I am SO mad I could spit nails!
BRINSEA SUCKS! I can't recommend that anyone buy their products. They don't even honor their own warranty!
The turner for my Octagon 40 died. I sent it to them with an RMA number, and paid Priority Mail to be sure they couldn't lie about not getting it. I wait for almost 3 weeks, and the parts were returned to me in the SAME box with the SAME packing material (multicolor plastic grocery bags) and in the SAME NON-WORKING condition. No email. No phone call. No note. No NOTHING.
That incubator and turner are 13 months old. If you register the products within 30 days, which of course I did, there is supposedly a 2 year warranty. Starting a month and a half after I bought it, they extended the warranty to 3 years (not that it matters!).
I sent them a nastygram email and they better make it right. I know all kinds of wonderfully free ways to make trouble for a company if they persist in screwing me over. It's really not my nature, but this is just outrageous. My incubators are stored indoors all year, no attic, garage, or other possibly dicey storage, and of course I only used it from March to July last year (I got it in late February).
SO I need both the Octagon 40 and the Octagon 20, so the 20 will have to be hand-turned. Clearly I am not doing a great job. In the Brinsea, the eggs are of course pointy end down, and all I can really do is spin them around about 180 degrees a few times per day. Do I need to prop up one end, then the other, too? What do you hand-turners do if you have eggs incubating straight up and down? Fortunately, I am going to use the turner that works on the 40. The only difference is the length of the spacer rods. The mechanism is exactly the same, and JUST a turner costs nearly $100.
Also, do any of you use a Hovabator Genesis for hatching? I know they are cheaply made (styrofoam), but aside from that, they have decent reviews. If I get one, I'm going fully electronic. I either need to buy one or make a lockdown/hatcher. If most of the eggs I'm about to set are fertile and there are no bator malfunctions, there isn't enough room for them to hatch in place. I've always moved them. I used my Brinsea Mini until the motor burned up (just out of warranty), and used my generally empty Octagon 20 after that. But I really need to set eggs in both the 20 and 40. I have lots of brooder heaters (Brinseas ARE good for that, but I have had to make repairs to them myself--they use cheap adhesive and the undersides come loose for no good reason), but I can't use them for lockdown.
I am so frustrated with this company. If I make enough selling chicks this year, I'm buying a Sportsman for next year even though I really don't need that much capacity. I just want something that will WORK. I paid $400 for my Octagon 40 with turner. For the price of the 20 and the 40, I COULD have bought a Sportsman but hated to spend that much all at once.
People have asked me what I think of them. Since the turner broke, I have been less enthusiastic. I am now totally PO'd and would urge against getting them because they won't even honor their own warranty, and communicating with them is ridiculous. They rarely respond to emails, and when they do, it's at least a week later.
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
BTW, I still have my Biele male chick, but he's become a trusted babysitter. I had three more lavs hatch from a handful that I threw in the bator out of sequence to help make up for infertiles from the first hatch. The chicks each hatched a full day apart from each other, and the last one was malpositioned and had to be helped out. One foot had no movement or sensation, but it's slowly getting better. It can really boogie across carpet! The foot was jammed against the side of the egg. It's a little gimpy but I'm going to keep it for a while (maybe permanently), so the Biele boy will be keeping that little one company after the other two lavs go to some folks who have bought birds from me twice before and had dibs! DH suggested using half a nasal strip (like Breathe Right) to stick to the bottom of the chick's foot and position/support its toes, and by golly it worked. We put the other half on top of the foot, though I don't know if that was necessary. I can make a cardboard chick sandal but can't get it to stay on even with thin strips of Elasticon/Vetwrap.
I'm setting nothing but Orps tonight/tomorrow because I have a couple of good sized lav orders, but want to hatch out some blues and chocolates and cross my fingers for better luck this time. The lavs are tough little birdies! I honestly didn't expect any chicks to hatch from the first batch that went up to 105 then 102, but several lavs and just the one Biele did. For a big roo chick that can already fly at just a couple of weeks old, he sure is mild mannered with the chicks less than half his size. My roo, Hopper (in German, Hauper, LOL), doesn't especially like to be touched but he is very easy going and doesn't mind close human proximity at all. He does have an annoying crow, not the deep resonance of the English Orp roos. Anyway, I wanted to end on a happier note than I started.
