Has to be better and more easy than the hand me down the Little Giant styrofoam and homemade cabinet incubators I’ve used in the past! I have very good hatch rates between 75-80% every time but I’ve also hand turned lots of eggs and really had to control the humidity and with the cabinet you can’t watch at all!!
I've done the syrofoam incubators for years. (I've got one hand-me-down Hovabator from the late 1990s. Still works, but I had to replace wafer 2xs and added a computer fan.) They can be a good value, but need a lot of adjustments during incubation.
My DIY incubator is my fav for viewing the hatch and still has the best hatch rate. (However many adjustments are manual, so it's not as fool-proof.) My son did a 4h experiment to find the best incubator. He thought the
Brinsea (Octagon Advanced = fully loaded with auto everything - even humidity pump) would be best in all categories ..... but my manual one won for best hatch rate. The
Brinsea was 2nd for hatch % but #1 for both set up and operation. With the high price,
Brinsea was not an option for us. Last spring, he decided to build his own incubator (using an incu-kit). He wanted an automatic incubator like the
Brinsea but affordable. He did a great job and won Best in Show again.
We didn't "need" an incubator, but all of ours are big. (3 to 5 doz capacity) I really liked the small footprint of the NR 360 and found a good sale - bought on impulse, but never regretted it. If I want to do a little hatch, have a staggered hatch, or need a quick place to put abandoned broody eggs or chick ICU, the little NR 360 can be set up in minutes and doesn't take long to stabilize.