Incubator smells like chlorine--did I screw up?

[FenDruadin]

I cleaned the incubator and scrubbed and scrubbed and it stayed mucky looking... so I poured in some chlorox. Did I screw up? A day later, after drying thoroughly, I now have it warming for a batch of eggs, and it smells like chlorine. Uh oh?

It's a foam type, a Hovabator, if that helps. Thanks!

 

[speckledhen]

Mine did, too. You should run it with the vent hole(s) open for a few hours to dissipate the chlorine smell.

 

[FenDruadin]

Gotcha! Thank you. I have been running it for a while, and the smell has dissipated considerably--though it's not completely gone. I'll just run it till it is. It's sort of a surprise batch of eggs, so I'm hoping to have everything stabilized either tonight or early tomorrow because I don't know exactly how old the eggs are.

Anyway, thank you VERY much. Helpful to know, and I'm glad I didn't ruin my incubator!

 

[speckledhen]

We always clean ours with bleach, a toothbrush, blazing hot water and then dry it in the sunshine. This time, I ran it most of yesterday and the smell was gone when my eggs went in today.

 

[becky3086]

Won't make a bit of difference. I have always cleaned with bleach and it makes no difference if you put the eggs in it when it still smells or not.

 

[speckledhen]

Even if you can smell it, as Becky says, doesn't necessarily mean it will affect the eggs adversely. If it was a really strong bleach smell, then maybe I'd be hesitant. I just feel better when it's gone or barely detectable.

 

[FenDruadin]

Thanks so much! The smell is barely there--have to really stick your nose in to smell it. Still, I'm waiting on the temps to stabilize, so I probably won't set tonight anyway. By tomorrow it should be good and clean.

Thank you SO much for the input!

 

[speckledhen]

Good luck!!