Would you use an on/off thermostat for a BP egg incubator?

I use a proportional (BAH Herp Power) but I would use an on/off if I had to.

I use a ranco and have had no problems.

I would never use a non-proportional for any type of eggs.

Yeah I would have to agree with one of the posters before me. You could probably be fine with using an on/off thermostat as long as you have about 4 or 5 times during the day that you can check it. My house has weird power surges at night sometimes, so I have to slightly adjust mine before I lay down.

Good luck with whatever choice you make

Use 3 Ranco's on my incubator. 1st is primary control set at 89 degrees F.

2nd is under temp back up. (if temps drop 2 degrees below primary ones set point it turns on secondary heating element)

3rd is an over temp shut down of unit. (If temps exceed primary control by 2 degrees it shuts down all heating elements and fan.)

Have had a 100% hatch rate to date. (knock on wood.)
Granted the 2nd one has only ever kicked on when the door was open in the incubator and the 3rd has never activated.

i have an old woodgrain looking cube fridge and in it:

11" heat tape on the bottom
tub with water on top the heat tape
a bigger tub in the middle rack holding 13 eggs

outside:
i have a repti therm 500r, but i have a dimmer that you would use for like in your wall at the house, i took my time (about a month befor eggs) and set the dimmer up to where i wanted it and then set up the 500r to turn off the tape if it got to hot....so far my temps have been between 87.5 and 88.5....cant beat it

but i will be buying a herpstat or helix for my bigger bator because it basicly does all that i did but all you gotta do is hit a arrow and get that temp.:gj:

We used the GQF 1250R incubator for the first 2 years. It has 2 wafer temp controllers one set at the optimal temp 87.5 the other set 2 degrees higher and we attatched a ranco to set at 91 to shut the whole thing down incase of an emergency. The only year we had an issue and the ranco actually turned the incubator off was when we lost power due to a hurricane. We where out for a week. We moved the incubator to a friends house with power and some how the ranco errored and would keep shutting everything off. So we took it off and the eggs did there thing with just wafers for the last 2 weeks. Everyone hatched and did well.

Rancos are pretty great for what they are and they can handle WAY more wattatge than the proportionals. I have a Ranco set up on my coral tank. If the temps spike over 84 it shuts down the lighting system to save the corals from over heating. I have yet to find a proportional that will handle the 1100watts of light I have over that tank!

I would, and have. I've used Alife's with great, perfect success and plan to use them again this year. Some fluctuation helps in making the neonates stronger IMO (not just making that up, either... There is some science to it!). As long as the t-stat is capable of keeping the temperatures in the range of proper incubation temps you'll be fine.

Here is my "how-to" with a wine cooler, Flexwatt, and a Herpstat II:
http://www.strictlyballs.ca/incubator.htm
I explain in the text that if you decide you want to back up your incubator with some sort of power back-up in case of a power failure, you cannot use proportional mode on your thermostat as the sine wave is broken. If you decide to use a power back up unit, you have to use on/off mode.

I live in Colorado so in the early morning the outside temperature can be as low as 55 degrees, and raise to 95+ by noon. This causes extreme temperature fluctuation when using an on/off temperature control. My first build up was with a Johnson's. The temperature fluctuated from 85 to 95 degrees while set at 89 degrees. Needless to say this wasn't going to work, and I'm going to have at least 5 clutches hit the ground this month ( all had their pre-lay shed ). So I had to pony up the cash for a proportional. I wanted to just go with the Herpstat ND, but nobody had one locally. Luckily a semi-local ( about 175 miles ) breeder friend of mine had an extra Herpstat II on hand. This was more than I was wanting to spend on one, but like they say: "you get what you pay for".

So anyway I've had this hooked up for 1 week, and as my breeder friend promised the temperatures haven't fluctuated more than 2 tenths of a degree. I'm more than happy to pay $230 something for stable temperatures specially when I got the freezer for free ( factory defect ( I'm an appliance tech :banana: ).