I am still looking in the diary thread, ughhhh maybe I put it in the upright coolerbator section im lookin Hatchcraft removed all his images ughh
The duel thermostats are wired in series so either thermostat can turn off the heat element. One problem of the wafer thermostats are the micro switches are prone to stick in the on position as a result of normal wear. If the primary thermostat is set at 100 deg for example, the backup thermostat is set at 102. If the primary thermostat sticks on the backup thermostat will turn off the heat element when it temps hit 102 degrees protecting the eggs. Newer GQF cabinet incubators with wafer thermostats employ a solid state relay instead of the duel wafers. With this set up the thermostat only switches the relay on and off while the relay does the heavy work of turning on and of the heat element. Solid state relays have no moving parts so they do not wear and stick. You should be ok with a single thermostat they just don't last forever. Thee nichrome wire heat element with ceramic insulator are great for cabinets incubator. It takes 200 watts or more to heat a cabinet. They have a long service life and low thermal inertia for tighter temp control. Use a grounded wire guard like on the GQF cabinets.I uses them on some of my cabinets and they are safe and effective.
t my opinion the fan should blow to the front. The single fan used in GQF incubators are the same type I use. They are a commercial fan used primarily in refrigeration and require a motor mount or bracket.. The fan motor is sealed and unaffected by dust or humidity. Standard rpm is around 1500. This is important because it is better to move a large volume of air at a lower velocity. The CFM or cubic feet per minute using this type fan is determined by the size of fan blade. Understand that the cfm is referring to a free air measurement, and in the confines of a cabinet the actual cfm is lower. The fan can only push as much air as it can pull. Make sure you design the cabinet with ample clearances for the air to flow. This gives you uniform temp all around. I have experience building and testing many incubators, but it doesn't hurt to experiment and try something new. I'm not claiming to know it all. The fan motors power is rated by watts. The wattage required is determined by the size and pitch of the fan blade you want. Example the single fan sportsman has a 7" 30 deg pitch- five blade fan rated between 200-300 cfms and would require a minimum 4 or 5 watt motor. Some manufactures refer to wattage in factional horsepower . You can use dual axial type fan with the coil wire heat elements. Its hard to find lower speed axial fans that work well in a sportsman sized incubator. I use them in smaller cabinets. You can use high speeds fans if it is only a setter and your not hatching in it . The high speed fans (3000 rpm) are very noisy. Sorry if I long winded.
GOATS!!! I will definetly have to get some Nubians and Nigerian dwarves maybe even an alpine or two and a funny little lamancha.
