homemade incubator, having troubles managing heat

[jessellebond]

I made a homemade incubator similar to this: http://nanaglenmum.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/my-homemade-egg-incubator/

My trouble is that either my thermometer is extremely inaccurate or my 25watt is just super hot. When i turned on the bulb, in a matter of about 7 minutes, my indoor temp read 111 degrees F and the outdoor temp read 81 degrees. The outdoor probe sensor was right beside the actual thermometer. What in the world? Any suggestion?

Thank you muchos in advanced!
Jess.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Do you use a thermastate , if you dont it will be almost impossible to control the temp. Also from what I have seen and read the smaller the incubator the bigger the fluxs it seems. Do you have a fan in yours ? I have heard with a thermastat haveing the fan blow it was ether up or down onto the bulb was helpfing for fluxs.

 

[jessellebond]

I haven't installed the fan yet, but will be using a CPU fan hooked up to a 12volt batter. the box was fairly small, so I'm going to try my other slightly larger styrofoam box. I do not have a thermostat however I have wired a dimmer onto my lamp and am going to try to "adjust" the temperature that way. Do you have any suggestions where I could find a fairly cheap thermostat that's reliable? Thanks so much for the response. I'm trying to get this thing perfect so we can get our eggs soon =)

 

[gabrielle1976]

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/bi-metal-egg-incubator-thermostat-kit.html

I have been looking at this one , its made for incubators so I would think it would work. Hopefully someone that knows more will anser when I made mine I made every mistake there was from to small a styro box ect. I used a hot water heater stat for that and it still vaired alot. I ended up just buying a little giant For about the same price as all the parts cost me. Though I dont think the LG is very good .

 

[jessellebond]

LOL aghh yes, it says you can make for less than this awesome price.... and $30 later, broken parts, another 20 there. Yep, sounds about right to me. Thank you for sharing that with me. What don't ya like about your LG?

 

[gabrielle1976]

Mostly it takes alot of getting use to it has temp issues unless you keep it somewhere where there is a constant temp . The one with the fan is much better though if you have a fan you could install that on in a still air lg probly. I Have an LG with a fan and one without. I am waiting on my mini eco that I got for 89 shipped from the brinsea sight and am excited about trying it out. Get a thermastat install the fan and get a couple diffrent watts of bulbs some really lower ones and maybe a higher one and try diffrent combos till you get it within 98-102 range . If you cant then I would go for a bought one.

 

[jessellebond]

do they make a lower wattage after 25 that ya know of?

 

[quintinp]

I have a Little Giant that I've had for 4 years, but I got it used, and it was pretty old when I got it. So I estimated it to be 8-12 years old.

It's thermostat fried just a few months ago, I haven't used it in 2 years, but when I turned it on, it just burned the the thermostat circuit board.

Today, I got another thermostat for it, a newer LG thermostat.

I placed a 12 volt Computer fan, wired to a 5.3 volt cell phone adapter.

I also had a 120 volt fan, from a Brower Top Hatch incubator, that is about 3 inches across, and have that mounted in the corner.

As for the circuit board cover, I cut out a large hole in the center, and cut a larger dip between the legs of the circuit board cover, to allow more air flow to come in contact with the thermostat sensor, and I plugged it in, and the thermostat was going on and off pretty quickly, so I am thinking that I have helped it. I had to turn it off, as I have other incubators going, and didn't feel like tinkering with this Little Giant incubator.

And as for you jessellebond, You need a fan. You don't need a thermostat, as cmom, uses a dimmer as well, and they have had great hatches in their incubator. You need a different thermometer too. I have never liked the Accu-rite thermometers. I used the white spring field Wal-mart thermometer. You could also try the medical grade bodily temperature thermometers too. I eventually bought an Incubator Warehouse thermometer with a probe.

 

[quintinp]

do they make a lower wattage after 25 that ya know of?

Maybe 15 watts. You don't need to try getting lower wattage, you Need a fan.

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

do they make a lower wattage after 25 that ya know of?

Get a lamp dimmer!! I have a 25 watt bulb in mine. It's to hot. when I first started i had a 20 watt bulb. No idea how i ended up with it, it was in the closet. Apparently they nolonger make a 20 watt bulb. It went out I ended up buying 25 watt bulbs ($5 for 2) and a lamp dimmer ($10). Now I can actually use any wattage of lightbulb and adjust it to make the temperature correct in the incubator.