I have an old scientific teaching incubator. Medical style looking. It has been working great the past few days, keeping temps and all. I may have spilled some of the water on the cords or wafer or something because it just tripped the power. I dried every drop of water I could find and nothing seems wrong, but everytime I plug it in, it trips! (doesnt work in GFCI outlet either) I was putting a little more water in the pan so that I could put my eggs in for my first hatch. It had to be the water.... Can anyone help me??? I need to get these eggs in the incubator, can't spend like 50 dollars on a new one, can't order a new one since it's the weekend anyways. Can I make a sort of homemade incubator out of this one? What would I add??? Please help me, i'm about to pull my hair out!!
what are your inner dimensions? A pic of the unit would help us help you. But maybe a low wattage light bulb as a heat source...
Does that incubator use a light bulb? If so check the bulb to see if the bulb blew. If that is all it is then it is an easy fix. If not then I would look into making your own. I would (in that case) salvage as much as I can from the old incubator. I would think all you would need to do is find a way to hook a light into the incubator to produce the heat you need. here is a link of some home-made incubators. I hope they give you some ideas!! https://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken-coop-incubator.html
Many times, if there is the most microscopic amount of water in the electronics, it won't work until it's completely dry. Try drying the area you suspect water spilled into really well with paper towels or something else absorbent, and then use a hair dryer set on low heat with high air flow to blow dry it for a long time, like 10 minutes. This may do the trick if nothing shorted out and was damaged in the process. Also, check to see if the unit has any kind of reset button or reset procedure in its software if its digital.
Hi Kara! Oh no! Just when we thought everything that could go wrong already had gone wrong. I'm not familiar with that incubator or electronics/electrics-inclined to be able to offer any help. I hope you've got it working this morning. Good luck! Lisa
Thanks for all yall's help! I dried that bator out as much as I could and tried to forget about it. About 1:00 that night it turned back on. THANK GOD! I got the temp back up as well as the humidity and it seemed to be pretty stable. Put the eggs in after 3:00 and hoped for the best. It had a hard time stabilizing but it's good now. Hopefully most of my babies will stick in there!! I thought about trying to revamp this incubator, but it's kinda stone-age-ish. I could always use one of my future hens as an incubator, I know, crazy idea... Good news! Its day 3 and while candling I saw a few very potential babies! (very good veining!) I may have 2 blood rings though... Lisa, If I can get any photos to show while candling, ill send you some. I remember that one of the frizzles and ameraucana and maybe one of the NB were the best.
