Incubator failure: 45 quad eggs gone

My three clutches of quad eggs were frozen by the incubator over the weekend. I'm really wrecked.

For the record it was a "Repti Pro 5000", bought from the company via ebay in June.

Anyone have a good suggestion for an incubator that heats, cools, and doesn't fail in 3 months?

I'm sorry, I encourage you should go ahead

I've never had a problem with the ThinkGeek Mini Fridge-Warmer (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/6ad2/). It fluctuates in temperature some but its never been a problem for me since the eggs are somewhat buffered from these temp fluctuations being inside a sealed container. They look similar to the ReptiPro 5000 incubator, but the guy is adamant that they are not the same (https://www.chameleonforums.com/reptipro-5000-a-30814/#post283304).

The other thing is that Exo-Terra is releasing a heating-cooling incubator now too. I've not tried it yet and I'm not sure they have been sent out to their distributers yet, but it may be a promising unit.

I would email the guy from ReptiPro 5000 and complain. You might not want to risk it again with a replacement, but they should know that you were not satisfied with their product and why.

Chris

Sorry to hear about your loss but thank you for warning others. To add to this post that incubator is a MR-148 refrigerator/warmer that has been rebranded by almost everyone out there and I see some terrible reviews for it being used as a refrigerator on Amazon and other sites. Basically anyone that wants to buys these and then sticks their lable on them.

Seems to be a cheaply made product produced in China (what a shock). Again I am truly sorry for your loss but hopefully others can learn from it and avoid using this product in the future.

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. Just for the record, these fridges aren't designed specifically for incubation. They're a standard "Made in China" product that anyone can, and has, repackaged as their own. Heck, even Exo-terra jumped the on the bandwagon and has a black version of the same thing.

The interesting thing is, we have two of these and one stays 2-3 degrees higher than what it's set to and the other stays perfectly at 73 degrees. Needless to say I use the stable one for the quad eggs since they're more finicky.

I know none of this makes it better and I'm really sorry about your loss.

Luis

You beat me to it!

Luis

hun73r said:

Sorry to hear about your loss but thank you for warning others. To add to this post that incubator is a MR-148 refrigerator/warmer that has been rebranded by almost everyone out there and I see some terrible reviews for it being used as a refrigerator on Amazon and other sites. Basically anyone that wants to buys these and then sticks their lable on them.

Seems to be a cheaply made product produced in China (what a shock). Again I am truly sorry for your loss but hopefully others can learn from it and avoid using this product in the future.

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I am so sorry to hear you lost all the eggs! I know how hard you worked. I know you will make a comeback.

I am really sorry for you!

My house stays 75 deg. in an interior closet where I keep my eggs along with a thermometer. I never felt that I needed an incubator in florida since the temps in the house stay constant.

Sorry for the loss of eggs. That was a big blow.

luevelvet said:

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. Just for the record, these fridges aren't designed specifically for incubation. They're a standard "Made in China" product that anyone can, and has, repackaged as their own. Heck, even Exo-terra jumped the on the bandwagon and has a black version of the same thing.

The interesting thing is, we have two of these and one stays 2-3 degrees higher than what it's set to and the other stays perfectly at 73 degrees. Needless to say I use the stable one for the quad eggs since they're more finicky.

I know none of this makes it better and I'm really sorry about your loss.

Luis

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gratitude

Thanks for your words in support, Everyone. Chris and Luis, thanks for those suggestions; will get multiple units and test first. Looks like it will be ThinkGeek for me.

For what its worth, the incubator was keeping fairily constant, until it froze everything on Saturday.

Wrecks me, but I did open up a few eggs and all had good-looking embryos. Tragic...

At least two of the clutches probably were from wild fathers other than my male. Maybe the females will have retained some sperm. I'm not going to put them with the male for a while to see what happens.

Thanks again, all.

Sorry to hear ! I would mail the company immediately. You can just learn from it: It's always better to incubate eggs at different places.

