Incubator

I'm looking to get a prebuilt incubator, and wondered if anyone had thoughts as to what brands are best?

LLLReptile has a Thermal Hovabator 1602 with hatchrite and deli cups for a decent price, but I've read terrible reviews about it. Just want to hear everyone's thoughs. :)

Making my own :gj:

I've looked around and the only way I'm convinced I'll be happy is to build my own :gj:

Yeah, I've given thought to that. But, the same reason I don't want to build any racks or terrarium furniture myself would apply to an incubator; I wouldn't want to do anything wrong, haha.

Incubators seem pretty easy imo. Add flexwatt and a tstat to a wine cooler and youre pretty much halfway there already lol.

If I were going to buy one, it would be something like the Nature's Spirit Incubator: http://www.nsreptiles.com/incubator.html

Of the commercial brands R•Com is the leader. They make the juragon ones. Temp and humidity controls automatically some have presets for different species. The big problem is they are not large and not cheap but if you figure a t-stat with both temp and humidity controls and the construction of that, the price is quite reasonable.


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Yeah, I've reconsidered a little bit. Looking at getting a wine cooler here locally and throwing flexwatt down on a t-stat.

Any good, "cheap" (not $200, but in the 75-125 range) t-stat to go with? I figure the hydrofarm one wouldn't be a very good idea.


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Herpstat 1 would be my recommendation, it has added safety features that lower models do not most critically a over or under set point shut down and alarms. It also has accurate probes (less than one degree.) that are needed for incubators (personally I would say everything herp related but clearly that is not a popular opinion)

theres some really good write ups with pictures on how to turn a wine cooler or refrigerator into an incubator in the DIY section of the forms, im building one right now out of a 32 bottle wine cooler and i bought a herpstat 1 basic for $115 bucks and $10 shipping to run it on and it has built in fail safes so you don't really need a back up tstat altho im sure it never hurts to have one =P

From my research i would have either gone with the herpstat basic for $99 the herpstat 1 basic for $115 or the herpstat 1 for $140... i believe any of the three would be fine read the features see what ones best for you would be my advice, but from what i understand with the recent advances for the money herpstats the way to go

Is the herpstat intro/basic a proportional or on/off. It didn't really specify.


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The herpstat basic is not a proportional its an on off, so it would be worth every penny of the extra 15 bucks for the herpstat 1 basic

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Originally Posted by Kodieh

Yeah, I've given thought to that. But, the same reason I don't want to build any racks or terrarium furniture myself would apply to an incubator; I wouldn't want to do anything wrong, haha.

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If you never do anything wrong, then you are never doing anything. We learn from our mistakes. There is so much information on this forum about DYI incubators that you can do it. And if you get into a bind, you start a thread and ask for help. Just start with enough time that you will be able to do as much testing as you want prior to the first clutch dropping. The other thing is that when you hatch your first clutch in an incubator that you built, the sense of accomplishment is that much greater. If I can do it, anyone can. Give it a try. We are here for you. Good Luck

I have the intro and it is proportional, or on and.off. it has adjustable ramping and day night controls. So far pretty good for the money.

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Yeah, I agree. I've got hydrofarms now for my cages. Since I plan on breeding both balls and Leo's, I think investing in the herpstats would be a good thing. Definitely worth the extra 15.


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Originally Posted by jfaria1891

The herpstat basic is not a proportional its an on off, so it would be worth every penny of the extra 15 bucks for the herpstat 1 basic

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Sorry but this is not correct all the herpstats are proportional they do not make an on off Tstat. The chart at the bottom lists them all.

http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

The intro does not have lighting controls (sun set rise), pulse proportional (it is only dimming proportional and cannot be changed) run humidity controls, trigger external events, and most critical does not have a mechanical relay.

the relay adds two things they tend to close when things mess up (needs to be help open so the default is off) this means it is likely to fail off over on. The higher models allow a set point and then a choice of when the alarms kick on over and under. The higher models allow the relay to kill the power on just over (like every tstat does) or on any alarm over or under. this protects against a pulled loose probe.

The use of a secondary T-stat (aka failsafe) protects against a primary failure or a primary probe being pulled free. The herpstat 1,2, and 4 all make the use of a failsafe more questionable as they have built in protection against the very things a failsafe protects against. I might still use one but the reasons for it become complete failure of the relay and triac controller. It is unlikely both would fail at once unless a catrostrophic event occurs (massive power spike) that is likely to fry the failsafe too. that said I personally still have a failsafe on my HS4 I would be devastated if anything happened to my animals that I could have easily prevented.

Ah, see I would definitely spring for the pulse on the HS1 then.

I'm looking into broken wine coolers in my area and am looking at the DIY now. :)


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Thank you kitedemon your right i read the chart wrong when it said pulse proportional with the X i figured it wasnt proportional. My bad still worth the extra 15 if u ask me lol

Oh I agree that the higher models are worth the small extra. I would not suggest otherwise.


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