Horrible Hova-Bator Smell

[meghen]

Hi All,

We recently bought a used 1586 to use as a hatcher to go with our Sportsman. The first time we used it, everything was pretty average. It maintained temperature really well, but we could not get the humidity down below 85% (we do live in a very damp climate though, so perhaps that has something to do with it). On day 21 (after being plugged in for four days), the most unholy smell began emanating from the incubator. It smelled like some sort of weird chemical rot, it was almost unbearable and I'm so glad it happened on day 21 and not day 18 or I would have had a hard time not pulling the plug on the whole project.

I have hatched out dozens of eggs and I'm quite familiar with the average hatch's smell. It's not very pleasant, but this was something above and beyond. I cleaned out the whole unit today, and wiped it down with vinegar and aired it out and let it sit in the sun. Then we plugged it back in to get it ready for this week's lockdown and about 4 hours in the whole house was full of the same chemical smell.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? Do you have any ideas on how to get the smell to stop? I spent a little too much money on it and would rather not just throw it out, but it is just AWFUL.

Thanks in advance,
Meg

 

[BonRae67]

Is there any way you can plug ot in somewhere outside so that it may work.the smell out by itself. The smell may have permeated the fan or be on the heating element and the longer it runs the the smell will go away. Whoever had it before you may have gotten a little heavy with the disinfectant.

 

[cochicken]

The heating element must be touching the insulation or case somewhere. Somehow it may have shifted. Remove find and remove whatever is touching the heater and run the temp up high with the unit outside to burn off the smell.

 

[meghen]

I had it running overnight in a trailer on the farm, but the smell has now permeated the trailer (good thing I'm gutting it this summer) and not weakened in intensity or repulsiveness. I am definitely going to have a look and see if anything is touching the element. Thanks for the advice!

 

[cochicken]

I wouldn't be surprised if you found a mouse nest somewhere up on the heater

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Did you ever figure out what the smell was?