Wine Cooler to Incubator

Picked up this nice dual zone wine cooler today. Took out the shelf that divided the zones and unplugged the thermoelectric cooler. I left the two interior fans to provide air circulation, and left the light in cause it looks awesome. :)

I am really glad I went with a thermoelectric cooler because I didn't really want to deal with the refrigerant! This was the easiest conversion ever.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7071/7...fb30f357_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7092/7...6e4acc30_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7077/7...f6616a49_b.jpg
Fan in the back, pretty light.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7241/7...9445b3b3_b.jpg
aaaand guts.


Now just needs some flexwatt to go with my herpstat and EGGS!!!

Cool buy, should make a great bator!

I took my thermoelectric Coolers out. Enlarged the area inside, so the lager heatsinks will fit. Flip the Coolers around so that the hot side is on the inside of the wine cooler. Sealed everything up real good. Then I wired the thermoelectric Coolers to a 12 volt powersupply then plug the powersupply to the thermostat. After a few adujustments with the temperature, I have a very awesome and accurate incubator. Thermoelectric wine coolers make great incubators. With a little reworking there is no need for heat tape.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by reptilenut

I took my thermoelectric Coolers out. Enlarged the area inside, so the lager heatsinks will fit. Flip the Coolers around so that the hot side is on the inside of the wine cooler. Sealed everything up real good. Then I wired the thermoelectric Coolers to a 12 volt powersupply then plug the powersupply to the thermostat. After a few adujustments with the temperature, I have a very awesome and accurate incubator. Thermoelectric wine coolers make great incubators. With a little reworking there is no need for heat tape.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

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Cool idea! I'm gonna just go with the flexwatt for now, but I suppose I always have the option to try that out.

I was nervous about it in the beginning. It has been running for 6 months straight without issue. Crossing fingers lol!

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Great looking DIY incubator, Steffe!

Loving the incubator and how simple it is! Did you just buy it new? And could you do this with any incubator?

I got it used on craigslist. You can convert basically any fridge/cooler into an incubator. Anything that will maintain temps well.

Im looking at buying a 30bottle cooler how many bottles is the one you picked up? Looks great btw!

Mine is only for 12. But it is enough room for about 4 or 5 egg boxes.

Wow never knew about TEC wine coolers. Brand new ones are fairly cheap too. I love the idea of reversing the TEC to make it a heater instead of cooler!

Completely flip the cooler around, do not reverse the wiring. It might not fail right away but it will fail. I learned this the first time around with an incubator I built for Leopard Geckos.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by reptilenut

I took my thermoelectric Coolers out. Enlarged the area inside, so the lager heatsinks will fit. Flip the Coolers around so that the hot side is on the inside of the wine cooler. Sealed everything up real good. Then I wired the thermoelectric Coolers to a 12 volt powersupply then plug the powersupply to the thermostat. After a few adujustments with the temperature, I have a very awesome and accurate incubator. Thermoelectric wine coolers make great incubators. With a little reworking there is no need for heat tape.

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If you get a chance, could you post some pictures of how you did this or at least of the finished product? Thanks!

I did not take any pictures of the build. The unit is essentially sealed so it would be difficult to take pictures now. I am brain storming on a tutorial on how i built it. I will post it up when i have it finished. Biggest issue i have right now is getting another minifridge or wine cooler. With the right parts i could even build it into a normal cooler.

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