I was browsing the local Craigslist when I came across someone trying to get rid of a old Red Bull mini fridge. I called the guy up and asked what was wrong with it and he said the compressor quit working but otherwise it was in good condition. Perfect!
I drove over and checked it out, it was a little banged up but otherwise in great condition.
First thing I did was pull out all the cooling stuff and anything else not necessary to free up room.
Where the cooling stuff was now there is a nice space for my electrical stuff. In the original design there is a little power distributor(the white box on the right) that divided the input power to the light/compressor/compressor fan/etc. I was able to utilize the spot where the compressor got its power to wire up my internal circulator fan. Also handy where the holes that were used to run the freon tube into the cooler which I used to run my fan, flexwatt power and thermostat probe through and reseal with some silicone caulk.
Inside on the bottom I have 6 one liter bottles of water to help maintain the temperature. Warming the cooler is a foot of flexwatt which came pre-wired from ReptileBasics.com and is regulated by a Herpstat. Circulating the air is a 92mm AC cooling fan. (if this proves to be too much air circulation I plan to hook up a dimmer switch to turn down the fan).
Also the lights still work
This is the first incubator I've ever built and I am very happy so far with how it has turned out. I am still testing it but so far it seems to be holding the temperature steady pretty well.
I would like to give a shout out to StrictlyBalls for his awesome DIY which was very informative while converting my fridge.http://www.strictlyballs.ca/incubator.htm
What do you guys think, is there anything missing or anything that should be changed?
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