# Incubators



## Tyty1389 (Mar 29, 2018)

What do you guys use for incubators? I am currently using a hovabator and I am not a fan. I have seen fridges converted into incubators. If anyone has successfully done this could you point me to some instructions on how to do this?


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## Yvonne G (Mar 30, 2018)

I like the Zoo Med Reptibator.


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## Tom (Mar 30, 2018)

Tyty1389 said:


> What do you guys use for incubators? I am currently using a hovabator and I am not a fan. I have seen fridges converted into incubators. If anyone has successfully done this could you point me to some instructions on how to do this?


How many eggs per year are you incubating and what species?

I used the Hovabators for years and I liked them. What is your complaint? They held steady temps and humidity for me if I taped over all the holes and kept water in those channels on the bottom. I hatched a lot of babies in them.

I've only built one large incubator out of a stand up fridge, but its working great so far. Here is what I learned and what is working for me:

Many people recommend heat tape to warm them, but since I have no experience working with heat tape and no one who does to teach me, I opted to go with radiant heat panels, which I have a lot of experience using. I put one on top and one on bottom.
Because I didn't want any "hot spots" I opted to put a computer fan blowing across the face of each panel and creating a circular air current in the incubator. These fans are adjustable and I run them on a low speed.
I initially tried to run one of those regular $30 on/off type thermostats, but it allowed unacceptable 15-20 degree temp swings. I had to use a digital proportional thermostat. On the recommendation of a friend, I called the owner of Helix and talked with him about what I was doing and how to do it. Bought their DBS 1000 model and it works perfectly. I highly recommend him and them now. The only temp fluctuation is when I open the door. Doesn't matter if the room is 55 in winter or 85 in summer, my incubator never fluctuates from its setting.
I needed open topped tubs of water inside to generate enough humidity.
Here is what it looks like:


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## NorCal tortoise guy (Mar 30, 2018)

I have a Pepsi fridge like you see in a gas station with the glass door. I use heat tape for heat it's fairly easy to wire up. I also use the helix DBS 1000 and highly recamand it. I don't have a fan at this time but have been thinking I need to add one


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## Cheryl Hills (Mar 30, 2018)

I am in the process of building one out of a wine cooler. I have the ink bird 106 rh thermostat and heat tape. I also have a fan wired in. So far the fan works but as soon as the heat is plugged in, it will not heat.


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## Kapidolo Farms (Mar 30, 2018)

I just bought this

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incukit-xl.html

I opted for the proportional thermostat and two heat units. The heat unit comes with an integrated fan. I'll mount one near the bottom over a tray of water and one at the top. The probe (temp sensor) will be at the level of the second shelf down from the top. I also got a 'muffin' fan to pulse on for a few minutes every hour to keep the air mixed.

My work place was trading out commercial refrigerators, 25 cubic foot each, so I grabbed a few. One I was able to fix for a $68 dollar thermostat, and another for an incubator. I third one for later on for a different set point for incubation.

When I get the stuff from Incubator warehouse installed I'll add some images to my blog here under personal promotion called 'Live Naked People'.

I think the heat.thermostat would work well for night houses as well, we'll see about that much later on.

In the mean time I have four ZooMed Reptibators running.


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## Tom (Mar 30, 2018)

Will said:


> I just bought this
> 
> http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incukit-xl.html
> 
> ...


Will,

Am I understanding the website correctly? $75 for the "Advanced Thermostat" unit and its says the first fan/heat unit is free with that purchase? So $75 bucks total if I only need one heat/fan unit? Plus shipping and handling, of course…

I bought a wine fridge that died after a month of use. The seller replaced it, but didn't want the dead one back. Its been sitting there waiting for me to figure out how I want to turn it into an incubator.

How loud is this unit? Sounded kind of loud in the video.

I want to make another incubator so I can experiment with night temp drops for the SA leopard eggs. Sulcatas and stars don't seem to need any drop.


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## Markw84 (Mar 31, 2018)

Tom said:


> Will,
> 
> Am I understanding the website correctly? $75 for the "Advanced Thermostat" unit and its says the first fan/heat unit is free with that purchase? So $75 bucks total if I only need one heat/fan unit? Plus shipping and handling, of course…
> 
> ...


