Constancy in Incubators

[Logan & Allana]

I have two incubators going at the moment, the large fridge one that I know have finished and running. It has a 240V fan, heat cord etc, well sealed but it's going from around 29.4deg at night to about 32deg during the day (can't get it to sit roughly on the one temp). And also the incubator which was a brought one (not mine but a friends that I'm borrowing). It's a Styrofoam type box and I can't get it to sit either it's also changing at around the same as the fridge, the only drama with that one is I have my beardie eggs in it. So how do I get them to sit around 29 - 30.5deg and not go past that?. And will these changes effect my beardie eggs (or any other eggs for that matter ?).

Thanks Allana

[Miss B]

Have you got them connected to a thermostat?

The ambient air temps might be affecting your incubators. I have my incubator in our herp room which is air-conditioned and so far my temperatures have been stable at around 29.5 degrees.

[Logan & Allana]

yes both of them have a thermostat, and yes I think it's the temps in the house that's doing it, but in saying that I have a two story house, the fridge incubator is under the house which stays quite cool, and the other one I've had to put upstairs in one of the rooms and there both changing around the same. I just don't know how I can stop that without like you said purchasing a air conditioner and having it running constantly?

[Miss B]

I'm not sure, sorry

[DrNick]

As long as the room temp is lower than the desired incubator temp then things should be easy to manage=> I use dimming thermostats as they are probably the best for maintaining an even temp, the shelves in my incubator are nearly always exactly at the same temp with 0.1 deg being the largest difference I have recorded. I don't use a fan in my fridge incubator (approx 1m high).

On/off type thermostats can sometimes allow temps to 'overshoot' slightly and drop just under. also, the quality of the thermo and the probe placement are important factors.

[waruikazi]

See what your ambient temps are and try setting it to the highest or most constant ambient temps, that should help with consitancy if it is the ambient temps that are effecting it.

But it sounds more like you have an on off thermostat? My inc was fluctuating like that last year because of my thermo, so this year i will be using a pulse proportional thermostat because apparently that will fix the problem.

[Miss B]

Yeah I'm using a dimming thermostat in mine (Microclimate B1). Temps have fluctuated by around .3 or .4 degree at the most. Our herp room is one of the warmer rooms in the house, which is why I got an air-con for it.

[Miss B]

Are there two or three different types of thermostats..?

[] ON/OFF
[] dimming
[] pulse proportional > is this the same as an on/off thermo, or different?

[falconboy]

Pulse is different, it gives off a pulse every 5 sec (microclimate), and the strength of the pulse is determined by how much heat is needed. They are generally considered more stable than others (shame mine isn't!!)

Allana - I was having trouble keeping mine stable so I have just installed a fan and am currently seeing if that helps. I didn't bother with a fan since its only an esky, but my variance between one end and the other was often 1deg and it seemed not entirely stable. This weather doesn't help, its 34 here today, so that might have stuffed me up. I am thinking of putting the incubator in the bedroom that gets air con - not sure how the misses will like that!!

[swampie]

Your eggs should be fine Alana, my first incubator used to fluctuate to similar temps as yours and i used it for three seasons with both python and dragon eggs and had 100% hatch rates.

[The Devil]

I think your problem is that you are using a 240 volt fan, a friend of mine did this and couldn't figure out why the temp went up past 38C.
It would appear that the bearing on a 240 volt fan give off a lot of heat.

Change the fan to a 12 volt and use a transformer, mobile phone chargers work well.

[Aslan]

Allana - What sort of thermostat are you running? I am using a B1 (Dimming) and have been recording VERY warm days in the room that houses my incubator but it has consistently been sitting at the correct temperature (even with a dubious seal)...

I also think TheDevil may be on the right track regarding your fan - you can pick up a 12V fan from Dick Smith for quite cheap and the same with an adaptor - and due to the low voltage you can wire it yourself and it won't put out much heat...

[ihaveherps]

Bingo The Devil.... the thermos cant really do anything to stop excess temps, so the fan + the ambient room temps are probably both contributing factors to the high temp spikes. Try just switching the fan off and see if it stabilizes, the air circulation, although good in theory, isnt always necessary. Also efficient ballast in the incs may help also keep the temps more stable. Best of luck.

[The Devil]

ihaveherps, thanks mate, my friend had made up a large incubator and was running 2 fans, both 240 volts and a Rolls Royce of a t/stat.
It took a while to figure out why the temp was going up past 38C and that was in a air condt room. We tested the main bearing on each fan and they were both running in the 65 to 69C range.

The 12 volt set up work perfect.

[cement]

heavily insulated incubators will help slow down ambient air temp effects and save on power.