Has anyone else NOT had a good experience with the Nuture Right 360?

[alpinewelsummer]

I really need to know if it's a run of bad luck on my part or not. Everyone recommended this incubator to me. I see it all over the forums, youtube, and everyone says what wonderful hatches they get from theirs.

..... me, I've exchanged once due to issues of hygro/thermometers being very off, loud whining from the fan, ect... and now I'm stuck with one beyond the exchange date that still has those issues though on a much more minor/manageable level. But it's not just those issues--I've genuinely had my absolute worst hatch rates out of this thing. I've had nearly 90-100 percent hatch rates out of the little styrofoam cheapo bator from TSC, from a modified DIY mini fridge bator with insane temperature fluctuations........ but this $160 nearly automated Nuture Right has repeatedly given me hatches where all but a few of the eggs die.

The one, ONE exception were a batch of call ducks I did in the 360. The difference in this hatch vs the others? The call eggs were too small for the turner, so I hand-turned them. I don't want to completely blame the machine, but I had a bad feeling from the start that the rotator in the 360 was just too rough, watching even large chicken eggs rattle around for a second or two after each rotation.

So either I just had really bad luck only when using the 360 by coincidence, or there's something about the machine that's consistently killing any eggs I put in there. I'm tearing my hair out over here and comforting a child who was so excited about their now-gone little duckies they were attempting to hatch, a child who I reassured had the best of our incubators at his disposal, being so so sure that the last 2 hatches it killed just had to be pure coincidence, something I did wrong.... and now I'm wondering, has anyone else had such a bad experience with this supposedly heaven-sent incubator?

I guess half this post was an emotional vent, but I can't be the only one who's had such bad luck with this thing, right?

 

[cavemanrich]

I have no idea what is going wrong with your unit. Yes,,,,, I read about everyone, else great results. One thing I would like to add. Some peeps did use a shelf liner on the bottom. That may ease the turning rumbling you have mentioned.
Lets see what are some of the suggestions by those that are having success with theirs??

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[WestTNriverrat]

I recently got me one of these incubators. I’m a novice when it comes to hatching. Was my first go hatching eggs actually. I sat 21 chicken eggs that were two and a half weeks old give or take a few days. I just took a chance with the factory temp and hydrometer settings. I hatched 16 successfully. 1 wasn’t fertile one stopped developing at about a week or so. The last 3 piped and should have hatched but I didn’t notice the other chicks kicked them around and they ended up with the pip hole on the bottom. I chalk those up to my mistake. I figure they suffocated. I was figuring I’d probably hatch 10-12 since it was my first go at it and the eggs were a tad bit old.
I really was impressed with the nurture right 360. I hate your having such a problem with yours.

 

[WestTNriverrat]

I did add a shelf liner to mine at lock down but until then it was straight out of the box. I let it run for a day and then placed my eggs. I felt the liner made it more difficult to get my humidity up.

 

[Coops Dad]

We have two NR360's and haven't had any low hatch rates except 4/12 Ayam Cemani eggs which had been washed by the guy who sold them to me. The worst hatch rate I've had was when we had 5 days of rolling blackouts during the February Freeze this year. Indoor temps went to upper 50's, couples with no power for many hours at a time followed by 45 minutes of electricity... I didn't have any hope. We let it run and ended up with 16/22 hatching but one died from an umbilical infection.

We even get good hatch rates out of our Marans eggs by doing a dry incubation, no water in the reservoirs until lockdown.

Honestly, I don't have a single thing to speak against the NR360 but am sorry for your experiences with it. Maybe sell it and buy something else that you've got experience with and have confidence in? Even used, these things bring good money. Our TCS sells them new for $129 and, when they show up used on Craigslist or FB Marketplace, they sell near instantly for $100.

 

[Ryguy3684]

I've always had between 90-100% hatch rates with mine. I haven't had any issues with eggs turning. I'm hatching large/extra large Buff Orpington eggs, if that makes a difference. Sorry it hasn't been going well for you.
Are you sure the thermometer and hydrometer are calibrated? That's the only thing I can think of. When candling, how are the chicks developing? How far are they getting before development stops?

