hair straightener heating element?

[Jmpeters]

Thanks for all your input. I used a cheap $10 hair straightener. It seems to being going good. It does get pretty warm but no different the nichrome wire. Ill let it run for a few weeks and see how it goes. I also picked up 2 of those small my heat personal heaters for 12 bucks. Heating element and fan. Going to wire it so the fan always runs and thermostat controls the heating element. Its only like 6"x4"x3". Going to try that in cabinet in my garage I use for starting seedlings. The fan might not be big enough tho so im going to put a thermostat in each corner to see if it heats evenly. Ill have 2 protype incubators going and ive only spent $24, everything else ive already had laying around. Once I figure out the best method ill take them apart and put it in the bathroom vanity im going to use as the incubator.

Then I get to tinker with making a windmill to pump water around the lil duck pond. This project got me exited. Lol

 

[mstricer]

 

[loveourbirds]

Thanks for all your input. I used a cheap $10 hair straightener. It seems to being going good. It does get pretty warm but no different the nichrome wire. Ill let it run for a few weeks and see how it goes. I also picked up 2 of those small my heat personal heaters for 12 bucks. Heating element and fan. Going to wire it so the fan always runs and thermostat controls the heating element. Its only like 6"x4"x3". Going to try that in cabinet in my garage I use for starting seedlings. The fan might not be big enough tho so im going to put a thermostat in each corner to see if it heats evenly. Ill have 2 protype incubators going and ive only spent $24, everything else ive already had laying around. Once I figure out the best method ill take them apart and put it in the bathroom vanity im going to use as the incubator.

Then I get to tinker with making a windmill to pump water around the lil duck pond. This project got me exited. Lol

ive used this same heater setup before. you will have to switch out your thermostat. leave your wattage selector switch in place and use the lowest setting that works. a 500 watt heating element can send a lot of heat, making your thermostat cycle really fast- and wearing it out.

i used a dual wafer thermostat setup to replace the heater's thermostat.

when i used the heater's thermostat unit i did have a few hatch, but it was only like 6 out of 200. the temperature variance was about 6 degrees.

 

[Jmpeters]

This heater dont have a wattage selector, its just on or off. And its only a 200 watt heater. So I thing itll be bout perfect for a cabinet bator.

 

[loveourbirds]

it should be fine, some of those "inexpensive" heaters have 1300 watt elements, thats a bit much. sportsman type cabinets are around 200 watts.

 

[ozexpat]

There are many variables in a successfull home made incubator.

The smaller the incubator, the faster the change in temps unless they are filled with ballast such as zip loc bags of water.

Remember its not really the air temp that is critical, its the temperature in the egg.

Get a water wiggler with a temp probe in it and watch the temps.

 

[justoldbobo2]

I was thinking about using the extra strip of coils out of a "milk house" space heater. If my thinkin is right low is 1300 w and high is 1500 w. To do the jump a short piece of coil is activated along with longer coil. So that makes the short coil 200w right?

 

[Jmpeters]

Im not sure. But I found a 200 watt personal heater for 12 bucks. I bought 2 of them and took it apart and replaced the fan. The fan that was in was 12v and I wanted an 120vac fan. Good thing was the fan I got aligned perfectly and bolted up perfect. Worked good for the day I tested it. But took it apart to build a better incubator. Hopefully it gets nice out so o can work on it. The garage is freezing right now.

 

[Jmpeters]

Oh i think i got a heater like ur talking about. Its 750 watt and 1500 watt tho. 2 coils same the length.

 

[HatchCraft]

With resistance coiled wire, increasing resistance decreases wattage. Shorten a coil by half will double the wattage. Doubling a coil length will half the wattage. It is a little counter intuitive . You would think doubling the coil length would double the wattage, but its just the opposite.