Incubatorwarehouse.com IncuKit woes...

[goedric]

Question. I purchased an Incukit heater/fan/thermostat (advanced version for $149) from Incubatorwarehouse.com and have been having issues with my unit. This is the new version that is 125 watts... is see online now that older versions at 250 watts apparently caught fire for some and this is the new and improved. Wish i knew of the history prior to making the purchase.

First it was miscalibrated by nearly 3 degrees.. dodged bullet number one. Was very aggravated that it should ships is such a sorry state of calibration.

Anyway, 3 days into the hatch the heater failed. I called customer service and they felt the internal fuse blew because my cabinet was too well insulated and so the heater is not forced to engage enough which they have found blows the fuse. Makes no sense to me but whatever, but they seemed to know about the problem. A note in the literature would have been nice... or perhaps fixing the design flaw.

Customer service informed me there are settings on the unit that can be easily changed by me to stop this from happening again... specifically the setting to be changed on the thermostat are:

OSPslope - Set to 0
CRTL Ofs - Set to 89.0

This change of course basically neuters the proportional thermostat that I paid so much for... ah well

The fuse cannot be changed so i await a replacement unit.

My question is this: Is anyone using this item? I am reluctant to try again with the replacement because once burned so to speak... maybe I got a lemon considering the calibration issues mentioned above, but given the provide fix I am guessing this is a known and universal flaw.

The incubatorwarehouse.com website has no bad reviews but I have learned from personal experience regarding another item that negative reviews disappear after being posted...

On the plus side, customer service was very nice... one the down side... i am all but certain I have now lost the hatch as i struggle with light bulbs and air holes... the temp was stable for 6 hrs when i went to bed last night but in the morning it read 103.5.. my only hope it is if it was that high for a short time and the internal egg temps were still lower. But I fear I now have an 84 egg omelet, many eggs of which were rare and painfully expensive...

So, any advice from users NOT affiliated with Incubatorwarehouse.com? Should I give the replacement heater a go or toss in the trash and start afresh and put the losses in the have scotch and try not to think about it category?

Thx...

 

[Miss717]

Don't know that I have an opinion on the incubator issue other than if they are sending you a new one at no cost you could at least use it until you get a new or better one. As far as the temperature spike goes, I have heard that 107 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature that will "kill" a fertile egg. So don't know that you necessarily have an 84 egg omelet.

 

[goedric]

That was my first inclination but if this is a component not an incubator and if it is prone to fail then it may be better to use a different component... even a light bulb and fan. I hope your right about not cooking them... the brisnea site mentions that in forced air units 104.9 is lethal... and that early in the process the eggs are more susceptible (under a week.. which is the case for me). I have my fingers crossed. thx jeff

 

[Miss717]

That was my first inclination but if this is a component not an incubator and if it is prone to fail then it may be better to use a different component... even a light bulb and fan. I hope your right about not cooking them... the brisnea site mentions that in forced air units 104.9 is lethal... and that early in the process the eggs are more susceptible (under a week.. which is the case for me). I have my fingers crossed. thx jeff

I guess the lethal temperature is more like 104 degrees Fahrenheit, but the inside of the eggs have to get to that temperature