frustrated with humidity and temp levels!

[Squishychicken]

I have a little giant forced air incubator with an egg turner added in. seeing as the thermometer the incubator comes with reads nonsense I bought a mercury thermometer and a digital hygrometer from incubator warehouse. I have a digital hydrometer and thermometer on one side of the incubator and on the other side I have a mercury thermometer (calibrated to 32°). I measure one side them switch the two around so I can see the humidity on both sides. the front side reads 55% and 96.6°F measured with the digital one and the back side reads 102° with the mercury. now with the digital one in the back it reads 40% and 103.1°and with the mercury in the front it reads 100° so as you can tell the temps change. this were taken at diffrent times with roughly 20 mins in between. are these temps okay to incubate in? even if they are diffrent degrees at diffrent points in the incubator? and with the humidity I don't have any water in the bottom of the incubator cause the humidity was up to 70 with water in it. so I dumped the water out and proceeded to try again. I also have both ventilation plugs undone as an attempt to lower the humidty.. what else can I do? any thing I'm doing wrong?
edit to add: the temps now say 104.4 in the back and 92 in the front!! the heating element is closer to the back with would explain the lower humidity levels back there and the higher temps. I'm just so frustrated and would just like to put the eggs in and be done!!!

 

[Squishychicken]

I figured if I put the eggs in between the two temps it'll even out nicely. my only problem is the humidity...i need it lowered!

 

[HattieScratchy]

Following your post.. I'm going thru the exact same thing right now

 

[feedman77]

First the fan if you notice is not centered. So it creates hot and cool spots just because of its location.

2nd. The little temp probe is attached to plastic. Everytime you open the lid or the egg turner turns it moves and never sets back to the same spot. Try to secure it so it doesn't move.

For these Incubators it is best to run lower humidity. If you cant get humidity low enough add some long grain rice. Will pull humidity from the air. Or silica packs like come in shoes and beef jerky.

The way I combated the cool/hot spot is to rotate the lid 180 degrees daily so it kinda averages the temp. One other thing to check is how the lid set in the channel. They are known to warp a little. If it is place some small weight on each corner.

With some babysitting and tinkering they can give decent hatches.

Mine drove me crazy. But I gave it to a young man wanting to start hatching. He had 2 good hatches in a row. He s hooked now.

 

[Squishychicken]

I didnt think of the rice! well I got the temps pretty even so I put the eggs in the middle and around the heating element. the humidity is still a little high around 50-60% but I'm working on lowering it.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I just received the incubator I ordered from Amazon (Janoel12, not a knock off). Have it running to check the temp & humidity. I'm running dry, have a thermometer/humidity (mercury) reader plus a hygrometer which I calibrated today.

Temps been steady at 38C (100.4*F), humidity 35 - 38% all day (mercury), just added the hygrometer to it, so will see in the morning.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I had great hatches in the janoel12 factory settings 4 good hatches kick myself for getting rid of it

 

[ChickNanny13]

I was planning on trying to hatch shipped eggs but after reading alot, having second thoughts. Think I may try local eggs before I order shipped eggs, the ones I want will be at least $75/doz & being in HI shipping will take at least 3 days.

 

[ChickNanny13]

@penny1960
I'm "confused" .... Ok the Janoel 12 I have just has temp reading which has been right on but no humidity. It does have an alarm setting for humidity.

I put the mercury thermometer in the incubator, temp 100 & humidity 35 - 38%. Incubator was at factory setting 38C/100.4*

I calibrated the hygrometer as learned here, salt slurry in a ziplock bag for 6hrs ... Hygrometer temp read 77* humidity was 71% (I'm in HI). I added it to my incubator with a mercury thermometer that also read humidity (temp 100 humidity 35 - 38%).

Maybe I didn't wait long enough but in a couple of hours, the Mercury was reading the same but the Hygrometer said 102.9* humidity 25% ? I'm thinking the Mercury is more likely correct, maybe the Hygro needs more time to stabilize as it takes 6hrs for testing?

I got this cause the reviews were good, like that it's all plastic & seems easy to operate but I maybe over thinking & impatient with testing the temp & humidity. Any advice you can give me, I would really appreciate. Don't have any eggs waiting, want to get this unit mastered before I even plan on any eggs Thank you

 

[007Sean]

Try recalibrating your hygrometer. Except this time let it equalize for 24hrs. I do this with mine every time before I set eggs. You will get a more reliable reading/ value and it's not likely to change if given longer time. With the shorter period of time your using to calibrate, you will get a different reading/ value every time you calibrate your hygrometer. HTH
Edited to add: Place in zip lock bag that doesn't leak. Let sit in a room away from heat/cold sources, room temp should be around 72° to73°F