HELP...Strange behavior with Brower Top Hatch...

[equus2]

Sorry to hear that you are having troubles similar to the ones I had. I was excited to get my tophatch, and upon assembling it and suspecting a glitch in the turner motor, and the thermostat, I called the Manufacturer (Houghton, Iowa). It is also (mine was) almost impossible to disassemble. I made an insulation blanket for it, which helped just a little initially, but then the light bulbs started to fry, just a few days into incubation. (you can usually survive a power outage, but not repeated failures in one hatch.)

While they were very nice, the factory rep would not take it back. I should have insisted, rather than give it a chance, as I lost two expensive hatches and a whole lot of the hatching season. The distributor finally did take it back, but I lost the expense of shipping both ways, and the eggs that I lost.

I love my Genesis, my old LG with turner and fan, AND, my new homemade bators (which run on light bulbs as heat sources, too). Your tophatch may be just fine, I sure hope so. It's a good concept. It's not a good bator to fill to capacity, especially if the log-jamming bothers you. A little space is good. Don't overly worry though about the eggs bunching up, help them if you need to. As they get a few days into hatching, they will assume the "downhill" position, and roll much easier.

Good luck, well, better luck, anyway!!

 

[seminolewind]

The Brower was the best I had so far. The light does fluxuate, alot. I wrapped around the sides with bubble wrap. I also laid a piece over the top, loosely not to close off the air holes. I never had to adjust it that way. The other thing is that the knob is great cause it makes very slow adjustments in temps with bigger turns, which is better than bigger temp changes with tiny turns. The eggs placed in there is what may be causing the fluxuation. New eggs can cool down an incubator and take quite a while to warm up. Then as they get older, they seem to start to let off heat esp towards the end.
I would try wrapping the bator, laying bubble wrap loosely on top as well, give it another day to become stable, and make sure that the room is not fluxuating cause of the sun hitting the room. Mine worked perfectly with those things.
My biggest annoyances were the fluxuating light which killed my eyes, and the wall around the bulb was not high enough for the chicks not to touch it, so I moved them to the brooder as soon as I could.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

The rooms temp really plays a part. I was having fluxuating temps with mine and I threw a heavy blanket over the window (it's in the guest bedroom) and my temps have been good.

BTW-It is recommended with any bator to set it up and run it for a couple days before setting eggs! That is not just a Brower thing!