Stupid LG!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

[WalkingWolf]

OK I don't get it I have no problems at all with my LGs. You said the temp was stable before you set the eggs. Did you touch the knob after you set the eggs? Here is how to properly set up a LG. Put bottles of water or pint containers of sand in LG. Start increasing the temp a little at a time to bring it up to 102F at the top of the egg, or 98F at the bottom. Use plastic eggs or just some eggs for eating, you can still eat them after. Make sure you calibrate your thermometer first. What you are looking for is a temp of 100F in the middle of the egg for a still air. Now this is the temp at the warmest part of the day. This process will take a few days, NOT hours. The bottle of water is to stabilize the bator as if it has eggs. Once you reach a temp of 100F at warmest part of day leave it alone for a couple days before setting eggs. Once it holds do NOT ever touch the knob to increase the temp, even when the temps drop. Set eggs and leave alone for first 24 hours. Now when the bator temp drops from setting the eggs leave it alone. When you start to turn the eggs and the temp drops leave the stat alone. ONLY adjust temp in down direction if temp goes over 102 this is common for eggs to throw of heat as the chicks begin to move in shell. The temps will drop every night the same as they do under a hen. Leave the temp knob alone. As mentioned before put a dimmer switch knob and mark a indicator line on knob. When you do have to adjust down on temps mark where it originally was and do not go above it.

Now if you are only setting a small number of eggs add bottles of water or pint containers of sand to absorb up and down temps. This also helps with opening the bator to turn eggs. Put sponge pieces on top of sand and add water for humidity as needed. Did I mention leave the temp knob ALONE.

If this is too complicated then spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on expensive incubators. Or buy one of the digital thermostats for reptiles I believe they are around 30 to 50 bucks USD.

 

[stormylady]

My Genesis cost 139.00 dollars when I bought it and it was worth every dime. No Fuss, No Muss! It would have been nice if when I bought the LG incubator it would have come with those instructions, but it didn't and it cost way more in the way of frustration and aggravation then the Genesis. JMO Have a great day!

 

[Marion]

Quote:
I have used an LG with no problems and had great hatches for a few years with no temperature troubles at all. This last hatch I had two temperature spikes within two days and suspected that the temperature of the room was the cause because each of those days the door to the room was closed and when I got home from work it was quite warm, probably because I had a brooder with a light on in the room (won't make that mistake again) as well as it being close to the end of the hatch and the chicks were making their own heat as well... WalkingWolf, thank you for clearing that up for me! I am not ready to give up on my LG because of one bad hatch... it was operator error and not the LG... which is almost always the case in my opinion.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
Actually the LG instructions are good, and they do explain breaking the bator in before setting eggs. Most people buy a LG for their first hatch and are stuffing eggs in it as soon as they get it and don't read the instructions. The incubator is designed to be full, any incubator that is not designed for a small clutch should have mass added. My understanding is the inexpensive Genesis is a styro bator with a wafer thermostat that has the same flaws as the LG at a higher price. The more expensive model now goes for close to 200 with shipping. For that price a person can have 2 LGs with 2 reptile extremely accurate thermostats.

I do think the water troughs are a pain in both units. I learned that using the pint containers of sand with small sponges on top worked like a charm. But with a turner it would interfere without removing some rows. If I ever put a turner in I will remove rows, with a full bator humidity should not be a issue unless it is extremely dry as the eggs put off humidity themselves.

The best and least expensive incubator on the market with autoturner is a good silkie hen or two for small clutches. Though my gamehens do a pretty good job of going broody lately. All of my last hatches have been under broody gamehens. No muss no fuss and no brooder either. AND no worries of power failures.

 

[eastTNchick]

Quote:
I had said "NO ONE MESSES WITH THE THERMOSTAT!!!!" IT IS LEFT ALONE I only said that I did to clarify that DH or my kids are not messing with. I also said that it did not get changed. The only thing that usually changes is the humidity and that's not very often. I have 2 (count them TWO) digital thermometers/hygrometers (bought at WM), a fan, a water wiggler, AND a small tube inserted to add water w/o having to open the lid! Like I said, last hatch did fine (minus the extreme temp changes in WEATHER not incubator that caused a couple of extreme temp changes (too low), and 2 fairly long power outages. But, even then, I Just added a couple of towels around it to stop the temp drops and kept an eye on it until it started to climb again and then very slowly (about every 15 minutes) slowly removed the towels to allow the thermostat to do it's job w/o too much interference.

