're placing the top securely in the bottom section? It's kind of tricky to get it positioned correctly so there are no gaps that leak air.

Do you fill the "A" water pot section at least halfway full from the start?

The lid is closed completely, yes. I was planning on doing a dry hatch, but when I set the incubator up again to test it, my mini thermometers/hygrometers still said 10% humidity while the incubator itself said 24%. I decided to add a bit of water to Pot A, and now the humidity of the incubator is reading 43% while the hygrometers say 37% and 35%. I'm still not entirely sure which one to believe. I have a third hygrometer in my kitchen, same brand, that is saying the ambient humidity of my kitchen is 30%.