Genesis 1588 vs Brinsea Oct 20 Eco

[jlgoinggreen]

Hi Everyone,
I currently have a Genesis 1588 and a Little Giant 9200. I am extremely happy with my Genesis, but although I will be keeping my LG, I do not care for it too much. I have decided to purchase another incubator and have had my eye on the Brinsea Oct 20 Eco. I asked on here yesterday and have heard wonderful things about it. I personally like the fact that it's not Styrofoam. My husband on the other hand really likes the Genesis and the fact it can incubate more eggs at the same time. So now we are trying to figure out if we should buy another Genesis or the Brinsea.

I was wondering if there is anyone on here who has both the Genesis 1588 and the Brinsea Oct 20 Eco and could give me a pros vs cons of both to help us decide.

 

[joe17]

I LOVE the brinsea. I literally set it and forget it! Much more reliable!

 

[bantyshanty]

I have both models. I really love the Genesis 1588 as a hatcher. it gives the babies lots of room to test their legs. Literally.
Having said that (keep it!), my hatches didn't have super-high rates the several times I incubated in it.
Too much temp variation front to back, side to side to have all the eggs develop the same, for me.

I got a Brinsea Eco 20 ($99--Brinsea) --with egg turner ($49-Brinsea)-- when I ran out of room in my Brinsea Mini --which is perfect btw.
I got the Spot Check thermometer ($20) to go with it. Brinsea has a heavy shipping charge for products --$35 for these items!!

I think this is comparable in price to the Genesis and it holds temperature much better, though it doesn't measure perfectly even throughout.
My eggs on the left are 1/2 degree F cooler right under the fan area, on the bottom of the egg space. Much better difference than my Genesis, however.

The first tricky thing is seeing and adding water to it every couple days. It's a bit harder than the Hovabator, since the trough rocks back and forth hourly with the eggs.

I have used colored water (food dye) in my Hovabator genesis since my second hatch,
so I could see when it needed refilling, and poured it in through a small watering can.

The Octo 20 has a long rectangular trough which is tricky to fill if you have it almost full of eggs (27 bantams, 8 standards) like I do now.
(35 eggs isn't that far from what the Genesis holds either, & more if they're all bantam size.)
I would recommend using dyed water & a flashlight to check it, and you can tape a tiny hygrometer to the side to check it.

The other tricky thing is the initial temperature adjustment, recommended by Brinsea, may be time consuming.
You can run it empty before setting eggs and it will read the desired temp, then after setting a bunch of eggs, you may need to tweak the thermostat again until they're just right.

The thermostat adjustment is on the outside of the unit, which makes setting it easy with eggs in it, but I still found it unsettling to have to do this twice.

That having been said, I'm in the middle of my first large incubation with it & all the eggs are doing great, no early embryo deaths,
and I have a Mini Advance & a Mini Eco I won't consider selling as well. I like this company's incubators. They're user friendly & easy to clean.
I have no experience with the LG.


Hope this helps.

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Thanks.