Please Help! incubator not telling the correct temp. or humidity!

[xFlameRavenX]

I have been breeding baby chicks for most of the year now, we have had a lot of hatches but when we went to put the incubator back on it was showing to high humidity and temperature, we have got a hen on those eggs at the moment but would like the incubator fixed ASAP.
It is a JN8-48 egg incubator and it is showing 99% humidity and 42 Degrees Temperature even though we use our thermometer (electronic not the glass one) and it says 21 degrees.
When going into all the settings the HS (HIGHEST SETTING LIMIT LS - 99.9 39.5 DEG. C ) spazzes out and glitches like crazy, I do want to continue hatching and growing my own chicks with my daughter as she really loves it.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm not familiar with that incubator but it isn't unusual for readings to be off. You can use a different thermometer to verify readings and adjust from there. What makes me crazy is when the controls spaz out. Try cycling power a few times.
Sometimes computer controls just need a new start point. Is the incubator where you plan on using it? Unplug it for a few minutes and plug it back in.
Where are you located?
I can recommend 3 very accurate thermometers if they are available where you live.
Don't trust any thermometer or humidity reading unless verified.
We know that the humidity isn't 99% unless it is raining in there so that may be off permanently. That isn't the end of the world. Humidity isn't a set number anyway. The goal with humidity is to achieve a percentage of weight loss until hatching and then it is to keep membranes pliable enough for chicks to escape.
To arrive at that weight loss, you can verify that with an inexpensive pocket gram scale.

 

[xFlameRavenX]

thank you for this information, we will just have to use an external thermometer as none of the things you said above worked sadly.
im located in queensland

 

[nao57]

Is the thermostat of the incubator linked to its faulty temperature reading? If so that could be a problem.

But if they are separate it may be OK.

I've read a lot of comments by others on here, by other incubator enthusiasts. A lot of them wrote in threads that they'd have separate hand thermometers (often two), and then put one in the center of the incubator, and one near the edges of it also. And then watch the readings for a bit to see what's really going on.

It made sense to me, thinking about it, why you'd be testing the center of the nest. But it also made sense why you'd be checking around the edges of the core heated area.

You can do something like this.

I also believe that you will be able to find some cheap hand thermometers at a dollar store or something.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

...

I also believe that you will be able to find some cheap hand thermometers at a dollar store or something.

The only problem with a cheap unreliable thermometer is that you are right back where you started and have no idea what is right.

I went through that for a couple seasons. In one incubator I had 7 different thermometers, most cheap and all wrong. I had one accurate one but didn't know it at the time because it didn't agree with the other six.