Sigh - up ALL night fiddling with the incubator

[sian]

Temp went up to 104 (on day 20) now I'm fiddling around with it to try to get back to 102. Not happy with LG incubator. Hubby bought me a fan and will try that next. Sigh. Going to play with 2 week old Lakenvelder living in family room - need baby chick hugs!

 

[dovecanyon]

I keep reading about how difficult it is to maintain the temp on the LG incubator. I don't know if I have an angel on my shoulder or what... I bought a used LG, and was sure disappointed when it arrived- it was pretty beat up, figured it was going to be a real pain. But it is all I have for now, so I cleaned it really well with bleach water and set it in the sun to dry. I set it up and it took about an hour to get it to 99.5. Well, it is now 4 days later, and it is still keeping the temp at 99.5. The only time it changed was when I put in the eggs- temp dropped of course, but only took a couple of hours to get back up and is staying right on target. I have not had to adjust at all. It does have a fan, so I guess that helps, but I expected it to be much more difficult to reach and maintain the correct temp. Guess I just got lucky with this one, especially since I only paid $58.00 including shipping.
I also read daily horror stories about getting thermometers to match up... I have 4 of them, and all 4 read the same. My angel is working overtime on the temp thing!
I am not having a problem keeping the humidity at 50%. I put about a tablespoon of water in to start and left the red plug out till it reached 50%, then put it in. I have only added water once, about a teaspoon when it went down to about 35%. That fixed it. Hmmm, wonder what's up??? Maybe I shouldn't cross any streets for a while- I've been too lucky...
Oh, one unfortunate thing happened though, I splurged and bought a new egg turner with the money I saved on the used bator. It worked for exactly 24 hours, then the motor just quit. So I simply removed the motor from the frame, and every 4 hours I tilt the lid just enough to get my finger in and flip the bar that the racks are attached to from one side to the other. It takes about 2 seconds and doesn't affect my temp and humidity for more than a minute or two.
Just thought I'd share.

 

[dovecanyon]

Has the fan helped?

 

[The Sheriff]

Be careful what fan you put in. We put in a computer fan and it created it's own heat and then we couldn't get the temp below 106! So I ordered the one from IncubatorWarehouse.com that fits the Hovabator and it works like a charm.

 

[hellafarms]

Quote:
What is your room temp?

 

[sangel4you]

I too am doing my first hatch with one and my temp has basically been maintained between 99 and 102 (on ONE thermometer) but has spiked up to 104 occcasionally. IT seems to happen after I add water. But my humidity really has a tough time staying above 40. I'm to the point where if it's at 35 I'm happy. I have no clue how I'm going to get it up during hatch except hopefully putting the plugs in works.

 

[chubbydog811]

Maybe I just lucked out with my LG bators....I have a new one - bought this year, and a used one that I bought last winter. Both work FANTASTIC! I just had a ....situation?...last night...I didnt realize that my hatch was due today, not next week, and walked in to a peeping egg! Plugged in my old LG (use it has a hatcher so the new one doesn't get dirty), waited 10 minutes, adjusted, waited 20 minutes and it was good! It has held a steady 98* since I plugged it in last night...Though mine does have a fan....

Anyway...Good luck!