I made an incubator. Having trouble with temp control.

[Penturner]

Placing the thermostat above the light within about 2 inches from it and the back metal side toward the light helped get my temp to stay real close to 99.5 all the time. that is the biggest difference I found and I am not all that certain above the light makes a difference.

 

[Timmy]

I had the same problem with my water heater thermostat. a wafer style thermostat will give you better results.

 

[raimnel]

I did hear about turning the thermostat's back toward the light, I might make that change for next time and also the heat sheld thing too, also the heat sink.

someone I read about drilled a hole in the side of the cooler/'bator to stick the screw driver through the hole to adjust the thermostat. (the thermostat would be then facing the wall with the back toward the light that's about 2" away. I MAY do that but that might be going to far.

how much are those wafers?

 

[babsbag]

I actually put my light in the bottom of the incubator and built a wire cage around it and mounted the thermostat on top of the cage and the fan in front of the cage. I figured that hot air rises so I wanted the thermostat above the light. Mine was only about 3/4" away.

The adjustment screw on the thermostat faces the top of my incubator so that allowed me to drill a small hole in the top of the incubator and rund the screw driver in there to change the temps. The only reason I did that was for lockdown. The temps just seem to drift with that thermostat. It would be fine for days, and then just gradually creep up or down. It all worked out great.

If I bought a wafer thermostat I would buy an extra to have on hand as I can't buy them locally just in case they should happen to fail in the middle of a hatch.