RCOM King Suro 20.

[Jaykay]

Hello everyone.
I wonder if anyone can point me in the right direction.
Earlier this year purchased a RCOM king suro20 incubator. I have now hatched 4 lots of eggs with poor results i.e. approx half the eggs have fully formed chicks but fail to hatch. I run the incubator using the factory settings temp 37.5C and humidity 45. I stop the eggs turning on day 19 and increase the humidity to 65. As per the instructions I open the ventilator approx one third when the eggs start to hatch. Once the eggs start to hatch I do not open the incubator again until 23rd or 24th day
I do not think it is a temperature problem as the chickens that do hatch are healthy and thrive well and i have also checked the temperature using other thermometers and the incubator display appears to be correct.
I have also checked the humidity using other hygrometers and this display also appears to be reading correctly.
From information I have got on the web the cause could be too high or too low humidity during incubation but i don't know which.

I am wondering if any other customers have had similar problems with this machine.

 

[Derrick]

50% hatch rate is normal for shipped eggs. If you are having 50% with your own fertile eggs, that would be different. From what I understand, the eggs can be clear or even fully or partially developed and this could all be do to shipping stress and not with temp or hum problems. I could be wrong so someone else please correct me if I am.

 

[Jaykay]

Sorry I should have made things clearer.
These results are mostly using my own eggs. Also I candle the eggs and discard the clear ones. The figures i am quoting are for eggs with fully formed chicks that fail to pip.

 

[Lotsapaints]

Here's a link to help you figure it out it really sounds like you are doing everything right http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I have the same incubator and since I bought it I have had really good hatches...even from shipped eggs. Prior to that I had terrible hatches in a Hovabator.

I don't know what breed you are hatching...I only hatch silkies and I think they are more difficult to hatch.

If you are hatching something other than silkies, I would recommend turning down the humidity to around 38 - 40% for incubation and around 60% for hatching. I do not know WTH happens when everything is exactly right and you still have poor hatches.

Are you candling at day 18 when you stop the turner and increase the humidity? I only candle at day 7 and day 18. Sometime it's difficult to see that a chick has quit around day 15-16 but if it has, you should see some clear space at the bottom of the egg. Not much but definitely not completely black as it should be.

 

[ottodog]

I've been less than impressed with my Rcom (actually this is my second after the first one failed). My results have been poor to say the least. The latest unit was 1.5 degrees low from the factory, so I did the calibration. Just seems like the thing can't hold the temp for anything if the room varies at all. I live in the mountains so the nights do dip. The thing just can't handle any kind of temp swing it seems like. I also have a Brinsea that sits right next to it and never varies at all.

I set 5 duck eggs in the Brinsea, all 5 went to lockdown, all 5 hatched. I set 24 BR in the Rcom, 2 went to lockdown, 1 hatched.

I really wish I would have went with another Brinsea..

 

[nuts4chickens]

My suro also runs 1.5 to 2 degrees lower than the factory setting. Figured that out after I had 4 chicks from 4 different breeders hatch with crooked toes and 9 out of 24 died in the shell at hatch. I was highly disappointed. Recallibrated, ran my humidity at 38 instead of 45 and set again and had 4 or 5 that were fully formed but didn't pip out of 18 at lockdown. Much better but still don't know why I had so many fully formed chicks dead in the shell. All my eggs were shipped. I think u just have to tinker a bit to figure out what works best. But I think my next bator will be a Brinsea.

 

[Jaykay]

Quote:
I found it very difficult checking the actual temperarture as I seem to get slightly different readings depending on where i place my thermometer in the incubator. For instance I took a reading with the thermometer place about one inch above the eggs and this was arond 2 degrees lower than what the display on the Rcom told me. I don't think I managed to get a reading anywhere in the incubator that was higher than what the display told me. I have contacted the manufacturer who passed me on to the supplier I bought the incubator from and I have discussed the problem with them. They tell me they have never had any compaints about the Rcom suro from anyone else and that I must be doing something wrong. I explained that I did not think the Rcom temp display was accurate as I had been checking it against my own mercury thermometer but they advised me to stick with the factory settings as the temp readout is based on the average temp inside the incubator whereas using a mercury thermometer the measurement is only taken at on specific point.
Would i be safe increasing the temperature setting on the incubator to say 101F and decreasing the humidity setting to 38%?
If so I will set 18 Dutch bantam eggs which I have using these settings.
However the reason i bought this incubator was because it was supposed to be fully automatic and i would not have to be working out temperatures and humidity settings etc. I am also beginning to wish I had bought a Brinsea.
As a matter of interest has anyone else contacted the manufacturer (Rcom) with problems they have had with this incubator and if so what resonse did you get?

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I used a spot meat thermometer from Walmart and put it down the top ventilation hole. You do have to be sure and angle it toward the front a bit so you don't hit the fan. It was spot on was I set it to.

I didn't mention before but I always run the temp at 100.3. I just like to incubate at a temp on the high end of the range. I find my hatches are better.

 

[ottodog]

Quote:
I attempted to contact Rcom directly, but never got a response. When I contacted JMT distributors, where I bought it, I was told to contact Lyon Electric directly. Lyon wanted me to send it in for repair but I told them it was only a few weeks old and I wanted it replaced. The replacement isn't much better than the original.