DGray said:

Thanks for your words in support, Everyone. Chris and Luis, thanks for those suggestions; will get multiple units and test first. Looks like it will be ThinkGeek for me.

For what its worth, the incubator was keeping fairily constant, until it froze everything on Saturday.

Wrecks me, but I did open up a few eggs and all had good-looking embryos. Tragic...

At least two of the clutches probably were from wild fathers other than my male. Maybe the females will have retained some sperm. I'm not going to put them with the male for a while to see what happens.

Thanks again, all.

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DGray, I got the think geek and have been happy thus far. ( Price, reviews, etc. )The only issue I have is that I am scared to take it out of the box and use it. The closet has always worked and I worry I will mess things up. Again, I have only heard good things about it and hey Chris Anderson recommends it what else can you say.

Hey DGray,

Definitely email the company or give them a call. I would suggest a call AND an email, they can't really hang up on you.

Let them know this happened, perhaps they will do something to prevent this from happening to others or something else.

omg thats so tragic, im heartbroken just hearing about it, i would be recked if they were my baby's

Syn said:

Hey DGray,

Definitely email the company or give them a call. I would suggest a call AND an email, they can't really hang up on you.

Let them know this happened, perhaps they will do something to prevent this from happening to others or something else.

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i suggest calling forsure, let them know what they did, hopefully they will man up to the situation, of course they cant bring back your babys, but at least they will know

Something I have thought about doing but haven't is to run the incubator on a second thermostat.

so- if you set your incubator to 68 degrees, your second thermostat would cut the power to your incubator when temps reach 65, for example...

in other words run the first thermostat on a second thermostat.

Sometimes things fail, no matter how good they are (sounds like from what others are saying your incubator might not have been all that great though).

After an incubator failed several years ago, cooking most of a year's worth of eggs and providing me with one of the very worst days of my life, I invested in a spyder robotics herpstat pro controller for my incubators. My previous thermostat which lasted only a few years on incubator was an excellent scientific labratory grade thermostat that cost a few hundred bucks but was not digital and did not have all the bells and whistles and failsafes the herpstat pro has.

Herpstat pro can warm and cool up to 4 incubators, is accurate within 1/10 of a degree and has failsafes, audible alarms, and if connected to the internet can even send you a text message or email if temps go outside your desired range. You can also connect it to the internet via an old computer and keep track of your incubator temps from your office when you are away from home. It can also do some cool things if you want like provide dawn and dusk for a couple of terrariums where lights gradually go on and off over time.

It's good stuff.

Flux, thanks for the info on that herpstat pro. Ive always used the closet method also and for the very reason posted here. I was worrieed about cooking a clutch. But that unit sounds promising as a failsafe for an incubator.

For what it's worth, this incubator seems to have the same problem as another competitor's in that when there is a power failure it defaults back to the original temperature setting when the power comes back on. I tried disconnecting the power from my Think Geek fridge a bunch of times and it always comes back on at the last temperature setting. REALLY sorry to hear about the quad eggs.

Kent67 said:

For what it's worth, this incubator seems to have the same problem as another competitor's in that when there is a power failure it defaults back to the original temperature setting when the power comes back on. I tried disconnecting the power from my Think Geek fridge a bunch of times and it always comes back on at the last temperature setting. REALLY sorry to hear about the quad eggs.

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I find the same with my thinkgeek fridge. Even when moving and having it unplugged for at least 24 hours. As with anything electronic, they can malfunction. I would send an email especially since there are other cases of them malfunctioning.

That is such a bummer to hear.

I always have my incubators plugged into a battery backup surge protector, just for that reason. Here in central Florida we have a ton of lightning so its particularly important.

Chris

Hey, keep them if you did not already dispose them. I have basically the same fridge and mine dipped to 40. I just had a clutch of K. multituberculata pull through. Lost only 3 out of 8 eggs. Wound up taking over 13 months to hatch.

Of course, if they were iced, the forget it (probably).