Humidty Won't Increase in Brinsea Mini Advance!

[Pollmadoll]

I am in lockdown now for 3 chicken eggs with my Brinsea Mini Advance 2 incubator, and guess what? Just like last time, humidity will not increase beyond 40%!!!!!! They are set to hatch on Tuesday. If I lose these chicks I am going to be beyond irritated.
I know both chamber pots are filled to the max.
I have a paper towel pushed into the chamber pot cover (per the recommendation of a Brinsea specialist)
I also have both air holes blocked off (again, recommended by the Brinsea specialist).
But, the humidity will not rise past 40%.
What are some suggestions? I would really like to avoid opening the lid because I read opening it for even a few seconds is enough to shrink wrap a chick. but if necessary I will.
Any and all tips are appreciated!!

What did you do in the end ? I had exactly he same dilemma whether to lift the lid in lockdown and I did and refilled the reservoirs which had run low . They survived

 

[msiler]

Oh wow that was a bit ago! I belive I ended up adding another chamber of water in a small tuperware before lockdown and that did the trick!

 

[007Sean]

If the hygrometer is accurate, 40% relative humidity shouldn't dramatically effect the eggs, anyway. What effects your numbers most is that you're only trying to hatch 3 eggs at a time. If you've been watching and candling them regularly and growth has appeared to be fine, you should also be fine with the hatch. I'd stop stressing about it.

Ditto! I've hatch chicks with the humidity at 32%, I don't recommend it but if they hatch at that low % Rh, then 40% will probably work too!, if you can't get it to go higher.
Kinda hard to have an independent hygrometer inside such a small incubator but if a 'dry run' is performed before you hatch anything and see for certain what the humidity is when the water troughs or channels are full then you can either believe the instruments readings or reject them....plus, you'll also know by what % it is off and can compensate for the erroneous readings.

 

[Pollmadoll]

Recently I have had to assist hatch even though the reservoirs were topped up