hot-water-heater thermostat that only goes down to 110 F - ok to use?

[Poulets De Cajun]

I haven't a thing to add to this thread, other than WOW! The brotherly love is just FLOWING IN HERE....

 

[Mrs MIA]

Most definitely you can use a hotwater heater thermostat (90-150°F), but not one with the 110°F lowest setpoint... sorry. Sure, they're not as stable as a wafer, but if you have the patience to fine tune it, it will (and does) work. Over half of my chicks hatched in my homemade incubatorS (emphasis on the S) and they work quite well as hatchers, too.
Yes, if you find you have to order something online, I would go for the wafer rather than the HWH thermostat, but if you can find one with a 90°F lowest setpoint, then you can use that.

 

[patandchickens]

Gee, where were all you guys a coupla hours ago? LOL

My husband came home and I sulked/complained at him about not being able to find a h/w/h thermostat with a low enough dial, and ended up ordering a wafer-type thermostat from Berry Hill (for $26, which in a bizarre twist is about $13 less than Murray McMurray, well actually even more of a bargain than that if you figure in the exchange rate... very odd since imported stuff is *never* cheaper in Canada)... then I checked back here and NOW look at all the helpful suggestions

YeOldeBroodie, we do have Rona here, but our local one truly did not have a suitable thermostat. Tho I will admit I did not ask if larger stores in the chain might have them (ours is kinda small). Canadian Tire, Home Hardware and Home Depot all had only thermostats going down to 110 (even the 'lower', single pole ones). Petsmart had only an idiot employee who was insistant I needed a rheostat not a thermostat; and Big Al's Aquarium Supplies wanted to sell me a nice little setup for a mere $66, cough hack gag.

Many sincere thanks to those with helpful information and offers of assistance... I think that since I have already (in a fit of pique

) put in the order for the wafer thermostat (plus spare wafer, plus a floating dairy thermometer that I've been wanting for cheesemaking

) I will probably stick with that and give up on the h/w/h thermostat idea. Much as it pains me to do so, as a matter of principle (the principle being "cheapness"

-- although frankly the cheapest h/w/h/ thermostats I saw, albeit the wrong setting, were still half the price of the wafer thermostat, or more, so it isn't actually a huge difference I guess)

Thanks again,

Pat, hoping it gets delivered soon b/c I'd *like* to get the thing built/stabilized in time to set eggs for a May 1 hatch to coincide with some chicks I've ordered... we'll see.

 

[YeOleBroodie]

Quote:
Ummm out cleaning the chicken coops.

Just haven't gotten them trained yet to do their own house keeping.

Your welcome and good luck with your bator building.

 

[jvls1942]

you will not be disappointed with your wafer set-up.. It might even mean a better % of eggs hatched in the long run.. thus offsetting the extra $$$$..

not that there is anything wrong with hwt 's....

 

[WalkingWolf]

I use HWT in my homemade and my LG still air. I now use the homemade as a hatcher. It keeps the temp within a range of 1 degree, split would be .5 from desired. And it does not need readjustment when turning on after being off. I use HWT in the LG as a safety cutoff, after a couple times the temp rose to far with the built in therm. I set the HWT to cut out if the temp should get close to 101. For some reason this seems to get the LG back to where it is supposed to be without the drastic climb, so I don't have to constantly adjust and watch it every waking minute.

 

[ILOVEFRIZZLES]

I got mine from Lowes.

 

[Mrs MIA]

You'll be happy with the wafer.

I'm going to build a new cabinet incubator and I'll be getting the wafer for that.

Good job!!

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Here is the best thermostat for the money, around 22 bucks better accuracy and quality than any wafer, water heater thermostat or "electronic" thermostat in LG.

Works great in incubator, you can place the probe on the top of the eggs, thermostat body with adjusting dial (no screws or thiny knobs) can be placed outside for easy control and adjustment.

Features: easy to turn dial, remote probe allowing remote operation, accuracy less than .5 F range 70F - 120F

http://absolutelypets.stores.yahoo.net/zoomedre50th.html

Can anybody beat that?

 

[greathorse]

All blustering aside I think you will be happy that you went with the wafer style therm. I have not seen anyone on this site talk about huge failures because a wafer would not stabilize. Some folks do have trouble with the water heater therms. Others have good luck.

In my most humble opinion the wafer will be easier. I messed with a water heater therm for a while and had much better temp stabilization with the wafer. The wafer is designed very much for this type of application and the water heater them is designed for , well, for heating water.

Good luck.