I have gotten better with the foam incubators. But there is so much that can go wrong. I do almost dry incubation in the foam ones if it gets to 12% I add a drop or two of water.. I am now officially done incubating in them. I use them for hatchers now. I have three, 2 farm innovators and one little giant. They all seem to work about the same.
This time of year I am getting around 40-50% hatch rates. BUT I live in Minnesota the weather is cold, my eggs get cold (read frozen) I try to collect them enough times a day so they do not freeze. but when it is 15 below they may die off in seconds.
Also the rooster are not as potent in this weather as they will be a few weeks. I have thermometer like crazy. My wife thinks I have too many. I have one "girlie thermometer" ( used to check ovation in women, certified to a +or - 0.2 degrees F.) I used that thermometer to "check" all my others. I use the ones with probes on wires and the read outs sit outside the incubator). I am finding they do not even stay the same. I have marked on each one the temp I need to go for to get 99.5. They vary too much, as battery charge changes and the phases of the moon change. They are just not reliable. I run three thermometer out of each incubator.
Last batch I had 24 eggs in the incubator. 12 were non-starters. 12 eggs went into the hatcher of the 12. Of the 12, 2 were early quitters and 2 died in last few days 2 were non-starters that I could not make out through the dark shells. I am not happy with 6 out of 24 eggs hatching. But it is not the incubators fault in this case.
I think we have a tendency to blame the incubators when it is not there fault. I have a sportsman 1202, old one but good one. It holds the temp and humidity rock tight!
I took my first eggs out yesterday from it..
31 eggs were set. 3 were toad eggs. ( a cross between CX broilers and Rainbows I have been working on. I get a very large thighed and legged chicken with huge breasts ) I have not had much luck on this generation I am thinking do to the size of the CX hens and the Toad rooster. That can not be blamed on the incubator.
That drops me to 29 eggs. I had 12 clears. This is my fault not the incubator. I have 7 CLB hens, I did not want to be at the mercy of 1 rooster living or dying, so I have 2., That means the roosters get knocked off before the job is done, clear eggs, not the incubators fault. Also some of my eggs have froze, they will not start. down to 17.
I had two quitters in that 17, down to 15. and 2 maybes which I classify as having the same chances as a snowball in a hot afterlife home for many.
So I am down to a dozen if I am lucky. of that dozen, 3-4 will not hatch, they never do. Some always die in the last couple days.
I guess I am just trying to say do not blame the incubators. There is a reason ground nesting birds have large clutches. Not many hatch. The last 2 years my turkey hen has had 15 eggs each year , and hatched 5 of them each year.
I am not saying do not try to do better. Just be realistic with the results you expect.
Me, I am going to order 3 more girlie thermometer today, it's Valentines day, How upset can she be if they were ordered on Valentines day!
I'm about as good with figuring out this phone as I am with the incubator... lol it's times like these when I think we should of had kids. 
