Just set up my Brinsea Octogon20 Advance incubator

[Renee97038]

I'm excited to try out my new incubator. It has a humidity pump as well. Do any of you have experience with this model? If so, did you callibrate the inside temperature? A friend has this model and she said her's was running 3 degrees F lower than the digital display. I have mine set to 99.6F. I bought a glass thermometer from Brinsea to check the temp, but who knows if that one is correct as I have heard there is often a difference in temps in those as well. Any ideas?

Also, since I have the humidity pump do I still add water to one channel inside during incubation and 2 channels for the hatch, or just let the pump do the water?

My first hatch was in the Brinsea Mini Advance and I didn't worry about the temp being exact. 6 out of 7 hatched and are healthy little fluff balls now.

I think the quality of the Brinsea incubators is excellent. Just out of the box everything is easy to set up and made with good materials. No Styrofoam, so easy to clean.

I am only hatching 8 eggs in this model since I like the chicks to have lots of room during lockdown while waiting for the rest of the batch to hatch.

 

[bigzio]

I have one like yours and love it. I have mine set at 99.4 because they recommend temps between 99.3 - 99.6....setting on 99.4 you will run at 99.4 to 99.5....perfect. If you set at 99.6 you will prolly run 99.6 to 99.7....not a big deal, but not perfect either...good luck...

bigz

 

[Renee97038]

I put a glass thermometer inside, one that I just bought from Brinsea, and it reads 3 degrees F less than my digital display on the incubator. Should I just assume the Brinsea incubator one is more accurate?

 

[irmad]

I have a digital and analogue thermometor inside my octagon 20. The digital is showing 36.7c and the analogue and the digital temp outside is showing exactly same reading 37.7c. I think I will stick with my brinsea incubator thermometor. .....

 

[Renee97038]

Ok, I just added another glass thermometer inside and they both read 35C ( 95F). That really worries me since the incubator thermometer on the display says 37.5C(99.6F) I think it's unlikely that both of my glass thermometers could be wrong since they are exactly the same. The inside temp could be in the range of detrimental chick development. Should I increase the incubator temp to 38.5C (101.3F) to compensate for the difference? Or perhaps I should call Brinsea and ask them.

 

[bigzio]

Brinsea recommends that you believe what the incubator is telling you. You are creating confusion with the additional thermometers .Read section 5 (digital control system) in your directions. The incubator is the accurate one, and the one to use....no need to worry...it's why you payed extra dollars for the best.

 

[irmad]

Do you have a radiator in the same room where you have placed your incubator.... if you have then turn it off. I had to do the same because the temp will fluctuate with radiator on. I would agree with bigzeo and stick to the temp on the brinsea.

 

[Renee97038]

My hatch is finished. 7 out of 8 eggs hatched on day 20, mid-day.

For future users of the Brinsea Octagon20 Advance; Mine was definitely 2 degrees F off on the digital display. I set it at 100.5F (instead of the recommended 99.5F) to be a conservative adjustment. Since my hatch was 3/4 of a day early I suppose I may set it at 100F for an experiment next time.

A friend also has the same incubator with the temp being 1 degree off. After reading many personal experiences online I see that each incubator, no matter what brand has the possibility of being off by a degree or 2. It was a good learning experience for me to test this out and make a slight adjustment as needed.

The humidity pump worked well but I filled one water Resevoir for lockdown so the pump could keep up. The pump was noisy though so having it near to the bedroom was not the best location.

The automatic turner worked well too. It was very quiet. I can see a design flaw with it being plastic and saw some wear (shredding of the plastic support pins) with only one hatch. Silicone grease will probably help some but I saw one person online who re-built the plastic pins at the ends with screws to hold up better.

I'm really happy with my 7 cute little Lavender Ameraucana chicks. I'd say 8-10 eggs in this incubator is ideal. Any more than that would be too crowded in my opinion.

 

[bigzio]

Nice hatch...I would of still used the brinsea digital and set it at 99.5. Yours hatched a day early which means you were running warmer than 99.5 in my opinion...just think, maybe you could of been 100% with the brinsea settings...LOL!

 

[Renee97038]

Thanks for the advise Bigzio. I may just try it next hatch at 99.5 and see what happens.