The thermostat on this thing is FRIED. It was not messed with. How else would a perfectly STABLE incubator go from 100* to 115*?!?! How else would it hold stable for HOURS and then decide to spike to 102* to 107* for no apparent reason when the room temp is stable? I called Miller MFG yesterday and even they have no idea other than a fried thermostat. My DH is an electrician and said that there is no other reason for a spike like that. He spoke the the heat & air guys at work who said a thermostat will not spike like that unless it has gone back. Something in it has started to short circuit. I know that there are contributing factors that cause the temps to fluctuate and I'm perfectly fine with that and know/knew to expect it. It was not adjusted when I added the eggs. It was not adjusted until 2 (count them TWO) days later when it spiked to 115*. Are you going to tell me that you would not have freaked out if your thermostat when back and spiked to 115*? I had set it up, added bottles of water to help it regulate, had it regulated for a few days, added eggs after they had set at room temp for 18 + hours, DID NOT touch it again until I came home and found it had spiked to 115* and it was still trying to climb! Nothing had changed. Nothing had been touched. NOTHING. It has continued to spike for no apparent reason. It has not been touched since that day either, just so you know.


While I appreciate your response, I do not appreciate being talked to like I have no clue. I didn't realize I needed to put ALL the little details in my post before starting this thread. I'm glad that you've had great success with your LG, but I guess I just lucked out and bought the one dud out there, the one that decided it should have gone home with you instead of me and decided to fry itself and my eggs in the process. I never said that I wanted to spend HUNDREDS of dollars on a new one. In fact, I'm seriously looking at building my own which would be way cheaper. I was just looking for some thoughts on other brands so that I could weigh all my options as well the one where my DH is going to try changing out the thermostat on my LG so it might still be usable.

If this is too complicated for you to understand, then please accept my apologies.

 

[WalkingWolf]

East I am sorry I did not mean to insult, my post was not just to you but a lot of people who buy LGs. Yes it could be a bad thermostat, I think that happens with a lot of products not just the LG. It must be warmer in your home than mine, I just tried getting my LG up to 114.8 to test heat treating eggs before incubating them. The highest I could get it was 107.

I think you can get a replacement thermostat but I would buy the reptile one, sorry I don't remember the exact name of it. I do have on both my LGs a safety HWT to set to cut out at 102. I never hear it click out though. Most professional incubators have a safety thermostat usually a wafer. You probably could attach a wafer to the plastic window if you are using a fan. I don't use a fan on mine and still have good hatches, so my safety stat is where the fan usually goes. I do plan on putting fans in if I ever use turners, but I will use two computer fans mounted to the windows, you can see through the fans when they are running.

Again sorry about how the post sounded some of it is my humor too...

 

[stormylady]

Quote:
Actually the LG instructions are good, and they do explain breaking the bator in before setting eggs. Most people buy a LG for their first hatch and are stuffing eggs in it as soon as they get it and don't read the instructions. The incubator is designed to be full, any incubator that is not designed for a small clutch should have mass added. My understanding is the inexpensive Genesis is a styro bator with a wafer thermostat that has the same flaws as the LG at a higher price. The more expensive model now goes for close to 200 with shipping. For that price a person can have 2 LGs with 2 reptile extremely accurate thermostats.
I do think the water troughs are a pain in both units. I learned that using the pint containers of sand with small sponges on top worked like a charm. But with a turner it would interfere without removing some rows. If I ever put a turner in I will remove rows, with a full bator humidity should not be a issue unless it is extremely dry as the eggs put off humidity themselves.

The best and least expensive incubator on the market with autoturner is a good silkie hen or two for small clutches. Though my gamehens do a pretty good job of going broody lately. All of my last hatches have been under broody gamehens. No muss no fuss and no brooder either. AND no worries of power failures.

Im really glad that you like and promote the LG incubator, I don't , it doesnt work for me. I like the Genesis and will stick with it, I did read the instructions, and like the newby that I was I more than likely screwed up, no denying that! But with the Genesis I found it works better for me. Thats all I was trying to say, just giving the OP my personal opinion. Also I read alot of add this and that and do this and that, Why? Why would I do that? And yes with the Genesis you have to add water and thats as complicated as it got for me, and Im alright with that. Later on after I get a better handle on the art of hatching eggs Ill look into getting something else but for now I like the Genesis 1588.
I wasn't going to say this but I feel like I should, You sounded alittle condisending in your explaination on how to use the LG incubator, I personally didn't apprieate it, I had no Idea about the sand and sponges and the extra bottles of water and adding extra pieces to the LG so that you could hatch eggs in it, My instructions did say to get it set up several days in advance and make sure that the temp and humidity was right before adding eggs,Which I did, and I still had a bunch of problems with it. So..... I went out and got a Genesis 1588 ON the recommendion of a fellow BYC'er which worked great for me. Im sorry if I missed a prior post with all the extra instructions on it , it probably would have helped me alot. Have a great day . Sandy

