New Brinsea Octagon Advance EX Problem

[Brown Chicka Brown Cow]

Soooo... I purchased this new bator from Brinsea and carefully set it up following directions....no kinks, all wires plugged in correctly. Set my temp and humidity. The problem is that when the humidity falls way below setpoint, the pump doesn't come on to add water and raise it....am i doing something wrong or is my pump bad straight out of the box?

 

[Denninmi]

Probably a bad pump, but double check the cord connection just to be sure. Its pretty easy to yank on the cord while setting it up just enough to disconnect it -- kind of a pain to check, since you need a screwdriver to open the little plastic cover over the plug.

Also, I'll share something with you I learned the hard way -- be sure that your entire setup is on a large, solid surface with lots of "elbow room" -- I set it up last month in an unused computer hutch. As it moved, the cord and hose to the humidity pump unit got caught in the turner, and it pulled the whole thing down off the desk. I lost an entire incubator full of eggs, 3 goose eggs, 4 duck eggs, and a bunch of turkey eggs, over 20 total. It was a nasty mess when I found it the next morning, cold bloody broken eggs all over the floor.

Right now, I've got 2 units going, one with some more goose, duck, and turkey eggs, and the other full of chukar partridge. I put them both on the floor so this can't happen again. If I had to use a desk or table, I would tape the cords down and also use cable ties to secure them.

 

[Brown Chicka Brown Cow]

Thanks! I did check to see if it had come loose but it hadn't...Do you think they'll send a replacement asap..or will I have to send the bad part back first? I have eggs coming Monday or Tuesday. It's sooo dissapointing to get sooo excited about something and then something not work on it...I know I can manually add water but the reason I bought it is so I wouldn't have to....

Thanks for the tip on the cords....I have the ties on them but I think I will tape it down just to be safe...I'm sorry you lost all your eggs...

 

[jm93030]

Quote:
Does the pump turns on?

or is powerless?

I once had a problem with my pump

It seems to work fine , but it dind increase the humidity at all, but it was working properly so i called them and they told me that all the silicon tubing needs to be very accurate to what the instructions say

so if thats your problem make sure you measure the midle silicon tubing and cut it to the right size

it worked for me

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
I don't know their policy, I've never returned anything to them. But as you say, you can always do it manually for a while if need be.

What are you incubating? I've found that running mine a little bit drier than recommended seemed to up my hatch rate on upland birds -- around 40 to 43 percent during incubation and about 55 to 60 percent during lockdown yielded better results on quail and turkeys than if I had the humidity higher. Waterfowl I would do at 45 to 48 during incubation and 65 to 70 during lockdown.

 

[fifelakelooper]

Quote:
I have the same incubator. When I first set mine up...no water was being pumped and I found that the tubing that wraps around the top of the pump was not TIGHT enough. If it isn't drawn tight...water does NOT pump up and thru the tube. I called them...ended up snipping a little more tube off and rewrapped it...works great.

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
Yeah, when I first had mine set up I had my tubing wrapped the wrong way and it was blowing bubbles into the water chamber instead of sucking the water up. But that's different from the pump just not coming on at all. If there's no action from the pump, nothing moving, nothing turning, and you've checked your power connection, you've probably got a bad pump. Either that or a bad sensor somewhere in the bator.

If I were you, I'd play around with the settings just to see if anything happens when you raise/lower the setpoint for the pump to beging working. Try it at the lowest possible setting and the highest too. probably won't make any difference but if it does you'll be able to report the goings-on to Brinsea's customer service folk. I've never had to return anything to them myself, but I've heard they're pretty good...

 

[Brown Chicka Brown Cow]

Thanks guys! I contactrd them today and they think its a bad pump or a sensor as well cause there's no action from it at all...should have new one by Wed. if it doesnt work then we'll go from there and it's a sensor...I have BCM's and Silkies in there now.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Sometimes you have to suck the water into the tube to get it started, my pump didn't work properly when I first got it either. I just sucked the water into the pump and then it can do the rest.

 

[gryeyes]

When I replaced the tubing at the pump after I was stupid and used tap water

I couldn't get one of mine to work until I cut that middle section EXACTLY to length. Little snip. Little snip.... Ahhh! Plus I applied some suction to "prime" it.

But Brinsea's customer service is great. Good luck with your hatch!