Incubator

Does a incubator have to have a fan or can you open the door to circulate the air.Also does anyone know if and where you can buy the metal racks for a mini fridge to convert to an incubator?
Thanks Mike.

Incubators should have a fan to keep the air evenly heated. It will keep the temp at a constant Temp. You might be able to use bbq grill racks also.
Marty

Hi,

Yep the idea of the fan is simply to avoid hotspots building up by moving the air around to keep all the egg boxes on different hight shelfs at the same temp.

The problem with opening the door is the warm air escapes and builds up at the top of the incubator in the mean time. That's why people like the glass fronted bar fridges etc - you can see the eggs without having to let the heat out more than you need to. Using bottles filled with water as thermal ballast can help get the temps back up quicker too.

You might be able to get extra shelfs at the recycling center where they take the fridges thrown out by the public - just take a carefull note of the sizes and cross your fingers. :)


dr del

I do not use a fan in my converted stand up freezer, and I have not had any issues.

I didn't use a fan in last year's homemade incubator and it did just fine. Granted I did monitor it carefully, it had three large pop bottles full of water in the bottle (as Derek mentioned) and I wasn't opening it constantly or for more than the few seconds it took to remove an eggbox for a quick peek. Also my incubator sits in a nice warm and very stable closed snake room so it and the eggboxes aren't exposed to any radical temp changes for any length of time. It was also a small incubator so had little airspace to deal with. When we build a larger one a fan will be definitely a big plus.