I just bought the Farm Innovators 4250 circulated air incubator. It's been on for 6 days now and has ran just fine up until today. This morning I woke up to find my digital reading on the thermometer was still 99.5 but both backup thermometers in the incubator were reading 96.... So I bumped my temp up and ran to the store to get another thermometer and hygrometer. When I got back, I put the new thermo-hygrometer into the incubator and turned my temp on the digital incubator back down to 99.5 to get an accurate reading again. In seconds, the incubator said it was 99.5 degrees but all three backup thermometers read 103 and the new hygrometer is reading 12 % higher than the digital incubator. I've tried adjusting the height of the thermometer and now it is reading 99.5 while 2 of the backup thermometers are saying it's 94 and the one that is right between the eggs is reading 102. What the heck is going on??? Could it be that my fan stopped working and is not circulating the air or has the incubator just gone haywire??? This is my first time incubating eggs so I'm at a loss. Just candled the 8 eggs for the first time last night and found 6 of 8 eggs had embryos in them already. Makes me sick to think about losing them all cos of this lil mishap. Can these ducklings still survive if I can get my settings fixed??? Any help would be great. Matt
Here's what you are dealing with. Not all thermometers read at the same timing. Also not all thermometers are accurate. Understand that almost all incubators thermostats are in an on or off state. What you are trying to achieve is a constant and appropriate internal egg temperature. If a thermometer samples when the heat element is energized, it will read in the 100s. When the temperature drops below set point, heat will turn on till the thermostat kicks off. Temperature will continue to rise for a few seconds to minutes while the heat element cools. The readings on a good instant read thermometer will swing wildly and constantly. Get 2 guaranteed accurate thermometers and throw the rest out. There will still be swings in readings unless your thermostat energizes in a graduated scale but you'll know what is up. http://thermoworks.com/products/low_cost/rt301wa.html https://www.brinsea.com/p-394-spot-check-digital-incubator-thermometer.aspx
I'm so confused as to which thermometers are gonna work. None of them are labeled as incubator thermometers but I have three indoor/outdoor thermometers in there that I calibrated before putting them in. One is reading right on with the incubator at 99.5 right now. The other two are reading 93 and 94 and one of those was calibrated to be right on with the incubator thermostat on day one, and all the way up until this morning of day 7. Tried moving the eggs to the middle and maybe that will help the air to circulate a lil better now.
