HAS ANYONE TRIED THE ZOO MED RETI TEMP 500 IN A CHICKEN INCUBATOR????

[BigRay]

Have you tired this for thermostat control for incubator?

 

[Sunny the Hippie Chick]

I thought about using it.. But I never did. I didnt know if it would work or not.

 

[SevenWinds]

I'm using it now in a hatcher I built yesterday. Seems to work fine. I have a plastic cooler with a 40W bulb....just don't plug your fan into the repti temp. The 25W bulb wasn't enough. The 40W bulb keeps the air temp between 99.3-100.3 without the repti temp needing to be set on "high". The 60W bulb seemed to hot in the bator - area near the bulb). I have a Flukers therm/hygrometer and a water wiggler with probe therm. to check egg temp.

I'll know for sure in three days. I have 18 eggs in there due on Sunday. I'm hoping

But so far I am happy after reading about water thermostats. I bought one of those from Lowe's but I am taking it back.

There are seasoned vets on here who say the water thermostat is fine and ones who went to wafer or reptitemp. I already have a Hovabator to incubate. I had to stagger a hatch based on eggs shipped later than arranged so I tried to build one. I modeled mine after the original Miss Prissy bator...if I would change on thing it would be using screws to secure the hardware cloth instead of just bending....

 

[SevenWinds]

update: The repti temp worked great. Today we hatched 11 of 19 eggs early and two are working their way out now.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Yes, I,ve been using repti 500 in my homemade bator for 3 years now.

It works very good, has only temp swing .5 to .7 F, never "spikes"

like most of styrobators, and my bator powered by repti 500 holds steady temperature within 10+ degrees room day/night swings.


Can your styrobator or "electronic" water heater thermostat do that?

Lately there are dishonest pushers of "electronic" water heater thermostats on ebay and eggbid.

Water heater thermostat is not "electronic" it is a 19 century technology, it works on a principle of piece of metal expanding and closing the circuit.

And if you still want it you can buy it in Lowes for $9.00