Incubating Temperatures

[Annarose15]

Put the probe in the tub, isn't that where the eggs will be? That is the temp that matters. I put the whole unit in the tub. Also, I would add some bottles of water in there to help stabilize the temps. It seriously helps.

Yes, the eggs will be in the tub. However, consider this scenario: You take the tub out and peek in at your pearly whites. The tub temperature drops from opening, and you trap the cooler air inside with the lid before returning the tub to the incubator. Now, the entire incubator is increasing in temperature until that one tub is back to 89deg. Now, your other tubs have been getting hotter, the water bottles have been getting hotter, and the tub with the probe will now overheat because of all of the ambient increases around it (tub will continue to heat when the tape shuts off because everything else is hotter).

IMO, the two ways to place a stat probe in an incubator are to either place the probe in an EMPTY egg tub (which could still create the microcosm that then creates large temp swings in the rest of the inc), or suspend the probe in the vicinity of your tubs and place a thermoMETER probe in an egg tub as a check (this is how I do it, and get minimal swings). I do agree wholeheartedly with increasing the thermal mass in the incubator with as many water bottles as you can squeeze in there.