Newbies first hatch; incubator temp problem

[momsflock]

I placed 12 RLW in a homemade incubator on Friday. The humidity stays at 50%, but the temp keeps flux. from 95- 100F. I have 2 temp/humidity gauges in different spots that reads approx. the same. My bator has a water heater themostat, and I have installed a fan from an old computer. I have 3 baby food jars filled with water in 3 corners of the bator.

My problem: the light swithces off when the bator gets to 100F and then it cools down to 95 F before it clicks back on.
I have been searching the site and can only find that 99.5 is the temp to have, but I cannot seem to stay there.

Is this flux in temp okay? What should I do to fix it?

Thank you in advance for your help

This is my very first hatch!
(2am in Illinois and I cannot sleep over some darn eggs! CRAZY!)

 

[tailfluff]

Quote:
I can't sleep either 'cause I messed up on my hatching eggs that I brought home.

From what I've learned about incubating, you should have a temperature reading right near the eggs and a thermo that measures the fluctuation in the air temperature. The top of my 'bator reads in at 100.8 where the heater and fan are and the temperature at my egg level reads 99.5. I don't know if this helps? I wouldn't worry about the temperature fluctuation as long as the eggs aren't becoming colder than what they should be at! Some even recommend that the temperature should be kept at about 100.7 to 100.8, so if the eggs are dipping down below 99.5 you might should try to turn the temp up slightly so they don't cool down under 99.5. Sorry, I don't really know much - I hope someone more helpful responds to your post soon!! Good luck!

 

[kstaven]

Part of the temperature swing you see is because of the amount of time it takes for the bulb to cool after shutting off. Secondly: What is the threshold range on the thermostat? The difference between start up temp and turn off temp it is built to operate at.

 

[momsflock]

ktaven~ I did adjust the Thermostat a little last night and now the temp goes up to 102 and the light clicks off and clicks on at 95. My temp by the eggs reads 101.
From what I read in various forums, some people say it is akay to be at 101, there will be a quicker hatch, is this true?
tailfluf~ sorry about your eggs

 

[kstaven]

101 will not harm you. Consider that long ago people shoved eggs in a wooden box with a bulb that ran 24/7, no fan, and did well. Eggs closest to the bulb would experience conditions the outer ones did not. As would eggs closest to the vents in the sides of the box.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

I just finnished a incubator using a waterbed thermostat. So far I have found it to be very stable with best result obtained by placing temp probe in front of the fan just a couple inches from one of the bulbs. Looks to be staying between 99.2 and 99.8 and comes back to temp after opening in less than a minute, though humidity drops and takes a few minutes to return to 40s-50s.

Some of the water heaters have a pretty big range between kick on and kick off this can make it tough to regulate, but best to error on the side of safe, don't let temps go far past 101F. The drops below 99 are better tollerated but going down in the 95 range risks curled toes and other hatch problems.

Keep in mind too that the air temp and the egg temperature will differ, the air might hit 102 and 97 for a minute or two as the unit cycles but the egg may only change a couple tenths of a degree.

A few things you can do to keep temps more stable.

-Move the temp probe closer to the heat source, that way it will trip off sooner in the heat cycle and give less overshoot.

-Add mass to the incubator, a bunch or rocks, bricks or water in a sealed container will store heat and even out spikes as well as slow down cycling. Gives you a bit of a heat battery too when you open the incubator or if you have a short power outage.

-Reduce bulb wattage, again this will reduce overshoot and cycle rate, but on the down side the icubator will be slower to come to temp and won't recover as quick if you open it often.

-Add a dimmer switch to tone down the bulbs a bit, this will reduce overshoot and cycling.

-Add a small wattage bulb that stays on all the time, just 5 or maybe 10 watts (depending on size and insulation), this lets the switched bulbs work as top up, cycling less and may let you drop down on wattage too making for less overshoot.

Keeping the incubator in temperature stable area out of the sun if possible helps too.