Tophatch experts - Help! boy do I feel stupid!!

[equus2]

My husband assembled my tophatch originally, is not here, and I've been working ALL afternoon, trying to disassemble it, to clean and prepare it for next hatch. I CANNOT remove the grate and mesh floor from the unit, they just WILL NOT slip off of the tower. It is absolutely locked on.

Is it just me?! Has anybody had this problem?

(My TX7 is giving me fits today, too. I give up!)

Lisa

 

[tiki244]

Ive never seen one so I cant help

hopefully someone will come along soon

 

[equus2]

It took a big hammer and prybar, but I got it apart. Hubby admits that he used brute force snapping the pieces together.

This HAS to be a defect. It was shipped straight from the mfr, but DoubleR emailed me, saying that it was their "new" model.

I'm kinda wishing I'd of gone for the hova. The temps are erratic in the tophatch, even though I've insulated it. In it's defense, though, we've had some big swings in weather.

I'd like to hear from other tophatchers!!

Lisa

 

[ae50mag]

my first mistake buying a top hatch, second was trying to use it. i had a motor go bad in the first hatch, they replaced it and the arm wont work on the replacement. and the light holder was broken from the factory.. and temps are all over the place-- the turner and grid just have to be wiggled up/down-side to side. it is a pain, but you will get it. mine sits collecting dust, i just really had bad luck with mine, you may have good luck, but i bought another incubator and have been very happy since...

frank

 

[equus2]

LIGHTLY USED TOPHATCH FOR SALE!!!

I've contacted the distributor I got it from, and the mfr in Iowa.

I've had it less than a month, and am I disappointed. There's a very loud "POP" every few hours....has something to do with the turning arm, and it's way up inside.

The steel ring won't stay in place and when I saw (well, not actually! they are tooooo tiny) those microscopic ball bearings...I LOL'd.

There's NOTHING holding them in place, and they sent 5 too few. un

Temps are all over the place, despite the blanket I made for it.

I would be a little understanding, if the distributor had been more honest when answering my questions....such as, is it easy to disassemble? ("yes, takes less than a minute.") What does the base turn on? (they should have said "marbles!") What is the shell made of ("insulated molded plastic"....uh, WHAT?!) How do you adjust the temps? (by turning the knob on the base.....uh, WHAT knob?!)

I'll let you all know how I come out with the Mfr.

 

[wegotchickens]

I have one, got it used. It took some muscle to disassembled but we did get it disassembled.

I did have to wrap it in a bubble wrap blanket to help it stabilize temps, but got it stable. And getting humidity up at the end wasn't easy, but got that, too. I like that I can scrub it really clean before the next hatch.

I'm using it again at the end of the month.

 

[equus2]

In case my "rant" caused anyone to throw their tophatch's in the garage sale pile......I'm just old and grumpy......and was having a very bad day.....

I talked to the mfr today. Great service I'd say, since I just emailed them Saturday. They said that the first few times you disassemble the thing can be very frustrating,

and it's not likely that it will crack or break. And, if it does, they said they would replace it.

As for the temp fluctuations, there's not much they can do about that. And, I'm in a very dry climate, so it is a bit of a challenge to keep the thing stable.

The exposed ball bearings that are soooooo tiny (the size of the head of a pin), are still a joke, to me. They're sending me an entire set, for good measure.

So, I'm please with Hawkeye Steel's service........they did agree with me that the distributor was not as informed as they let on......un

 

[wegotchickens]

I'm an idiot, forgot about the itty bitty ball bearings, and tilted the silly thing while cleaning it. So now I gotta buy more itty bitty ball bearings...

But I'm looking forward to suing it again in 2 weeks