 

[AHappychick]

Ive been told that if you run it with water bottles full (like poland spring) when setting up it will help to keep spikes down. The bottles are something inside the bator to help regulate the correct temp before the eggs go in. I dont kow if that helps at all. but cant hurt for the next round.

I finally got my LG working and stay as far away from that darn nob as possible. actually its full of quail chicks right now lol the first really good hatch I have had from the thing.

I would suggest getting the 1588 Genisis its a great bator no knobs to mess up

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
Actually the LG instructions are good, and they do explain breaking the bator in before setting eggs. Most people buy a LG for their first hatch and are stuffing eggs in it as soon as they get it and don't read the instructions. The incubator is designed to be full, any incubator that is not designed for a small clutch should have mass added. My understanding is the inexpensive Genesis is a styro bator with a wafer thermostat that has the same flaws as the LG at a higher price. The more expensive model now goes for close to 200 with shipping. For that price a person can have 2 LGs with 2 reptile extremely accurate thermostats.
I do think the water troughs are a pain in both units. I learned that using the pint containers of sand with small sponges on top worked like a charm. But with a turner it would interfere without removing some rows. If I ever put a turner in I will remove rows, with a full bator humidity should not be a issue unless it is extremely dry as the eggs put off humidity themselves.

The best and least expensive incubator on the market with autoturner is a good silkie hen or two for small clutches. Though my gamehens do a pretty good job of going broody lately. All of my last hatches have been under broody gamehens. No muss no fuss and no brooder either. AND no worries of power failures.

Im really glad that you like and promote the LG incubator, I don't , it doesnt work for me. I like the Genesis and will stick with it, I did read the instructions, and like the newby that I was I more than likely screwed up, no denying that! But with the Genesis I found it works better for me. Thats all I was trying to say, just giving the OP my personal opinion. Also I read alot of add this and that and do this and that, Why? Why would I do that? And yes with the Genesis you have to add water and thats as complicated as it got for me, and Im alright with that. Later on after I get a better handle on the art of hatching eggs Ill look into getting something else but for now I like the Genesis 1588.
I wasn't going to say this but I feel like I should, You sounded alittle condisending in your explaination on how to use the LG incubator, I personally didn't apprieate it, I had no Idea about the sand and sponges and the extra bottles of water and adding extra pieces to the LG so that you could hatch eggs in it, My instructions did say to get it set up several days in advance and make sure that the temp and humidity was right before adding eggs,Which I did, and I still had a bunch of problems with it. So..... I went out and got a Genesis 1588 ON the recommendion of a fellow BYC'er which worked great for me. Im sorry if I missed a prior post with all the extra instructions on it , it probably would have helped me alot. Have a great day . Sandy

My apologies if you took it that way. Was not meant to be condescending. What it was meant to be for a lot of newbies that are reading the posts and maybe not posting drive home a point or problem. Most including myself when new have a hard time leaving the thermostat alone and fidget with it. The LG is a affordable incubator for a lot of people and is not perfect. But they do work in most cases, in eastTN case obviously has a flawed unit. I am sure the Genesis is worth the money, but they are not usually available and cost more than some can afford. Also my first post I was trying to be a little humorous too, and some did not find it so, so as I did to eastTN I apoligize.

 

[Chickenaddict]

East I too have the LG blues. My last hatch of only 9 serama eggs was a total loss after day 17 when the temps spiked to 105 overnight. All the babies were fully developed too which was even more sad. WHat helped me was putting rocks in the empty slots of the turner to help hold consistant temps. It worked like a charm. My problems start after day 18 and I take them out of the turner and up the humidity. The humidity with just a darn wash cloth in there shoots up to 85% drowning the chicks. I tell ya for what i spent on this thing I would have thought i'd have better success. I do like a good challenge tho so here we are on round 3 with the LG on day 12 and all 31 eggs are doing great. Maybe you could take it back if it is the thermostat? I do feel your pain. It is sooo frusterating at times.