Incubator pros and cons

[jb300zx]

Good evening everyone. I want to start this discussion to provide another good overall repository of information for those who incubate or are looking to incubate eggs. I have experienced many of the offerings available from building my own to buying outright. All have been viable units but some have had distinct drawbacks. Let's put our experiences together and, hopefully, improve our results as a whole. I am not limiting this discussion to any brand or type in particular. I would like to get an overall opinion from everyone. Thanks.

 

[sumi]

I have used a home made (not by me) incubator with disastrous results with my first hatch. Learned two things from that experience:

1. Use a thermometer that actually works!!!
2. Forced air works better for me than still air

After that I upgraded considerably to a Brinsea Eco 20 and I loved it. The only complaint I have is when on the automatic turner, then the water wells are full, it tends to overflow a bit when the unit turns to the extremes of it's turning cycle. Apart from that it's an easy to use incubator and I couldn't be happier with the hatch results I got.

 

[jb300zx]

I have heard great things about the Brinsea line. One of my incubators was made by me from scratch. The other was a styrofoam, again, modified by me. I cannot reinforce your thermometer statement enough. Thanks for the reply.

 

[DanEP]

When filling the water in the eco 20 if you leave the water level down about 3/4" it wont spill and still only needs to be refilled about every 3 days

 

[jb300zx]

I will admit that my homemade incubators are quite similar, on the controls side, to many popular brands. This is due, in part, to the fact that I design and build control panels where I work. All of them have digital temperature and humidity controls. My biggest challenge was calibrating them properly. I recently conducted an experiment and bought a "yellow top" eBay incubator. I must admit, the quality is less than that of many incubators. However, it has proven to be sufficient for a home-use situation. Yet again, I found calibration to be the deciding factor on this units performance. The controls seem to work well. The initial temperature calibration is definitively skewed, but this can be corrected easily. They maintain humidity quite well. As a budget option, they seem reasonable if one is willing to monitor them closely until proper calibration is achieved. I examined a friend's cabinet incubator recently. I forget what brand, but the temperature/humidity fight seemed to be surprisingly well controlled. I am researching the control scheme utilized to see if I can find something comparable for us here. I should also add that my old Styrofoam incubator with an added fan and turner still produces great results if monitored correctly. Opinions?