Upgrade from water heater thermostat?

[eggsellentfarms]

Has anyone come across an easily available thermostat similar to a water heater thermostat in price and ease of installation, but with a tighter temp control? Mine has about an 8 or 9 degree range between the cut-in and cut-out setting. I would like to find one that only fluctuates by about 4 degrees max.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

There is really nothing that simple on the market. Several home thermostats can be modified but it takes a bit of know how.

At twice the price you can get a wafer thermostat shipped to you.

But if you put the water heater thermostat about an inch from the light it will cycle very fast an bring the temp with in 2 degrees.
Lot of science mumbo jumbo to tell why but it does work.

 

[eggsellentfarms]

Thanks, that sounds like the easiest fix. I had thought about replacing the switch for the heater with a dimmer switch, but then I might run into trouble if the outside temp fluctuates much. I'm actually using a coil heater from an old food dehydrator. It's down near the floor of the incubator, with the thermostat about 2/3 of the way up the wall closer to the eggs. That idea might have worked if the thermostat had a tighter temp control.
If you have any experience modifying thermostats though I'd love to hear a few details.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Without a bulb for heat a hot water thermostat is not a good option. You need that light(radiant) energy to heat the thermostat faster than the air.

You need a power converter like you use to run a fan. run that power threw a home thermostat an have it power a 12V light or a relay if you need 110V AC. You can get a new coil type heater thermostat an they have an adjustment screw that will make it go to 100 + degrees.

You can also use a older murcury bubble thermostat an just mount it at a slight angle like I did here.
http://cmfarm.us/fridgebator.html

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Picture posted by someone on another thread .

 

[eggsellentfarms]

I think I'll try moving the thermostat closer to the heat source first. I've got everything wired to 110v ac and neatly contained in a triple gang box on the exterior of the cooler. The light is switched to see what is going on inside, and also as an additional heat source if I need to warm things back up quickly after having the lid open. The fan is also 110v AC. I'd like to avoid a bunch of relays and transformers if possible.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Simple is always better.

 

[muddstopper]

You might want to pm Cbiblis and ask him about his electronic thermostats. I have one in my cabinet incubator. It holds rock solid temps. When he first built it, it was a little too touchey, sensitive or whatever you would call it. He came over yesterday and removed it from my incubator and reconfigured the resistance values so to have more control over the actual temp settings. Before you could just look at it and change the temp by 0.2degrees. Now, it is much easier to finetune and set and the temp hasnt moved off 99.5 since yesterday. He custom builds every one of his thermostats and can set the temp ranges pretty much anywhere you request.