Question with humidity

[KDbeads]

I'm on lock down, yesterday I sprayed the inside of my incubator (homemade!) with water and made sure all the water dishes were full. Humidity hit 65%, right where I wanted it to be. But after 4 hours it was back down to 45%

I added my only sponge but NO change after an hour so I then added 2 rolled up damp washcloths. After only 5 minutes I had 100% humidity! Removed cloths and sprayed the inside surfaces of the bator. Back to 70% after about a half hour . Ok.... great I left it alone until hubby gets me this morning.... back down to 45%??? I add back one damp cloth... Almost 80% within 20 minutes so I decide to live with it. So far it has stayed steady for 4 hours.

What do you think the issue was? Too much air flow? Not enough porous surfaces? And why would just one cloth keep the humidity this high?

AGAIN, HOMEMADE INCUBATOR!! It's on my BYC page, but I do have 12 1/4" 'air' holes, that's not mentioned on the page. Not all are fully open, 2 have wires or tubing going through them.

Thoughts?

 

[Cherlyn]

That is a lot of air holes. Sounds like that might be a major issue. Do you have any heat sinks, as well?

~Cherlyn

 

[KDbeads]

6 sand filled heat sink. No problem with temp fluctuations.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Put some wet sheets of paper towel in there underneath a sponge. The towel will raise the humidity and the sponge will keep the towel from drying out too fast.

 

[KDbeads]

I do have paper towels down, I can't figure out why the wet sponge wasn't keeping them moist last night and the rolled up rag is today... gee, where's a scratchy head smiley when you need it?

I'm afraid to close up any vent holes but I'm thinking the air exchange rate is too high....

 

[Cherlyn]

12 air holes should be plenty! I would close several of them and see how your humidity fares.

~Cherlyn

 

[shelleyd2008]

My 'bought' incubator has about 12 air holes, but most of them are smaller than the diameter of a pencil. The two on top for ventilation are about the size of a 'big' crayon.

 

[Cherlyn]

Quote:
Yes, the 1/4" size is what concerns me - that is an awful lot when you have 12 of them.

~Cherlyn

 

[shelleyd2008]

I would cover most of them, and leave 3-4 along the bottom and also along the top. That should be plenty of air flow.

ETA: Play around with it by covering some of them partially with tape, until you get the towels to stop drying out so fast

 

[KDbeads]

These holes are big enough for a pencil to fit it, that's 1/4", which is how I made them

Ok.... time to start taping up some holes