humidity cured!

[eggonomist]

My history is that of many making their own incubator, however I found heating and keeping heat fairly easy, it was the humidity that has me scratching my head. i think it's because the wood soaks up water like a sponge despite it being lined. The humidity in the house is only 35% before I add heat, no heat and the incubator has 50-55% and within an hour of turning it on the levels drops to below 25% I have the whole bottom area filled with water, i was going to add sponges and decided there must be a better way. Here you can see the bator and it's set up,

The heating duty is done my an 85W heating element, i have 2 and got them in a box of junk at an auction for $2. The thermostat was aded as the dimmer did not take into account when the room heated up and cooled down giving huge temp swings.

the huge fan did nothing but make the temperatures unstable and so i decided that can go and circulate air around the brooder.
I was hanging up the laundry and thought what a good idea, the tray would act as a washing line and an old towel cut into strips would act as washing.
Eureka!

i call it the laundry humidifing method as apposed to the sponge. So Far I have humidity levels at a steady 45% and temps between 99.5-100.2 i will add a couple of dishes on the turning platform with sponges to increase the humidity from day 18 but for the first 18 days I'm good to go.
The sad part is I am buying chicks this year and still have to build the coop, i just dug out where the foundation was started last year, still need a bit more thawing before I can continue.

 

[orlandoluv1]

holy guacamole that is a lot of snow!

 

[twigg]

the huge fan did nothing but make the temperatures unstable and so i decided that can go and circulate air around the brooder.

Not sure what this means but .....

Fan placement and speed is critical. Without a fan, a box that size and shape will be very hard to get stable temps at egg height. And you will be restricted to one layer of eggs, even when the box could hold two or three layers.

Take a look at the arrangement in a GQF Sportsman. That is what I would be aiming for.

The heater and fan are at the top, the fan blows directly over the water surface then the warmed air travels down the front of the chamber, returning at the rear of the fan.

Very stable temps are acheivable, but some experimentation is necessary.

You will end up with an incubator that might cost $500 to buy, for the price of parts.​

 

[eggonomist]

I have a fan blowing across the heating element and that is enough to keep the temps even in the box, the huge one under the grill was doing nothing, remember this was designed to have a dimmer control for heat and displace a lot of air with a high heat output aiming to make it more stable, it didn't work so I spent some money on a thermostat and lost the big fan. Only $488 to go before I spend $500.
I have a year to perfect it but I think I'm one step closer.
As mentioned I have always been able to maintain temps but humidity has been a problem, I have some 1 inch tubing and was thinking about taking a link from the sump of the box where the water is, make a hole in the box where the fan is and link the lower part of the box to the fan and see if that makes a difference. i can also just simply move the heating element to under the tray and have it just over the water, I only have to make a hole and feed the element through.
I have more fun experimenting than actually doing.
I can always buy one if this does not work, but for the moment I'm having fun playing around, it's either this or digging more snow!! and this is much warmer.

 

[twigg]

I would move the tray so the heating fan is blowing across it

 

[eggonomist]

i thought about trying to raise the tray but it's not possible with this design, however i can always try and put the heating element above the tray and put another small fan to push the warm air via the water tray before it gets to circulate. Funny thing is at the moment it has the humidity at 45% and the temps still rock solid. By closing the vents for a few hours I can get the humidity up to 50% and I have just added an additional water tray to the turner as that is much nearer the heater (the eggs will be on the mat off the turner by dat 18 so the turner becomes redundant, if that boosts the humidity then i have done it. I have quite a large vent as I wanted to make sure a good supply or fresh air is available. If I can get the humidity up without blocking any vents then I think I'm good to go. My neighbour has some mutts that I am keen to try it out on while everything seems to be doing what it should. I also want to make the turner tray split or even into 3 so I have all the eggs at roughly the same height, maybe the next one

 

[twigg]

Quote:
Sounds like you are well on the way

Be careful when adding additional fans. What you are aiming for is as uniform an airflow around the cabinet as you can manage.

If you don't get this, then you will be plagued with hot and cool spots all over the place, as in some areas the fans will compliment each other, and elsewhere they will fight

Run lots of tests. Temperature stability will be a function of airflow (Believe me, I KNOW this), and you might need a few adjustments to get the entire cabinet with 1F .... It can be done, but patience is a virtue (I KNOW this too, having found out the hard way)

Good Luck

 

[eggonomist]

Or..................i could try another hygometer

one that shows when I go back to the original settings I have 50% humidity with all vents open and with them closed I have 70%. I only left it for 3 hours and had to shut down for the weekend. i will pick the tools bacvk up on monday and make the external vent from top to bottom to blow the hot air through the towels and create even more humidity. If it doesn't work I can always go back to how I have it now, but always trying to make it a little better

My lesson has been learned, don't rely one guage

 

[twigg]

Quote:
What is wrong with your readings?

They sound decent.

 

[eggonomist]

I have been chasing the humidity levels believing the humidity to be very low, I had the incubator set up for when I would be on day 18 and I had trouble getting hte levels higher. For fun I put my neighbours zilla? one in and the humidity on mine read 35% and his 50%. i did some quick measurements in different areas and the humidity readings on mine were about 20% off. So my golden figures that seemed so hard t acheive were actually always there. I also brought a cheap hygrometer and that too was much higher than my reading. I'm a bit upset as I have been chasing a false figure but now I can generate the humidity I can always cut back on the 'laundry' and work on a better turning system. I'm just happy to have found out now rather than during my first hatch. Time to do some more R&D on measuring temps and humidity and hopefully something more consistant.