Home made incubator

[crissycriss]

Hello fowl friends! LOL 

Just joined the site and was surfing through the incubator thread here. I'm also a retired master electrician who once did sub work for NASA and other defense contractors here on the space coast of Florida. The pic of the thermostat that Wildcat Chix posted above is the correct one you want. It is sometimes referred to as a "Lower Element" thermostat of a 2 (dual) element water heater. It simplifies wiring as it is a singe pole and has just 2 screws (Line in, Line out). This is great when adapting it to use in a 120 volt application. Being smaller than the upper thermostat it also makes it work more efficiently by it reacting much faster to temperature swings. It is quite simple thermophysics that larger objects take longer to warm up, but also take longer to cool off. The smaller lower thermostat (when placed closely to the heat source) will react more quickly thus keeping it's preselected temperature within a very narrow range as needed in incubator use.

Anyone know where I can find one of those fat/thick Styrofoam shipping coolers? Need a larger one as I want to put a 18" x 18" auto egg turner in the bottom. If I can't find one it may just end up being a Coleman instead and that's my fishin cooler, can't have that! LOL 

Hello and welcome to BYC!!! Thanks for your detailed information. Its great to have you here.
Sorry i cant help you about the cooler.Maybe You could ck with a local grocery store they may have one or know where you can get one.

 

[Cajun Chooks]

You may want to watch Rush Lane's How to build an incubator on You Tube. I built 2 of them,one with a wafer thermostat and the other a hot water thermostat, and I haven't been disappointed yet. They both keep perfect temperature and humidity. When I take a break from hatching and plug them back in it takes all of an hour for them to reach temp.

Where did you get your heritage RIR's from, I have some coming from Lucky Pickins Farm.

 

[kapie9969]

Funny while i was offering advise i put anouther incubator together myself.I used a Styrofoam cooler on sale at wallyworld.2.38 cents.And its from recycled material.The rest of the stuff is saved from my other incubator.Now im just trying to get the settings right.adjusting the postion of the thermostat.

 

[Brookhavens]

Hello fowl friends! LOL

Just joined the site and was surfing through the incubator thread here. I'm also a retired master electrician who once did sub work for NASA and other defense contractors here on the space coast of Florida. The pic of the thermostat that Wildcat Chix posted above is the correct one you want. It is sometimes referred to as a "Lower Element" thermostat of a 2 (dual) element water heater. It simplifies wiring as it is a singe pole and has just 2 screws (Line in, Line out). This is great when adapting it to use in a 120 volt application. Being smaller than the upper thermostat it also makes it work more efficiently by it reacting much faster to temperature swings. It is quite simple thermophysics that larger objects take longer to warm up, but also take longer to cool off. The smaller lower thermostat (when placed closely to the heat source) will react more quickly thus keeping it's preselected temperature within a very narrow range as needed in incubator use.

Anyone know where I can find one of those fat/thick Styrofoam shipping coolers? Need a larger one as I want to put a 18" x 18" auto egg turner in the bottom. If I can't find one it may just end up being a Coleman instead and that's my fishin cooler, can't have that! LOL

Thanks for the info on the thermostats!! The only place I know to get those coolers is from Omaha Steaks. They are offering free shipping right now for any order over $79. If you buy an igloo cooler that will fit your turner you are going to pay about the same price. I know because I looked at all the coolers at Walmart and the only one that was big enough to hold an egg turner was $69.

 

[3forfree]

Thanks for the link it helped alot. Hope mine will turn out as good as yours did.

Good luck to you to.I sure hope you can get your fridge bator working correctly. Now to change the subject I LOVE your avatar.He\she is so beautiful. I used to have a black and white one with one blue eye.She was my baby sadly she died at 6 months.Broke my heart and havent even tried to get another. Jessie was so perfect i know another could live up to my expectations. Ok sorry to get side tracked just had to share.

Thanks for the kind words about my dog, he was just a pup in that pic. Today he's 2years old, ninety pounds and full of love. We almost lost him last thanksgiving he ate an indestructable rubber ball and tore up his intestines and had 2 surgeries in 3 days to fix it. If you haven't built a incubator yet follow some of the other members advice about their builds. The hot water heater thermostat works better with the mods (holes drilled in it and can be seen on you tube,,,here,

Play with it after building to get the temps right, get a hygrometer if you're not doing a dry hatch. Good Luck

 

[crissycriss]

Thanks for the kind words about my dog, he was just a pup in that pic. Today he's 2years old, ninety pounds and full of love. We almost lost him last thanksgiving he ate an indestructable rubber ball and tore up his intestines and had 2 surgeries in 3 days to fix it. If you haven't built a incubator yet follow some of the other members advice about their builds. The hot water heater thermostat works better with the mods (holes drilled in it and can be seen on you tube,,,here,

Play with it after building to get the temps right, get a hygrometer if you're not doing a dry hatch. Good Luck

Thank you, glad your dog made it i know how scared i would have been during the time this took place. I watched the video but i have a different one a lower thermastat so not sure where to drill hole.It dont have the other holes either.Do i hang the thermastat with the siver side out (i seen that somewhere) or with the control (black)side out.?Also what is dry hatch?which is best for hatching ducks? Thanks again

 

[3forfree]

have the thermostat with the silver side to the heat source. dry hatch is where you don't add any water until lockdown. As far as ducks go I'm not sure if you can use the dry method maybe a duck person will chime in here and answer your question. I'm doing this dry hatch for the first time.

 

[crissycriss]

have the thermostat with the silver side to the heat source. dry hatch is where you don't add any water until lockdown. As far as ducks go I'm not sure if you can use the dry method maybe a duck person will chime in here and answer your question. I'm doing this dry hatch for the first time.

 

K thanks so much

 

[crissycriss]

FINALLY got my incubator up and running.It stays at 99-100 then drops to 96-97.Thinking of putting some water bottles in to help keep temperature up when the light cuts off.Would this work?

 

[Curlymg]

You can use rocks to help with temperature modulation, since they absorb and hold heat. Having the rocks in there will help to heat the air up quickly if you happen to let fresh air in. I think jars both plastic and glass filled with water will work as heat sinks also, not too sure about water bottles though. (is there even a difference between them lol)