Problems with Temp on Brinsea Octagon 20 eco

[annaewart]

Hi all. Was just wondering if anyone else has bother with the temp in their octagon 20 eco about halfway (or over) through incubation periods - its cooking all my eggs - wasted 3 batches now

!!!!
The the temp goes all the way upto 40C + then shoots down to bare min - Its driving me nuts now and im thinking it was the biggest waste of money ever!!!!!

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

Wow, that sounds very out of character for a Brinsea. I have two octagon Eco models with the autoturn cradle. When I start them up to set eggs, I let them run for a day to make sure the temperature is steady where it needs to be. That way I can make adjustments if necessary.

Where do you keep your incubator? For the temperature to spike like that, I'd have to wonder if it were environmental factors at play. I keep mine on the floor of my closet for incubating because it's a quiet, draft-free place not near an HVAC register and then I have a metal rack in my utility room where I have the hatcher set up at eye level. Both places are out of direct sunlight and seem to work well.

I see you're in Scotland. I've only dealt with the Brinsea dealer in Titusville, Florida since I'm in the US. Have you contacted your Brinsea dealer? Perhaps you have something wrong with the heating mechanism. When I contacted the FL location about what I thought was a broken fan, they were very helpful in trying to troubleshoot the problem. It turned out the last time I disassembled it to clean it, I'd overly tightened the screw that holds the thermometer in place so the thermometer tip was holding the fan blade in place.

I'm trying to think of what else might have gone wrong. Did you acquire the incubator new or second-hand? If you took it apart to clean it after a hatch, do you think some cleaning fluid may have gotten into the computerized area? I use a dampened paper towel to remove fluff and then q-tips for the finer work. Then I put the bristle attachment on my vacuum hose and carefully sweep the fan. I nearly pulled apart the red rubber-coated wire thing that runs around the top thinking it was a rubber band the first time I took apart my incubator to clean it.

 

[GAQuail]

Sounds like a incubator malfunction. I would contact Brinsea.

 

[annaewart]

Its always been in the living rm, just recently started having problems, It was new, and I only use a dampend cloth too - i thought it was very out of character - im going to check the fan and thermometer out, thanks fo that. will contact brinsea and see what they sugest. will try it out of direct sunlight see if that makes a difference too - Very helpful thankyou

 

[AbuHafs]

Hi there

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a similar problem. I have purchased a brand new Octagon 20 Eco with an auto egg turner. At 19 days through my first hen egg batch, I took the incubiator from the cradle as per instructions in the manual and put it on the table. After this I noticed that the temperature fluctuates from about 30 degrees to the correct set temperature (37.5 degrees) so sometimes the heater is not working with the red LED light not lightning up and at other times it is on and the temperature is correct at 37.5 degrees. I do not know if this is normal and has been happening throughout the batch or has it started now.

There is something called auto cooling in the advanced models where the heater switches off making the eggs colder than the recommended temperature as it tries to mimic the state of the hen when it leaves the eggs for feeding. However my incubator does not have this feature. I purchased this incubator less than a month ago, brand new and got it shipped to Egypt.

So does someone know if the temperature should fluctuate like this for this system, so 37.5 degrees for say about 6 hours and then at say 30 degrees for some time and then back again at 37.5 degrees.

Many thanks in advance

Abu Hafs

 

[GAQuail]

Is the temperature in the room where the incubator is located stable? If not stable that may be the problem. If you have a stable room temperature then you probably have a bad thermostat.

 

[AbuHafs]

Hi there Thanks for the message.

Yes the room temperature is stable and incubator is away from direct sunlight. I think its a thermostat problem and I will send it back to Brinsea. Problem is I am in Egypt so will cost a bit!

Thanks