Question on homemade incubator

So I just built an incubator using a 120qt coleman cooler, flex watt heat tape, spyder robotics herpstat, indoor/outdoor thermometer, computer fan, and put an extra rubber seal on the inside of the lid. One question though. I have the probe in between the heat tape and the cooler, should it be on top of the heat tape and open to the inside of the cooler?(yes heat tape is inside the cooler). I'll post some pics when I get a new cord for my phone. Thanks

I hang my probe in the direct center of my wine cooler, you are trying to measure the ambient air temps.

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Originally Posted by eel588

I hang my probe in the direct center of my wine cooler, you are trying to measure the ambient air temps.

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Im gonna have 2 probes, one for the thermostat and one for the thermometer. The thermostat probe is on the heating tape between the tape and the wall of the cooler and the thermometer is placed on the opposite wall towards the upper/center. I just need to match up the thermostat with the thermometer but I was wondering if the probe for the thermostat should be between the cooler and the heat tape or on the outside of the heat tape open to the center of the cooler.

You want to measure the temps inside so placing it exposed to the inside of the cooler is better, also place bottles of water on top of your heating source, this helps to hold temps even and stable, if there's a loss of power your temps should hold for a bit.

Here's a helpful post http://ssscales.com/archives/804

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Originally Posted by Peoples

You want to measure the temps inside so placing it exposed to the inside of the cooler is better, also place bottles of water on top of your heating source, this helps to hold temps even and stable, if there's a loss of power your temps should hold for a bit.

Here's a helpful post http://ssscales.com/archives/804

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Awesome, Thanks. I just put the thermostat probe on the outside of the heat tape. I was thinking of using some of the larger ice/heat packs with the blue gel for the same purpose of the water bottles. Thanks for the tips and the link.

I tape it directly under the heat tape and have for several years with excellent results.
The only temperature that matters is what's inside of the egg box, and there's nothing wrong with the probe reading the flexwatt temperature verses the ambient temp in the incubator.
There are many ways to do it, just test out the different ways and go with what your comfortable with :gj:

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

I tape it directly under the heat tape and have for several years with excellent results.
The only temperature that matters is what's inside of the egg box, and there's nothing wrong with the probe reading the flexwatt temperature verses the ambient temp in the incubator.
There are many ways to do it, just test out the different ways and go with what your comfortable with :gj:

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It looks like Im gonna have to try something different. Its taking an extremely long time to get up to temp. I have the thermometer probe glued to the wall of the cooler about 2/3 of the way up, should I just hang that one from the top of the cooler? I'll keep trying till I figure something out. Everything seems solid but its just taking a while. Thanks.

Ask yourself, where are you trying to maintain whatever temperature it is you're try to maintain, and you'll have your answer. In other words, are you trying to keep the eggs at 89 degrees, say, or the inside wall of the incubator at 89 degrees?

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Originally Posted by jfmoore

Ask yourself, where are you trying to maintain whatever temperature it is you're try to maintain, and you'll have your answer. In other words, are you trying to keep the eggs at 89 degrees, say, or the inside wall of the incubator at 89 degrees?

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Gotcha. Thanks

I have my thermostat probe taped to the top of the cooler in the middle so I get the ambient temp to exactly what I need it to be, didn't have any problems last year with that method.