home -made incubators

Hello everyone, I am just wondering how reliable home- made incubators are and being able to keep temp at 90 degrees? . . ,Does the cooler method work well with water at the bottom heated with a fish tank heater and having the eggs sit up out of the water inside tupperwear with vermicolite (sperll?) ?. . I am not even breeding yet but am just thinking ahead.

Thank you

Done right, a homemade incubator is as reliable as they get. I made mine out of an old wine cooler and it maintains stability with les than a half degree variation.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psbdf829af.jpg

No problems here

Thats cool PitontheProwl. . . what do you use to heat the water to create the humidity? . .. .Heat tape at the bottom laying under the jugs and thermostat? Thanks for the posting the photo.

How are the water jugs providing humidity w caps on?

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Do the containers w eggs have holes in them to let moisture in?

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I have a big igloo cooler I use that can handle 6+ clutches at once. Heat tape, proportional thermostat, digital thermometer. I use water jugs and bottles to help stabilize temps. No fans. The KISS principle works well for me. Humidity is always at or near 100%. You can see Pitt is running pretty much the same type deal. Water jugs for stability and I am guessing that the blue cup may be for humidity. Since his setup is taller than it is long my bet would be he is probably running fans in there too.

Humidity inside the tubs comes from the tub itself. I user a light diffuser with water below it. I do not put holes in my tubs. Humidity inside the incubator can be high to reduce tub humidity leakage. I have heard of people having corrosion problems doing this but I have not. I ran my incubator for six months last year and never had to add water.

To answer @Jeanne's questions, the jugs are there for thermal mass, not humidity. They help regulate the temps inside by absorbing and releasing the heat, keeping everything even without fluxuations. The holes are for air circulation afaik. Humidity should come from properly prepared hatching medium.

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Originally Posted by LuvBall81

Thats cool PitontheProwl. . . what do you use to heat the water to create the humidity? . .. .Heat tape at the bottom laying under the jugs and thermostat? Thanks for the posting the photo.

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12 inch heat tape is the only thing that heats the incubator.

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Originally Posted by Jeanne

How are the water jugs providing humidity w caps on?

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Thermal mass nothing to do with humidity.
Helps keep the temperature stable.

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Originally Posted by Jeanne

Do the containers w eggs have holes in them to let moisture in?

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No holes in any of the tubs. Wet vermiculite keep the humidity on point.

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Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

Since his setup is taller than it is long my bet would be he is probably running fans in there too.

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You bet correct.
I have 2 four inch fans on rheostats to push air down as needed.

Okay briefly hijacking the thread to ask a question: I have a mini coke fridge I'm going to convert, and it's a bit shorter than @PitOnTheProwl's cooler. About how tall would it need to be before you start considering adding a fan element?

Pic of the same model fridge I have that someone else also converted into a 'bator (which makes me giggle).
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...eIncubator.jpg

All you can do is run it and see what your temperatures are in different locations and go from there.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

All you can do is run it and see what your temperatures are in different locations and go from there.

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This ^^^ 100% and I would add that you need to run it in a "real world" configuration, everything in place except the eggs, for at least 12 hrs to determine if the temps are uniform and stable. I actually had fans ready to go in for my current design but realized in my dry runs that I didn't need them. A good thing to know also in this process is how long it takes to get it up and stable from room temp.

Cool, noted for future use! Thanks guys.