Question on fan for incubator!

[fernandez0067]

I just finished my first attempt at hatching .... with no success. There are a number of things I did wrong. I opened all of the eggs and found that they probably died around day 14-16.

Anyways, I found this website that suggested retrofitting a still air incubator with a computer fan and a cell phone charger to cut the cost of buying a fan kit that cost over 40 dollars. I only spent $12.

The fan that I got is very small 1.5" x 1.5" with an airflow of 7.7cfm

How big are the fans normally in an incubator?

 

[MaranDude]

Wow that is strange because I just had an unsuccesful hatch and they died around day 16-18. So I got my fan from an old computer and hooked it up to a bettery charger, and you just splice the wires. Just go online and you can find plenty on it i believe. Good luck, I just started my second batch so hopefully they will hatch!

 

[fernandez0067]

I have a feeling that my fan is too small.... but I guess a little fan is better than no fan at all!!!

Im wondering if I should go exchange for a bigger fan... what do you think?

 

[MaranDude]

Any fan size will be okay, as long as they are getting air circulation.
And don't forget to put atlkeast five corks because my first run lacked a sufficient amount of holes in the incubator. Because as they grow they produce more of the humidity you need more corks open as you go along, so yes any fan size will work in my opinion.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Larger fan running at slower speed is better than small fan running at high speed.

Larger fan will move bigger volume of air gently, small fan will just blow narrow stream of air at one small spot.

I always use largest fan I can get my hand on, and run it through multivoltage plug (Radio Shack) this way I can control the air flow and slow down the fan if I feel it is necessary.

 

[jenjscott]

In a small closed incubator, it isn't going to take much air flow to keep things mixed up. However, that being said, I bought a lot of 10 of those small fans for like $10 on ebay, and put two of them in and incubator, temps check out pretty even throughout incubator. I didn't check temps with only one fan though.

 

[jnjross]

i just wanted to note for those thinking about doing this.

New cell chargers are 5volt. but they also have 5volt computer fans!

 

[RioLindoAz]

If you got your fan from a computer, you probobly got the wrong one. There are to fans in a PC. There is the tiny one that is in front of your face the second you open it, and there is a second fan in a metal box next to the tiny fan. You'll have t un screw the box and get the fan. You'll notice that it has 2 wires, a red one, and a black one. Thats how its supposed to be. Make sure you look at the voltage the fan needs. Most cell phone chargers have an output voltage of 3.5-6.5 . The PC fan will will most likely need an input of 12. But also use caution. If you use a charger that has a higher output than 12, It can make the fan explode.



~Rio

 

[fernandez0067]

I got my fan from Radio shack, its a little 1.5 x 1.5 fan 12V, 6500rpm

 

[fernandez0067]

I was just wondering how big the fans are that come with the fan kit made for the incubators. are they 3x 3?