Using silicone with homemade bator??

[Tfonda]

Does anyone know if it's ok to use the clear silicone in a homemade incubator it has a fume to it and I was wondering if it would harm my chicks. Anyone ever had experience with this?? Thanks!!

 

[Daedalus62]

Hi,

I think that if you let the silicone set for a few days, until all the nasty fumes released during curing clear away, it'll be OK... Silicone is relatively innocuous material after it's cured.

Cheers

 

[dheltzel]

The smell goes away very quickly and is just acetic acid (vinegar). Clear silicone is used to make aquariums, so it's very safe around eggs and chicks. Obviously, don't put it on or too near a heat source -- melting and burning are not covered by my safety claim, as we don't worry about that much with aquariums.

 

[Daedalus62]

Silicone is pretty resistant to heat... Much more than any plastic, for example.

From Wikipedia: "Thermal stability (constancy of properties over a wide temperature range of −100 to 250 °C)".

That's −148 to 482 °F... Wide temperature range, for what you need in a bator... So perfectly safe I believe.

Cheers

 

[dheltzel]

True, just saying if some gets on the light bulb or heating element, wipe it off, no good can come of that. For sealing cracks it's excellent, much easier to keep clean than the crack or seam.

 

[lazy gardener]

Just be sure you use the silicone that does not have stuff in it to kill mildew. I'm guessing that would be a no-no. You won't have to worry about it getting on your light bulbs if you don't have them in the bator when you are constructing it. The one recommendation I would like to make is: After you get the project completed, do about a week of testing, including high and low humidity. Put a couple of water bottles in it to = the anticipated volume of the eggs you will be using.

 

[pinusresinosa]

We used that really basic white stuff to glue in the light socket and the window. It had to cure for a few days before we set it up to run with the heat and water, and that stuff curing always stinks like vinegar, but so far it's worked really well in our DIY bator.