hot water heater therm help

[lil' fowl]

will a 240V hot water heater thermostat work with 110???? my thermostat just went out and hv eggs to set....and if it will work can't i just tape it tp a metal can full of water???? thanks...

 

[ranchhand]

Oh my, I honestly don't know, but I doubt it. Try doing a search top right for homemade incubators, there a lot of info in there.

Seems like you'd need to split the circuit somehow?

 

[lil' fowl]

i couldn't find anything...i hv to leav for a bit...when i get back i'll look again...thanks..

 

[lil' fowl]

still can't find anything...but i don't think it will work....i'm trying to regulate temp on this other homemade one wth a dimmer switch,mayb i'll get it to work....

 

[Kiwibird]

Good luck with this. I have had eggs go cold for 24 hours and still hatch, so you are in with a chance.

 

[Billjr]

It should work. The thermostat expands with rising temps to break the circuit and contracts with cooling temps to close/turn on the circuit. A 240v thermostat is made a little heavier I believe, to withstand the 240v as opposed to 110/120v. Only the contacts should be different. I would NOT however use a 110/120v thermostat in a house that ran on 240v as the lighter contacts would burn. Also no need to tape it to something. Just mount it "off" of the walls to allow good air flow around it. Good Luck.

 

[lil' fowl]

oh shoot...i was scared t try it and ran out and got a wall thermastat....well it's good t know because i see people throwing hot water heaters away all the time because they leak....i'll start snatching the thermastats off of them .....i'm still workin on my temp in homemade lightbulb incubator, trying 2 bulbs like someone posted would work,then control temp with dimmer and leave one on all the time... now i'm fixen to put the wall thermastat in the big one...it's a old metal round one i got for $10.00 so guess i can't complain if the thermostat went out ....i hv the styrofoam one packed full,even stacked um....i've stacked them before and they still hatched...next project is try to mk one out of a old army foot locker i just picked up...i think i'll do that nx week...i'm not getting anything else done around here....

 

[Billjr]

They are $8.95 at Home depot. You need the bottom one. Water heaters usually have two thermo's. One on top and one on the bottom.

 

[lil' fowl]

ok,the bottom one,good deal...thank you...

 

[Billjr]

Don't forget to modify the thermo as shown here. You don;t need to take it apart just drill the holes where the toothpicks are.
Don't press to hard and damage the disk inside.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=26580-thermostat-modification
Good Luck.