GQF incubator…. Not heating evenly… advice?

[Laska]

Has anyone dealt with this with a gqf incubator? Like it’s not evenly distributing the heat further down, if I had not checked this and gone off of the gqf inc temp I woulda been mad in 21 days lol Anyone have a fix for this?
My only thought is to add a computer fan to push the heat around better… but wanted to get second opinions or maybe something I missed with setup?
Set @ 100.5 and middle level only gets to 98.2 at its warmest… quite dissatisfied.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Has anyone dealt with this with a gqf incubator? Like it’s not evenly distributing the heat further down, if I had not checked this and gone off of the gqf inc temp I woulda been mad in 21 days lol Anyone have a fix for this?
My only thought is to add a computer fan to push the heat around better… but wanted to get second opinions or maybe something I missed with setup?
Set @ 100.5 and middle level only gets to 98.2 at its warmest… quite dissatisfied.

I put my thermometer in the bottom of the incubator and just take the temperature that way.
I have nearly perfect hatches in it. I have a Sportsman's GQF 1202e.

 

[KristenG]

I have two cabinet GQF incubators- an old 1202 I’ve had since 2000 and a brand new 1502 I’ve had since 2021. I only hatch once or twice a year but when I hatch, I usually have about 300 eggs in lockdown ( I raise bantams so I can fit 118 per shelf). I have noticed the issue with uneven heating ( it is way worse with the older model) but after 20 years of hatching with them I have learned that the uneven heating isn’t a huge issue when you have such big clutches because the eggs generate their own heat towards the end of incubation. This is often just enough for them to exert their limited ability to thermoregulate to the appropriate temperature. My suggestion is to not worry so much about the uneven temperatures if you have a big clutch that mostly fills one or more trays. If you are only hatching a small clutch ( like 20 or less), then you may just want to use a small table top incubator, broody hens, or shift your remote temperature gauge around until you find the right area and set them only in that portion of the incubator. Also, I keep some detailed hatching records so I can see which temperature and humidity setting provide the best results and I frequently get 70% hatchability out of a very linebred strain of d’Anvers in spite of not doing anything to more evenly circulate the air. Not perfect, but bantam eggs are often more difficult to successfully incubate than standard eggs and this is enough that I am happy with it. I have noticed my incubator often won’t match any of the remote sensing thermometers (which themselves can have errors - since they often don’t even agree with each other!). Sometimes those additional thermometers won’t read the same sitting right next to each other. In fact, sometimes the remote sensing thermometers are 1-2 degrees off, so ultimately I stopped worrying about them. Rather than worrying about whether or not the digital display, or analog thermometers on the 1202, display what I think they should compared to what the remote thermometers are displaying on each lower shelf, I simply pay attention to which set temperature produces the best overall performance and go with that. I find that 98 degrees on a remote sensor on a lower shelf can, in fact, still correlate to a good hatch. So, my suggestion is simply to try out the incubator on some non valuable eggs and get a sense for what works best. Fine tune your running based on how your hatches perform relative to your primary thermostat reading, make sure you run batches with at least 30 eggs and keep those eggs together on the same shelf. If you wanna put an additional fan in there, you could try it. My experience indicates it doesn’t seem to be necessary for what I want. And experience with still air versus forced air seems to indicate that chicks seem hatch better at lower temperatures with minimal or indirect air currents in the forced air. Just my two cents, for what it is worth.

 

[Anniesbabies]

I put my thermometer in the bottom of the incubator and just take the temperature that way.
I have nearly perfect hatches in it. I have a Sportsman's GQF 1202e.

What causes heat to be 100, another thermostat showing 99.5 but eggs will not hatch

 

[Kiki]

What causes heat to be 100, another thermostat showing 99.5 but eggs will not hatch

Are you needing help with your incubator?

 

[Altairsky]

I had 5°C of temperature difference in my incubator. I didn't know so all the eggs from my first batch died.
I added a computer fan and I solved all problems. Got decent hatch rate the next attempt.