HELP! Incubator questions

[heyheypaula]

Hello all!

I'd love to hear your expert opinions on how I should proceed incubator-wise.

Back story: I was all set and excited to order the Brinsea octagon 20 eco manual turner last week on amazon but when I was telling my co-workers one of them offered to let me borrow their incubator that they had used in the past. I wavered but said okay in the interest of saving money and because this is my first time and who knows if I will ever hatch eggs again ( I hope I do!) and she said she had an okay hatch rate and she REALLY wanted me to borrow it . Anyways, my co-worker neglected to tell me that the last time she used it must have been 10+ years ago because it is OLD AS SIN. And crappy. It's an old round still-air Hova-bator and I can't get it to regulate. It's either turning off or 106+ degrees according to all my thermometers (mercury & digital). My boyfriend offered to buy me the Brinsea that I originally wanted but they are all sold out everywhere! Until the 18th! AND my eggs are due to arrive the 13th! I am panic-ing.

SO here are my options and where I need your help!

Should I:
1. Run down to tractor supply and get the Little Giant still air incubator and buy a small computer fan and cross my fingers?
http://www.tractorsupply.com/little-giant-reg-still-air-incubator-2167379

OR
2: Should I order the Farm Innovators Model 2200 circulated air model that has terrible reviews but can be shipped to my house by monday (love amazon prime <3) and still cross my fingers?
http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovato...ubator/dp/B007571D8Y/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Please let me know! I have about 5 hours before I can't order the amazon incubator in time to get here by monday. I'd like to have it monday so I can fiddle around with it for 2 days and make sure everything works well and I don't have any temp or humidity issues.
Thank you all!

 

[WildBilly]

i never used an incubater for my chicks

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I would go with the Farm Innovators. The people leaving the negative reviews honestly probably didn't bother to research the product at all and tried to straight plug and play despite the warning that the gauges are for reference only. And the one talking about the humidity DRIPPING... I didn't get condensation in mine until I hit a 70% spike from spilling water at the very end of lockdown. He must have had insanely high humidity with one or both plugs in to do that.

The gauges are off but a $7 hydrometer/thermometer from ZooMed will be steady and reliable and you can calibrate the little thermometer that comes with the Farm Inn and use that to validate your temperature reading on the ZooMed. There is also a thread around on how to calibrate your hydrometer to get perfect readings. After that the thing is a breeze, you just adjust the temp based on the internal readings and ignore the gauges.

Temp and humidity hold steady as a dream in mine (I have the Pro version). Seriously, the only real issue I had was how far off the temp and humidity gauges are and that's an easy fix.

Edited to correct the autocorrections.

 

[heyheypaula]

I would go with the Farm Innovators. The people leaving the negative reviews honestly probably didn't bother to research the product at all and tried to straight plug and play despite the warning that the gauges are for reference only. And the one talking about the humidity DRIPPING... I didn't get condensation in mine until I hit a 70% spike from spilling water at the very end of lockdown. He must have had insanely high humidity with one or both plugs in to do that.

The gauges are off but a $7 hydrometer/thermometer from ZooMed will be steady and reliable and you can calibrate the little thermometer that comes with the Farm Inn and use that to validate your temperature reading on the ZooMed. There is also a thread around on how to calibrate your hydrometer to get perfect readings. After that the thing is a breeze, you just adjust the temp based on the internal readings and ignore the gauges.

Temp and humidity hold steady as a dream in mine (I have the Pro version). Seriously, the only real issue I had was how far off the temp and humidity gauges are and that's an easy fix.

Edited to correct the autocorrections.

Thank you!!