Temp Swings

[Andora]

What range of temps are ok and when does it get to be risky? I'm setting up my first incubator, a Miss Prissy style one. I have gotten to where the light will come on at 98 degrees and cut off at 102 degrees. I can't figure out how to get it any more accurate. The humidity is at 57% with a little dish of water. I also have a small jar (actually a flask lol) of water in there with the lid on. There's also a pc fan running in there, and the bulb is 40 watts.

I'm just using a Springfield Precise thermometer from Walmart. I have one with a probe out in my brooder, I'm going to go get it and make a water wiggler to put it in...will that make a huge difference in my readings?

I've been lurking in this section trying to gather knowledge, but I'm still a little lost, haha.

 

[CritterFarmer]

I never could find a water wiggler for my incubator so I would just take the highest reading and the lowest reading and average them for an idea of what the egg temps should be. Averaging your temps I'd guess that any eggs you'd place in there should be around 100.

I got a tip from a BYCer when I was having troubles with temps. She suggested mounting the light inside of a soup can and then mounting the thermostat onto the can. I also have the fan blowing right onto the can. So, the end result is it heats up and cools down very quick so that with the light cycling on and off every couple of mins I get a temp swing of 1 to 1.5 degree at most, so I get more constant temp.

According to this: http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/avian/pfs35.pdf the upper lethal temps for fan-circulated incubators is 103. But again, thinking of your temps as an average, even though the upper limit you're getting is 102 the temp in the eggs wouldn't be going that high.

 

[Andora]

That's reassuring! If I can find a soup can I might try that idea. Right now the fan is on one side of the lamp and the thermostat is the other, so the fan is blowing the heat onto the thermostat.

It never evens out though, it goes right up to 102, cuts off, slowly goes down to 97.5, then comes back on, heats back up to 102, over and over.

Do you think maybe 40 watts is too hot and that's what's wrong? I'm going to try 25 watts this afternoon and see if that makes a difference. I really want to add the eggs tomorrow!

 

[DANNY]

THE WATER HEATER THERMOSTAT IS THE PROBLEM. YOU NEED A LITTLE MORE CONSISTANCY ON YOUR TEMPERATURE.
GOOD LUCK

 

[Andora]

I can't afford to buy another thermostat right now.

The water wiggler (a home made one from the thread on here) is staying around 99-100, but the air thermometer goes from 100-108 over and over.