Tom

i like the integrated design of the heat/fan unit, but from what I can tell, the fan only seems to come on when the heat is on. I like mine on continuously. It does seem loud from their video, so will be interested in what @Will thinks when he gets his.

It is $75 for the on/off unit including one heat/fan module.

It is $150 for upgrading to the "advanced xl" which is the proportional thermostat.


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## Tyty1389 (Apr 1, 2018)

Tom said:


> How many eggs per year are you incubating and what species?
> 
> I used the Hovabators for years and I liked them. What is your complaint? They held steady temps and humidity for me if I taped over all the holes and kept water in those channels on the bottom. I hatched a lot of babies in them.
> 
> ...


 My main complaint was maintaining a steady temperature. However, after taping all but two of the vent holes I found that the temps have been far more stable. Thanks for the information.


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## Kapidolo Farms (Apr 2, 2018)

I got it set up on Sunday. There seems to be some missing verbiage in the 'settings instructions' or programming the device. I'm waiting to find out if I miss-read something or there is some missing instruction.

Noise is not so bad, not as quite as a muffin fan, but not loud at all. I'll report more when I get the settings sorted out.

The simple on/off thermostat is 'billed' as plenty good enough. If I were to be critical of the whole thing it is that they are trying to build one unit for both bird and reptile incubators. I don't need the egg turner part of the proportional thermostat, but it would be nice to build in a night time temp drop feature. It may work that way just to have it on a timer with no heat applied for several hours a day.

I'll try an post some images from my phone before editing disappears, it not they will be in their own otherwise non-narrated post in this thread.


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## Kapidolo Farms (Apr 2, 2018)

Will said:


> I got it set up on Sunday. There seems to be some missing verbiage in the 'settings instructions' or programming the device. I'm waiting to find out if I miss-read something or there is some missing instruction.
> 
> Noise is not so bad, not as quite as a muffin fan, but not loud at all. I'll report more when I get the settings sorted out.
> 
> ...


I had to make a longer throat on the bulkhead fitting to have the wire pass through the frig wall. That was a bit of out of the box thinking to do. @Tom you'll notice I took an idea from your night-house craft to make a place for the controller.


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## Tom (Apr 2, 2018)

Will said:


> I had to make a longer throat on the bulkhead fitting to have the wire pass through the frig wall. That was a bit of out of the box thinking to do. @Tom you'll notice I took an idea from your night-house craft to make a place for the controller.


Love what you did for mounting the thermostat there. As I watched the video of them installing it into a wooden "box", I wondered how many of their customers were going to be using wood vs. an actual fridge.


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## Kapidolo Farms (Apr 2, 2018)

Tom said:


> Love what you did for mounting the thermostat there. As I watched the video of them installing it into a wooden "box", I wondered how many of their customers were going to be using wood vs. an actual fridge.



I didn't want to cut that big a hole in the frig. It is also bordered on both side with stuff, and cutting the hole in the door seemed not good. There is little room on the top before the garage door would wack something, so that seemed the best place.


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## Kapidolo Farms (Apr 3, 2018)

I'll make a thread called "IncuKit DIY incubator" After I sort out a few more details.

The last installment here is from a question I posed to customer service and their response. It seems like they, as a fairly young company, got some growing pains to get over. Good thing I'm a customer to push that agenda.

My questions:
"In the instructions for setting the thermostat off the factory default of 99.5 there is the passage in the first paragraph (the last sentence) of the To Change Settings instructions " NOTE: you must completely exit from the "Change Settings" mode for the changes to go into effect."

Both myself and a colleague do not see any instruction on how to accomplish "completely exit" the change settings mode. 

The thermostat came with a reading of DC NTC in the first " + " use, not AC NTC as noted in the instructions.

Can I operate a small muffin fan using the egg turner controls?

Will"

Their response:
"Hi ,

To completely exit the settings menu all you need to do is press the minus button and scroll through all of the settings menu options until the screen reads "please wait". You could probably use the turner wiring and controls for a fan but we have never tried this so your results may vary.

Thanks,
Evan
IncubatorWarehouse Customer Service"

I have asked my wife and one colleague to read their instructions. In no way shape or form is Evan's response in the actual instructions. This to me this opens a whole can of worms about what else might be not well sorted out.

What kills me is that my "results may vary" from their what, they didn't try running a muffin fan from the controller/thermostat ?


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