Home Built Incubator heating Question ??

[bethinoklahoma]

sorry... saw that you are using the fridge....

 

[bethinoklahoma]

any word on heat tape working?

 

[farmer_lew]

I have plans to build an incubator using light bulbs for heat controlled by a lower water heater thermostat to regulate the temp. The thermostats can be bought at Lowe's or Home Depot for about $9. I also plan to use a computer fan to circulate the heat. Splice the fan into a cell phone charger, or other AC adapter, that has a 120v input and 12v output.

You may have to play with the thermostat settings and light bulb wattage to zero in on your target temp. Oh, and you can get a thermometer/hygrometer combo unit at Harbor Freight for $9.99.

Happy Incubating!!

 

[Liamm_1]

Quote:
I'm building one too. Going out today to pick up the parts I need. I'm wondering, aren't the chicks supposed to remain in the incubator for 24 hours, and if so, how do they get air to breath in a sealed unit?

 

[HatchCraft]

Quote:
I'm building one too. Going out today to pick up the parts I need. I'm wondering, aren't the chicks supposed to remain in the incubator for 24 hours, and if so, how do they get air to breath in a sealed unit?

I leave my chicks in for 12 to 24 hours. They can be moved when the are dry. Incubators have fresh air vents.

 

[Zgoatlady]

Cold Canadian
You can get what your looking for at QFC in the parts area. My husband built me a nice one last spring and its huge. I love it the only bad thing is once I start hatching I just cant stop.

 

[Zgoatlady]

Liamm_1
Dont seal the unit you will kill the eggs.
The unit my husband buit last year is great but I take the eggs and put them in another unit to hatch when they are ready.

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

I built an incubator and a hatcher using 11" and 2 strips 4" Flextape from Incubator Warehouse. They work great. They are in two 20 gal fish tanks insulated with styrofoam insulation from Lowes. The criticle elements are the thermostats. I have two totally electronic thermostats from Incubator warehouse. Although pricey they keep the temp right on target no matter what the room temp is. If they don't have them listed on their web site. Call them because if they don't have enough in stock they don't advertise so they don't run out if they get a whole lot of orders. Thats what I had to do when I ordered my second one. Sending you good bator vibes and good luck with your hatch

 

[ga_goat]

You could probably go to an appliance repair place and buy a 'bad' clothes drier heating element , because you won't be needing all of it just measure across the fan and make it 4 or 5 passes across the space ( insulators from tractor supply ) and use crimp on hi-temp terminals ( appliance repair place ) I've built 3 like this and all work fine , if you use a water heater theromostat be sure to dissasemble it and drill some small hles in the front cover so it won't have as much swing in temp .

 

[Liamm_1]

Quote:
What are ways that people vent the incubators? Mine is a converted ice chest with a 60W bulb, mounted up high at one end.

The high/low on the end farthest from the light, but closest to the thermostat is 99F/91.8F.

The high/low on the end directly under the light, farthest from the thermostat is 106.7F/96F.

I have not installed a fan in the unit yet. I figured I would test the temperatures to see if a fan is necessary, but with such large temperature variances, am I correct to assume that a fan will create a more stable temperature throught the incubator?

Given my highest temperature is 106.7F, and the lowest is 91.8F, am I to assume that with a fan installed, the incubator will maintain an average temp of around 99.3F, at the current thermostat setting?