Are water bottles necessary for an incubator?

[rj1204]

I have a Red Bull mini-fridge that I am going to convert into an incubator. It seems most of the incubators I have seen do not have any water bottles, but some do. My mini-fridge is completely insulated and has a glass front door. Is it necessary to have water bottles or is that a personal preference? If I put water bottles, it would eliminate 1/3 of my space for egg boxes.

[dr del]

Hi,

They just provide thermal balast.

Is there any reason you couldn't put them in at the start of the season and then remove them if you needed to put in another eggbox?


dr del

[rj1204]

Can anything else be used for thermal balast? Maybe an ice pack or something else with water?

I could definetely do the water bottles until I need more room. My soon to be incubator has two suspended shelves and each hold two egg containers. "If" all 6 of my girls produce clutches, then I would need the bottom shelf. If the water from something thin like an ice pack could be utilized, then I could put another shelf on the bottom a couple inches above the incubator floor. I haven't started converting the fridge to an incubator so I could still sell it and buy something bigger I guess......like a wine fridge.

[mykee]

You do not need water bottles. They only allow the incubator to stay warm when the door is open while you fiddle around inside. If you keep your clutches in containers inside the incubator, water bottles are unnecessary to keep the heat. The egg containers will hold heat just fine.
Here's my set-up:
http://www.strictlyballs.ca/incubator.htm

[rj1204]

I just had to make sure. The wine fridges are great. I found a great deal on a Red Bull fridge and it fits perfect in my snake room. Thanks!

[Adam Chandler]

I have a Red Bull mini-fridge that I am going to convert into an incubator. It seems most of the incubators I have seen do not have any water bottles, but some do. My mini-fridge is completely insulated and has a glass front door. Is it necessary to have water bottles or is that a personal preference? If I put water bottles, it would eliminate 1/3 of my space for egg boxes.

I just recently converted a Red Bull mini-fridge into a incubator. I decided to add a row of water bottles at the bottom of the fridge. It didn't take up too much room. I used the skinny long Smart-water bottles. There are some pictures of it here:http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...d.php?t=119785

[rj1204]

I saw your post and it looks great. I am using 6 quart Sterilite tubs. My Red Bull fridge has two shelves and I can fit two egg tubs on each rack. If I use the bottom, I can fit 2more. I might be able to do what you did with the lighting material above some really skinny water bottles for the bottom. I just didn't want to destroy the fridge if I had to get a different one. Those Red Bull fridges are expensive!

[Wh00h0069]

Necessary, no. I have never used them, and have hatched out many healthy babies. I also do not use a fan in my incubator.

[rj1204]

That was actually another thing I was going to research.....fan or no fan. The Red Bull fridge has two small fans on the top front over by the glass front door. I thought these may work and create a very small circulation to even out the heat. I have read many posts from good breeders that don't use fans and have 100% (or close too) hatch rate. I am going to use a Helix Thermostat and run 11" flexwatt down the back. Before I put a fan in, I was going to check the temps on the top, middle, and bottom part of my incubator. I figured if they stay at a constant 88 or 89 degrees, I would not put a fan in.

[rj1204]

Here is a pic looking up at the top of my Red Bull Fridge (at the fans) and the other is just a shot of the front.

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...edBullFan1.jpg

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...edBullFan2.jpg