How do you replace an Electronic Thermostat in a cabinet Incubator (with backup wafer thermostat) wi

[Bowslayer2]

I just recently got a cabinet incubator and brooder. The old electronic thermostat on the brooder quit working. The wafer thermostat still works. I have been trying to figure out how to wire in the new digital electronic thermostat I bought while keeping the wafer thermostat as a backup http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F05UI8O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Below is a diagram and pictures that detail how the brooder and incubator are wired. Also, the green wire in the pic is disconnected at the moment, but is supposed to be connected to the other green wire grounded near the heating element. I will reconnect it….so ignore the fact it is disconnected. All testing I did had the green wires properly connected.

The problem is I can’t seem to get the digital electronic thermostat to turn off the incubator when I hook it up….I seem to be missing something. Is it the wafer thermostat causing problems? Can I keep the wafer thermostat? I would like to use the Digital electronic thermostat to set the temp and in case it failed, still keep the wafer thermostat as a backup.

The way I had it wired:
· - white and black wire I have marked as “where” in pic was hooked to slots 3 & 4.
· - blue wire from the wafer to the 1 slot
· - took a single separate wire and crossed over from 3 to 1

These were from the only instructions I could find on you tube or anywhere… The digital electronic thermostat does turn on, BUT when it reaches the pre-set temp to turn off it doesn’t turn off the heat. In this case I set the digital electronic thermostat to turn off at about 80 F as I didn't want to wait for the incubator to heat up to 99 for testing purposes.

Obviously I am wiring something wrong.. is there supposed to be another load wire to slot 2? If so where does that come from? Detailed help is appreciated as I am struggling. I have a picture of the current wiring below with unit I need it wired to.







Thanks,

 

[Soylent Chick]

The way I had it wired:
· - white and black wire I have marked as “where” in pic was hooked to slots 3 & 4.
· - blue wire from the wafer to the 1 slot
· - took a single separate wire and crossed over from 3 to 1

White should be in 3 or 4 and in 2 or 1.
Blue should be in 1 or 2. Nothing should be sharing slots.

 

[Bowslayer2]

Wow! It worked! Thank you very much! I spent a ton of time researching, watching You Tube videos, etc. and couldn't get it to work. Your directions were great and easy!
Thanks!

 

[MjChickens]

I am curious to know how well the new thermostat works verses buying a gqf thermostat?

 

[Bowslayer2]

The thermostat works well. I calibrated the temperature using an icy slush slurry in water to get a 32 F temp. I set three thermometers and the electronic thermostat to 32F using this method. Both my docooler electronic thermostats (the one in incubator and the one in brooder) had to be calibrated to a -5F...which set the thermostat probe temp to 32F....at least they were consistent. I assume my altitude in Montana ~5000 feet, was the reason I had to calibrate all the thermometers and two thermostats I bought?
Regardless, they are all at least consistent now. They both appear to hold an accurate and consistent temperature with each other and my other incubator thermometers that I calibrated at the same time.

Ok.... I have had them running for two days now. The problem or potential issue I may have with the dacooler electronic thermostat is that it has a 1 degree F temp range. This means that when I set it to 100F in my incubator it can range 1 degree or 99 to 101. Now in reality.....it shuts off at 100F and I have never seen it go above about 100 or so...as the heater is shut off....
However, it does not turn the heating element back on until 99.0F.....I have never incubated anything yet and have about 30 chicken eggs I will stick in the incubator in about 2 days...so I will see if the 99.0 to 100F matters? I can't imagine it would as a 1F temp range...wouldn't cool the eggs down that much in the minute or so the temp drops from 100 to 99 as the eggs should "maintain" their heat better...much like rock being used in a house to keep it warm during the night. In addition the "prime" temp range for raising chicken eggs is supposedly 99.5F....so it is really only ranging about 0.5F from the "prime" temperature. I guess I will find out?

The GQF thermostat does not have a digital display https://www.gqfmfg.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=149 and I like seeing "exact" temps and the ease of setting the dacooler digital electronic thermostat to the desired temperature. Plus I found the gqf thermostat to be a little bit of a pain to adjust...either I adjusted it too much or too little...then it was not always consistent with my other thermometer temps as it did not have a probe that was long enough to place anywhere I wanted in my incubator to "check" the temps. Plus it is $84 compared to $15 for the dacooler..I definitely like the dacooler better.

Now....... incubator wharehouse has a thermostat that is priced at $50 http://incubatorwarehouse.com/digital-electronic-egg-incubator-thermostat.html and is set to range by about 0.2 degrees much better than the dacooler 1F temp range. However, some of the reviews on the GQF that I was able to find (not many on their website....) were not that good and there were over a hundred reviews on Amazon for this thermostat http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F05UI8O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 that I bought.......with most of them good.
I guess time will tell how this works, but I am pleased that it does a very good job of keeping the temperature between 99.0 and 100F in my incubator and brooder.

Now, I have zero experience in incubating, but my GQF 1266 incubator and brooder...seen below has a bigger temp range from bottom rack to top rack that is greater than the 1F range or the 0.5F range for the "prime" temperature to incubate chicken eggs at as discussed above (i.e. 99.5F).....So not sure if spending the $50 for the 0.2 temp range with the incubator wharehouse thermostat would matter when the range across the cabinet incubator and brooder appears to be more. I am still trying to figure out those temps and should have them today. Once again, I spent $30 for two dacoolers, which is cheaper than one $50 thermostat......

If the dacooler turns out to be junk, I will buy the $50 incubator wharehouse thermostat....but so far I am pleased with the ability of the less expensive dacooler to maintain the incubator and brooders temperature.

 

[okiejeep]

How did the thetmastat turn out with your hatching? I need to replace mine as well and prefer a less expensive method than ordering one from the manufacturer.

 

[Bowslayer2]

The thermostat turned out great. I got about 90 percent hatch rates on a hundred and fifty chickens and about 80 percent hatch rate On 60 turkeys.
For some reason my hatch rate on Turkey's has not been as good as chickens.
The biggest problem I had was calibrating the temperature as I did not have an accurate thermometer to calibrate it too. Both of my thermostats came point eight degrees low, but once I figured that out my hatch rate success was great.
The thermostat is extremely easy to calibrate and I was able to calibrated point eight degrees.I know there are "better ones out there that are accurate to 0.2 degrees, but this one keeps it within 1 degree and the way I set it within half a degree of the desired temperature.
I personally don't see a reason to spend 80 or 100 bucks on one when this one is 15 or less.