True Fridge Incubator Done

Thought I would post a couple pics of the finished product. Had it running all weekend and it did great. :rolleyes:
Ran a strip of 11in flexwatt down the back and it has 2 PC fans to circulate the air.
I need to get a couple more tubs and 3 or 4 more Arizona Tea bottles for the water in the bottom. B
ut it held temps great with very little split from top to bottom. Now I just need the eggs to put in it. I guess that will have to wait for next year but the Bator ran great. :D


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You've got a great start, true coolers are the bomb :)

Great work! I can never seem to find any of these guys in Maine. :(

Very nicely done. now when are u coming my way so u can drop it off with me lol.

Where do you go about looking for coolers like that?

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Originally Posted by MrLang

Where do you go about looking for coolers like that?

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I've seen them on kijiji/Craigslist

Great looking DIY! Very clean looking.
I still need to finish my incubator. So far, I have only stripped my wine cooler.
What kind of thermometers are you using? How accurate are they? I'd rather not use an Acurite. I've had 4 and they were all different from each other.....

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Originally Posted by MrLang

Where do you go about looking for coolers like that?

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Search "true cooler" or "commercial fridge" on craigslist ;)

I am using a thermal gun a calibrating the thermometers with that I never trust on thermometer either I always double check them against something else.

That came out really good. How many tubs can you fit in there?

It can hold 6 shoe box tubs very easily. If I found another shelf or fit them in tightly it could hold 9 or more:) I found the fridge in a junk pile behind my neighbors store on one of our monthly dump runs (he fills my truck with gas and we haul a bunch of stuff to the dump).

Just on a side note about calibration a recent post had an image of a digital human one and I looked at the specs they are spec'd very tight the one I saw was +/- 0.2ºC (0.4ºF) they have a very small range but for calibration purposes they could be used perhaps.

The pictured thermometers are aquarium digital the same guts as ESU uses. They are available on ebay for cheap (sub 5$ each shipped) I have found them as low as 1$ each shipped although not in the last year. They are ok accuracy, I would recommend buying a handful and laying them all out together marking the ones more than a few tenths off of the pack. (ideally 5+) Some accurites have are spec'd at +/-2ºC (4ºF) this to me seem a huge range. The cost to buy enough to make a real averaging method work is high enough that a better thermometer could be purchased anyway.

Is there a fan running in there to circulate the air at all? Looks great, I'm definitely Jealous!

It actually has 2 fans. One in the back blowing air slowly up over the flexwatt. The other in the top toward the front circulating the air back down :)

Nice incubator and it holds a nice size of tubs. Congrats on the build! How much did it cost you to set it up?

Total cost was about $50 I figure I already had the flexwatt and fans had to buy a couple cell phone power cables for the fans at $5 for the pair (thrift store) and I had the VE300 left over from when I had my snakes in aquariums. So I only spent $5 and actually was paid $29.50 at the shop for the freon when I sucked it out :) So it was actually fairly cheap :rolleyes: