holmesese
Member
I have seen many many posts asking about this type of incubator, so I thought I would give a short description of my experiences with them. I have only used the think-geek incubator but could not find any differences between it and the incubator sold by LLLreptile
Size: If you really cram them in there it could hold up to around 200 panther eggs, I have 80 in mine right now with room to spare. The incubator isn't very wide but is fairly tall, so if you use appropriately sized containers for the eggs you can get quite a few in there. I will try and attach photos in a few days.
Temp Control: The incubator has a digital thermostat and can heat and cool. For a hobbyist such as myself, who can't be home all the time this puts my mind at ease. My incubator has been running for about a year without any extreme temperature fluctuations.
With that said I found two problems with the digital temperature settings: 1) The digital thermostat isn't accurate at reading temperatures and 2) There was up to a 4 F gradient from the top of the fridge to the bottom. What I have deduced is that the thermostat is at the top of the incubator so the temperature the incubator is reading is the warmest temp. However, even though the displayed temperature was not representative of the actual temp in the incubator - it did measure the temps consistently. In other words, if it is off by 2 degrees it stays off by about 2 degrees - no matter what the temperature is set on.
Overall conclusion: For me (a small scale hobbyist), it was definitely worth the money. It worked well and it was very easy to put the eggs through a diapause without having to adjust the temperature in my house to be cool enough for my eggs. Keep in mind that if you have more than one clutch of eggs laid a month apart this could present some problems - what do you do when one clutch should be cooling and the other should be warmer??? So if you have a lot of eggs more than one incubator would be nice
Suggestions for use: Before you actually put eggs in the incubator it would be wise to test the temp settings. I bought a cheap digital indoor/outdoor thermometer (checked for correctness with a calibrated thermometer) that recorded highs and lows over extended periods. This way I could test temps at the upper and lower portions of the incubator as well as how far off the thermostat reading is (for my incubator it always read about 2 F high). Don't forget to test the incubator when it is cooling and when it is warming. Also, I put a small bowl of water in the incubator to get a little more humidity.
Happy incubating!
Size: If you really cram them in there it could hold up to around 200 panther eggs, I have 80 in mine right now with room to spare. The incubator isn't very wide but is fairly tall, so if you use appropriately sized containers for the eggs you can get quite a few in there. I will try and attach photos in a few days.
Temp Control: The incubator has a digital thermostat and can heat and cool. For a hobbyist such as myself, who can't be home all the time this puts my mind at ease. My incubator has been running for about a year without any extreme temperature fluctuations.
With that said I found two problems with the digital temperature settings: 1) The digital thermostat isn't accurate at reading temperatures and 2) There was up to a 4 F gradient from the top of the fridge to the bottom. What I have deduced is that the thermostat is at the top of the incubator so the temperature the incubator is reading is the warmest temp. However, even though the displayed temperature was not representative of the actual temp in the incubator - it did measure the temps consistently. In other words, if it is off by 2 degrees it stays off by about 2 degrees - no matter what the temperature is set on.
Overall conclusion: For me (a small scale hobbyist), it was definitely worth the money. It worked well and it was very easy to put the eggs through a diapause without having to adjust the temperature in my house to be cool enough for my eggs. Keep in mind that if you have more than one clutch of eggs laid a month apart this could present some problems - what do you do when one clutch should be cooling and the other should be warmer??? So if you have a lot of eggs more than one incubator would be nice
Suggestions for use: Before you actually put eggs in the incubator it would be wise to test the temp settings. I bought a cheap digital indoor/outdoor thermometer (checked for correctness with a calibrated thermometer) that recorded highs and lows over extended periods. This way I could test temps at the upper and lower portions of the incubator as well as how far off the thermostat reading is (for my incubator it always read about 2 F high). Don't forget to test the incubator when it is cooling and when it is warming. Also, I put a small bowl of water in the incubator to get a little more humidity.
Happy incubating!
