Fridge style incubator

[moonlightgdess]

Short of building a room in my house, I need a bigger incubator (planning for the future). I'm not a very good DIY person, so that's out. Anyone have any recommendations of an incubator that's bigger than the reptibator I'm currently using? It works for this season but I'm hoping for bigger/more clutches in the future. Thanks!

[PitOnTheProwl]

It really isn't that hard to build an incubator.
Sealed and insulated box...... old fridge or freezer or even an ice chest.
Heat source and regulation.
I assume you know how to use a thermostat right?
You can use THG heat tape and even have Reptile Basics wire it for you.
The only real DIY would be taping in the heat and setting up the thermostat.

[moonlightgdess]

Oh maybe that won't be so hard after all. I was reading instructions that had soldering in them and that's more than I can do, lol! Thanks!

[Devenco]

What i did was buy an old glass door refrigirator.

Wire it up with 2 heat cables, put those into a pulse stat, put the pulse stat into a thermostat (just incase either one of them "fails").
Bought a small fan that i plugged in and .... i was done

So far it works fine, only downside it that it currently sits near a window, which in the morning has full SUN... so when this clutch hatches i will move it to a different room and not close to where sun can affect it.

[enginee837]

This is not a huge one as I made it with a wine cooler rather than a full size fridge. The concept is the same just on a larger scale. All you do is line the back wall with heat tape (use aluminum tape to attach it) and connect it to a thermostat. Line the heat tape with sealed water bottles (these stabilize the temp and hold it when you open the door.) Get it all set up and let it run for a few days then check your temps. If they are not even throughout the incubator you can adjust the heat tape (remove some from the top or bottom) to even temps out. If you want it even more consistent you can add computer fans. The way mine is set up my top sits between 84.8-85.2 (for our super black pastel eggs), the middle shelf is 85.7-86.2 and the bottom shelf it 86.8-87.1. Simply adjusting the fans will change this temperature gradient.
If you need a more step by step guide to building one I would be happy to help, just shoot me a pm.