 

[alpinewelsummer]

I've always had between 90-100% hatch rates with mine. I haven't had any issues with eggs turning. I'm hatching large/extra large Buff Orpington eggs, if that makes a difference. Sorry it hasn't been going well for you.
Are you sure the thermometer and hydrometer are calibrated? That's the only thing I can think of. When candling, how are the chicks developing? How far are they getting before development stops?

We had to place separate hygro/thermos in each one we got because the built in ones were inaccurate. We're sure the ones we placed in are calibrated. They all die at different stages, so we can't pinpoint a consistent time of death.

The eggs always start off candling wonderfully, with very strong veins, and then somewhere along the way, one after the other, they all start dying.

My only thought at this point is maybe mine for some reason turns much more quickly/roughly than everyone else's models--like I got a dud with a weird glitchy turner. Because the only time I got a good hatch was when I hand-turned.

 

[alpinewelsummer]

We have two NR360's and haven't had any low hatch rates except 4/12 Ayam Cemani eggs which had been washed by the guy who sold them to me. The worst hatch rate I've had was when we had 5 days of rolling blackouts during the February Freeze this year. Indoor temps went to upper 50's, couples with no power for many hours at a time followed by 45 minutes of electricity... I didn't have any hope. We let it run and ended up with 16/22 hatching but one died from an umbilical infection.

We even get good hatch rates out of our Marans eggs by doing a dry incubation, no water in the reservoirs until lockdown.

Honestly, I don't have a single thing to speak against the NR360 but am sorry for your experiences with it. Maybe sell it and buy something else that you've got experience with and have confidence in? Even used, these things bring good money. Our TCS sells them new for $129 and, when they show up used on Craigslist or FB Marketplace, they sell near instantly for $100.

I thought about selling, but reading all these posts I'm starting to think that I was just unlucky enough to get a dud unit 2 times in a row, and I don't think I feel right selling knowing that it could be something with the unit that's killing everything

I appreciate your post and insight, though! Thank you!

 

[ladybrasa]

Did you get the first one and the exchange one from the same place, I guess? Maybe both machines were from the same lot or something like that and therefore have the same problem??

I got an NR 360 this year. Have done two hatches. Overall first went well. Was two batches of shipped eggs from different places, one batch incubated and hatched in the 360, and one batch incubated in a DIY and hatched in the 360. Overall had 50% (good for shipphatch but technically only 1 (out of 6) hatch from incubating in the 360. Second hatch was disastrous, but there were a lot of potential issues that may or may not have been connected with the 360.

I also had the thought that the turner seemed a little rough, I guess, so I used shelf liner for the whole incubation and made sure the eggs still turned.

My thermostat on the 360 seems off by about 1.5 degrees, but have read to basically never trust the built in thermostat of any incubator. I adjusted accordingly and always had two or more thermometer/hygrometers in there as well.

I also am wondering how much ambient temp and humidity effect the 360. That UFO lid is really nice to look in to, but I wonder about how insulated it is, and you basically have to take off the entire lid to do anything in there. Also clicking the lid back on perfectly is a bit of a pain. Does appear to recover heat and humidity pretty quickly though!

I think I read someone rigging holders of a sort in the turner so those eggs in the turner wouldn’t turn and were upright. Might be worth doing something in the 360 where half the eggs are turned by the turner and half you turn manually. That way all the eggs would be under the same conditions except for the turning.

 

[LaFleche]

It might not be the incubator.

What kind of eggs did you incubate and were they shipped or from your own flock?

It is always recommendable to deworm the parent birds at least 3-4 weeks prior to collecting hatching eggs and add some vitamin supplement to their drinking water afterwards (especially vitamin B complex for ducks!).

Fertile eggs might develop for some days, but when they lack vital nutrients they die off during the incubation.

Sometimes a hidden infection of the parent birds will have the embryos die as well.

Here is some more information for trouble shooting: http://extension.msstate.edu/content/trouble-shooting-failures-egg-incubation