Converting A Wine Cooler Into An Incubator

I bought this wine cooler from a guy on Craigslist over the weekend for $50.00 and i'm getting ready to start gutting it and converting into an incubator. It actually still works, so it's kind of a shame to have to gut it...

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ncubator-1.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ncubator-2.jpg

Only if you can set it to right temp, if the natural temp is good then you don't have to do anything.

I will be installing 12" heat tape with a thermostat, as well as a fan for circulation and I will most likely line the bottom of the incubator with bottles of water to help increase the humidity...

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

I will be installing 12" heat tape with a thermostat, as well as a fan for circulation and I will most likely line the bottom of the incubator with bottles of water to help increase the humidity...

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Bottled water does nothing for humidity, it's purpose is to hold temperature when the door is opened. The insulation coupled with the media in your egg boxes is where your humidity comes from.

I just built one of these not too long ago, hit me up if you have any questions.

Thanks, enginee837. You are exactly right about that. It has been awhile since I researched how to make these and I guess I forgot what the purpose of water bottles actually is... lol Do you use water bottles in yours? Do you have any photos of the one you built that you could share?

This is what I've done

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...UlY%2Fdownload

Nothing complicated, I've used a heat cable cause I had it laying around wrapped on the water bottles. A couple of computer fans connected to a 12v power source make sure the heat is properly spread and, although the space inside isn't large, they're absolutely needed.

I would suggest against removing the cooling system, just shut it off. It'll come useful if you eve want to brumate colubrids to help the breeding.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...47#post2532647

Here is a link to another thread where I have a picture of mine.
Yes I used water bottles, I lined the entirety of the heat tape with them.

Thanks for sharing, enginee837. The only potential problem I can foresee with mine is it has glass racks in it. Whereas, yours has the wire racks. I have a feeling that the glass racks will block the airflow and possibly hinder even temperature distribution. If that ends up being the case, do you think there would be any problem with leaving the shelves out of it and just stacking the tubs on top of each other?

The inner dimensions of the wine cooler are 16" (width) x 16" (depth) x 28 1/2" (height)... My plan is to run 12" heat tape all the way down the back and across the bottom and I have to figure out a way to mount a CPU fan (or similar) to the top facing straight down. I was actually considering something more like this, as it is a little larger and has a clamp:

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/sto...FVlYDQod__cL1Q

Do think that the bottles of water are really even all that necessary since the door would only ever be open for a couple seconds at a time? If so, I would just place them on the bottom of the wine cooler directly on the 12" heat tape...

As a side note, the part that scares me most about this whole breeding thing (and keeping snakes in general) is power outages! The power goes out constantly where I live. It's ridiculous! It just went out again two days in a row on July 4th and 5th for a few hours each time. A few summers ago it was out for a few days and last winter it went out for a whole night. Fortunately, that happened about a month before I started acquiring my new snake collection or that could have been catastrophic. I definitely need to be finding a cheap generator before winter gets here! Even that isn't going to help if it ever goes out while i'm out of town or something, though... Do you have any sort of emergency plan for if your power goes out?

Well, this project is finished! The only thing I don't like about it is that it has glass shelves and there are only two of them. I'm going to see if I can track down some regular refrigerator racks that will fit or i'll have to make my own somehow... Other than that, I am very happy with how it turned out.

For anyone, who is considering building their own incubator out of a similar wine refrigerator, here are some specifics about what I used:

Heat Tape: 12" THG
Thermostat: Vivarium Electronics VE-100
Fan: 12V 3-Pin/4-Pin 120mm PWM PC Computer Case CPU Cooler Cooling Fan with Red LED Light (wired to 12v AC adapter)
Egg Box Thermometer: Vivarium Electronics TH-100 thermometer/Hygrometer

* TIP* The easiest way I came up with to mount the CPU fan to the top of the incubator was with 4 little suction cups with hooks on them. I then used paperclips to hook each corner of the fan onto the suction cups...

Here are a couple photos:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...r-finished.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...finished-2.jpg

Nice! I found one about the same size on craigslist for free the otherday, ill be converting it fairly soon here. Gunna try and get a clutch from my BPs to start out.