New incubator

[Rango3d]

Ok because I'm a huge DIYer I'm now making my own incubator.
To start I found a cheap wine cooler off craigslist. Really cheap!
I gutted all the cooling stuff out of it and now it's ready for the internals.

My question to members who have do this, I feel the the flex watt tape just sucks when opening the door just to have it heat back up again. Any other heating elements you would use? How about using the heating element like in the styrofoam incubators?
Needs ideas other then flex watt tape or light bulbs.

 

[Rango3d]

Here's the beauty.

 

[Rango3d]

Only 1 pic at a time.

 

[Rango3d]

With cooling internals removed.

 

[biffle]

I would have left the cooling in so that you could diapause panther eggs or incubate montane species like johnstoni.

Jason

 

[MelissaB]

Could you use 2 Peltier units to accomplish heating and cooling? If you had the right kind of thermostat controller? I've been tossing the idea around a little, but haven't really looked into it.

 

[biffle]

Could you use 2 Peltier units to accomplish heating and cooling? If you had the right kind of thermostat controller? I've been tossing the idea around a little, but haven't really looked into it.

That sounds like a reptipro 6500 [emoji3]

I have a peltier chip if you want to play with it.

 

[MelissaB]

I might just take you up on that.
I was thinking about making an incubator that would be suitable for uroplatus sikorae eggs, but I'm not sure if I really need one. My cabinet under my panthers seems to keep the temps I'm looking for, even if they are a little on the cool side. It's be nice to have a controller, though, to dial in the exact temps, but I'm also not sure how stable/reliable the Peltier units are.

 

[deerharvester]

I used flexwatt and have never really had more than a 1 degree temp swing. I also left the fan in and use a dc converter for the lights and the fan. U could probably use a number of different things maybe go dumpster diving for a broken coffee maker or the element out of an old hovabator. I used flew watt hot glued to the sides that way i could still use the bottom for eggs. With the fan on it stays the same temp from top to bottom.

Scott

 

[Rango3d]

My house normal stays 60-65 even in the summer with an occasional spike to 70. I prefer keeping my eggs warmer and don't need the cooling.
Im also gonna use it to grow silks all year round and like being able to see in.
I believe 76-78 is a good compromise for Panther eggs and silks.

 

[Rango3d]

I used flexwatt and have never really had more than a 1 degree temp swing. I also left the fan in and use a dc converter for the lights and the fan. U could probably use a number of different things maybe go dumpster diving for a broken coffee maker or the element out of an old hovabator. I used flew watt hot glued to the sides that way i could still use the bottom for eggs. With the fan on it stays the same temp from top to bottom.

Scott

I believe that's the road I'm gonna take. I got an old reliable hovabator and I'm gonna take the heating element from it. I plan on running a fan too.
I also plan on adding LED lighting for the inside and a few extra things to really trick it out

I will be posting updates as I build as a how to or don't do what I did.

 

[nick barta]

I believe that's the road I'm gonna take. I got an old reliable hovabator and I'm gonna take the heating element from it. I plan on running a fan too.
I also plan on adding LED lighting for the inside and a few extra things to really trick it out

I will be posting updates as I build as a how to or don't do what I did.

You know you are over the top when you want to trick out your incubator…


CHEERS!

Nick

 

[Bonginator]

Silly question but is there airflow/oxygen inside one of these or will you have to add an intake?

 

[Mike Fisher]

If you only plan to heat, just a couple light bulbs. You need two in case one burns out. MelissaB has the high tech approach, great idea!

 

[Mike Fisher]

With cooling internals removed.

Too bad you did that. Those have a peltier cooler. Even if you didn't want to cool with it, you can just reverse it and use it to heat. One side of the peltier chip gets hot, the other side cools. That would have been the easiest conversion ever. All you would have had to do is reverse it and then wire it to a new digital thermostat.

Theoretically you could just reverse polarity of the leads, but there have been reports that this may shorten the life of the chip, so probably best to flip it and put the heat sink inside with a fan and the cooling unit on the outside.

 

[Rango3d]

Ok. So after waiting for some goodies I now started building it.
I was originally gonna use the heating element from old hovabator. As I was disassembling it I broke it. I guess it was too old.
I went with flex watt tape just because I had some.
I got me a eBay temp. controller and I used the original wiring from the cooler+ some extra.

 

[Rango3d]

I went to RadioShack and got me a project box and some connectors.
I cut the slots drilled some holes and hooked the heart up.

 

[Rango3d]

The red light is so I know the driver is working. The button is for the light once I get it. All wired up.

 

[happy]

Did you get the humidistat, and temp control? I was looking at that box myself for a cheap project. It's missing a few features I want though. How accurate? Intuitive?

 

[Rango3d]

Making sure everything is nice and organized.