Need advice on incubation set up

Darthroastcoffee

Darthroastcoffee

Avid Member
ok so people love to play with the thermostat in my house temps are all over. But my garage is the coldest spot in my house I’ve checked and it stays around 78 in cold spots I want to set up an incubator for my panther chameleon eggs when my female is ready but I don’t have a spot that stays low enough and on hot days the temps are high and that’s no good for eggs as far as I know incubators heat not cool. So I was thinking about taking my mini fridge and putting a thermostat on the plug to keep it at a certain temperature and keeping the incubator in the mini fridge set at the exact temp. I was also thinking if the temp stays low enough in the mini fridge it would keep away bacteria but I’m afraid if the incubator gives out and I don’t catch it the eggs will get a drastic temperature drop witch is a scary thought but I don’t want my eggs to over heat that’s the hole point of the mini fridge. If anyone has any ideas or can point out any flaws please comment I’ve just been brain storming ideas to maintain temps.
 
If anyone has an easier way of maintaining lower temperatures on hot! Days I’m all ears I need something consistent please I can’t seem to find an answer i might be over thinking something simple I just want to keep things exactly at what it should be I don’t want to risk any complications
 
How many eggs are you expecting to possibly be incubating? Inkbird itc-308 or itc-310 will give you control over heat and cooling. My closet stays 71.5/ 72 so I haven't assembled my wine chiller incubator yet tbh. Have you used a thermometer to see how cold the warmest setting on your fridge is?
 
Yea the warmest temp is 40 in the fridge. I was thinking of putting a dimmer on the fridge but I don’t know if that will burn the motor out. I will look into what you was saying with the inkbird.?. But If I can get everything to an exact setting I want to start breeding my females I have a 100% ambilobe and a 100% nosy be males that I want to breed I also have pure females for both locals if it really comes down to it my friend has incubators for what he has goin I just want to do it myself he has a basement that stays cool. I just have to fight the over heating problem
 
I wouldn't put a dimmer on it at all. Let the inkbird control the cold off and on instead. Another option would be a wine chiller which doesn't get as cold as a mini fridge. But again, I'd let the inkbird control the cold side. It's been a while since I've looked at my wine chiller but I want to say its warmest setting is 70. I've got heat tape to put in for heating. Some water bottles to help stabilize the temp for door opening and it should be good. I haven't messed with my 308 much yet either but my 306t is pretty dang accurate.

Not sure about your area but craigslist for my area has lots of them lol. Best part of mine is clear door and an interior light for spot checks when I do set it up finally.
 
Oooo ok it’s a digital temperature gauge yea I was going to put something like that on my fridge then just get a incubator that fits inside so the eggs say stay at 73 then if the fridge gets to warm because it’s hot in the room the fridge will then kick on and cool down the outside to day 71 with the eggs in the incubator will stay at 73 but the incubator will most likely be constantly heating to keep up with the slight drop from the fridge
 
Yes and no. It's a digital temp controller that can control cooling and heating cycles. It does give a digital current temp as well though. Are you talking about something like a hova bator inside the fridge? If so my questions would be: do you already have the incubator? Do you only plan on using the mini fridge for incubating?

I know my itc-306t (heating only) has 0°, 1° and 2° variance settings. I typically have it set to 1° allowing a 2° swing. 1° +/- of my set temp for turn off/ turn on. I've not read my 308 manual in a while but think it has similar settings.
 
I don’t have a incubator yet I was looking into them I don’t want something that’s goin to burn out and just quit on me. Yes I was planning one putting the incubator inside the fridge. Also yes I was planning on only using it for incubating that’s why I’m fine with using the temp controller on it i just need a good small incubator that temp controller I just don’t know how good the small incubators are if they are good I might be able to fit a couple in the mini fridge
 
If it's only going to be used as an incubator, why not just get heat tape/ heat cable, foil tape to tape down the heat tape/ heat cable and have the whole thing as an incubator then? Something along the lines of this: http://www.neherpetoculture.com/diyincubator . The mini fridge and heat source connected to either the 308 or the 310 should be more then enough to keep your temps pretty stable without adding a second layer of styrofoam inside via the inner incubator idea. If yours has a solid door then add some water bottles to the sides to help temp swings for when you open the door to check on things. Much simpler then trying to use the fridge to cool a styrofoam incubator inside. Both controllers have an accuracy of +/1°f like the 306t does. I will say, my 306t has always read +.2°f higher then my infrared thermometer reads which for a "cheap" controller is not bad at all.
 
That make perfect sense I’m goin to definitely do that I was over thinking it I’ll just cut a small window out and plexiglass it and seal it so I can see in
 
What brand is your mini fridge? I looked at my wine chiller last night before I went to bed because I couldn't remember if it was single pane or double. It is a double pane window door. Semi Ironically, I have the matching Kenmore mini fridge at work which has the same door minus the window and lock the wine chiller has. It may be worth seeing if you can find the wine chiller version of what you have and steal the door off it if you can find it cheap. That way you keep the insulating properties of the door since in your case it's more to keep them cooler then your available temps.
 
Sorry for the seriously delayed reply. Yes the 310 is one of the two that will control cooling. The difference between the 308 and 310 is the 310 has a timer function. The instructions for setting up the timer on the 306t is useless so I'd just stay with the 308 myself.

Heat tape/ cable can be bought from reptilesupplyco.com, reptilebasics.com or https://www.pangeareptile.com/store/light-heat-and-uvb.html . With heat tape don't forget the solder tabs too. I'm pretty sure reptile basics had an option to have them solder the connectors but have not looked to see if the others do. With heat cable you wouldn't have to worry about that. I have not used either personally but from looking around a little on Amazon the exo terra cable got better reviews then the zoo med version.
 
Ok so I got the 308 and cancelled the 310 the heat tape is on the way I’m pretty sure I got everything I need I ordered the hole set up except the temperature regulator that comes with the heat tape
 
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