Might be an odd question....which way does the fan suck/blow?

[paneubert]

IMO it's got to be blowing inwards very gently. Otherwise the fan wouldn't be able to control the temp. by sucking out air being heated right next to it

I'm going to see if I can get to the bottom of this once this hatch is over by using a piece of tissue paper or something to determine which way the air is flowing. The fan is spinning plenty fast, it just doesn't seem to have a definite direction of flow.

 

[paneubert]

Have you tried cleaning the fan? Every so often I have to take a air compressor and blow out the dust and dandruff from the fan housing.
When I hatch quail, I have to lay a piece of foil under the fan to prevent it from blowing directly on the eggs. They tend to dry out too quickly otherwise. So, additional fans in that small of a space my be too much air movement.

Yeah, I need to plug in one of the new ducted ones and see what sort of output it has. My experience so far is that the bottom few rows of quail eggs are stuck in a cold zone while the eggs under the heater are hot. It is a bummer, but I am sure increased air flow would help. The reason I am going with ducted fans is that I want to be able to "point" the output so it is along the surface of the lid and not down towards the eggs. I want to stir up the stagnant air to hopefully get the overall temp more averaged.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Does the fan run all of the time, or does it cut on and off?

 

[paneubert]

Everybody, keep in mind this is mostly all from me just having the classic "1 day before hatch day" paranoia that I cooked half the eggs, and froze the other half. Logic should say that if this were the case, there would be a "goldilocks" zone in the middle and I should at least get a few to hatch. Right?

 

[paneubert]

Does the fan run all of the time, or does it cut on and off?

All the time. The heating element just turns on and off based on the temp.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

All the time. The heating element just turns on and off based on the temp.

Yeah I could be wrong, but I think it's blowing the warmed air down.

 

[paneubert]

Really bad photo, but it is a Pre-Easter miracle!

 

[Kiki]

Really bad photo, but it is a Pre-Easter miracle!

CONGRATS!
How exciting!

 

[paneubert]

I'm here trying to learn.
Don't pay any attention to me.

I promised I would come back. I confirmed that the original heater and fan does suck in air and then spit it out all 4 sides, thru the heater coil, in theory distributing the heat. But it is so slow and low of a flow that I could barely feel the breeze at all. So I super glued a ducted fan so that it sucks in from right next to the heating coils and blows towards the "bottom/front" of the incubator. Not blowing "down" to the floor, but "down" along the roof from where the heater is located in the upper third of the lid towards the lower 2/3rds of the lid where I have always seen much lower temps. Now that I know how low/slow the original fan is, I am not surprised I had so much variation in temp. The output from the ducted fan is way higher, so it should equalize the temps really well. I also like that I can direct the flow along the roof so that it hopefully catches and mixes the warmest air with all the air down at egg level without literally blowing down vertically onto the eggs below the fan. I figure if I keep the humidity at a good %, then the increased air flow should not cause issues......120 eggs being delivered Wednesday, so we will see! I figure it can't hurt..... I hope.

Kinda hard to see, but the entire side that is facing in towards the center fan/heater is open and sucks in air. Then there is a small square outlet that is right up against the "roof". I think with the amount of flow it puts out, it will blow down to the bottom lip of the lid and then split both left and right, as well as down towards the eggs. Like air hitting a wall. I am going to make sure I have a thermometer both right in the path of the flow, as well as off to the side to see if there is a temp difference.