Incubator temp swings.

[Egghead_Jr]

The volume of salt does matter. But for a sealed container the size of a small zip lock bag a milk cap or juice cap full is all you need. A beer or soda cap full might not be enough. Saturated not a slurry with standing water on it.

I don't know the why's of the molecular action but the term would be hygroscopic. People use propylene glycol for humidors as it's hygroscopic to 70% RH when distilled water is added. All salts have a hygroscopic RH. Sodium chloride is 75% for normal home temperatures. And below is a list of the other salts and RH at varying temps. And yeah, it's suppose to be distilled water but hey, if I'm half to a percent off due to using tap water it wont hurt anything. The big thing is you test and calibrate your hygrometer for accuracy so your RH reading means something. When we all talk RH we will be saying the same thing if people do a salt test.

http://www.omega.com/temperature/z/pdf/z103.pdf

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks. You've given my little brain cells something to work on for a little while. So, would a milk cap in a 1 qt zip lock be enough?

 

[WVduckchick]

I use a 20oz pop bottle lid for my salt and a gallon Ziploc bag. I also tried it with the same lid but different containers (diff bags, and a Tupperware container) and they were all the same on my hygrometer.
One thing though, you need to set it somewhere that stays about the same temp while you are testing.

 

[WalnutHill]

I use a small (1 oz) stoneware mortar half full of slurry, in a quart Ziplock. The smaller the container, the quicker the equilibrium. I also evacuate excess air, not vacuum packed, but not puffy. I just flatten it out.

 

[WalnutHill]

Now this is interesting. Just to put my money where my mouth is, I checked one of my hygrometers that read accurately last year and it reads 58% after 4 hours in the bag.

 

[WVduckchick]

Now this is interesting.  Just to put my money where my mouth is, I checked one of my hygrometers that read accurately last year and it reads 58% after 4 hours in the bag.  

Eeek! That's not good lol

 

[WalnutHill]

Yeah, it's a good thing I go by air cell.

 

[sharann]

Hello to all, I just joined the forum today. I have two farm innovator circulated air incubators. I have 81 eggs divided between the two. One has the egg-o-meter in it and the other a digital that does not read in 10ths. The egg-o-meter reads 99.3 and the digital in the 2nd reads 99. I used a glass medical thermometer hanging from a cork through the vents of both with it reading 99.6 in one and 99.8 in the second. Do you think I can continue to trust these temps and leave as is if I use the medical thermometer once daily as a back up check?

 

[WVduckchick]

Hello to all, I just joined the forum today. I have two farm innovator circulated air incubators. I have 81 eggs divided between the two. One has the egg-o-meter in it and the other a digital that does not read in 10ths. The egg-o-meter reads 99.3 and the digital in the 2nd reads 99. I used a glass medical thermometer hanging from a cork through the vents of both with it reading 99.6 in one and 99.8 in the second. Do you think I can continue to trust these temps and leave as is if I use the medical thermometer once daily as a back up check?

Usually medical thermometers are fairly accurate, but I would still suggest doing an ice bath test to verify. Google it. How far along are the eggs and have you candled yet?

Just dont trust the built-in thermometers on the units.

 

[sharann]

Thanks for your response. I have not candled as the eggs just went in the incubators yesterday. Today the temps are reading 100 with a glass bulb medical thermometer (I can't ice water this as the lowest it goes is 94) and 100.2 on the egg-0-meter, 99 on the digital. I can't use the thermometers on the incubators as they only read 90 and 95. How warm is too warm? As long as it doesn't go above 100.5 can I leave them alone? Thanks for any advice!