High tech Incubator Design at low cost

[Cham King]

Just sharing some pic of a incubator we designed and have put to use.

Bottom starts off with PVC pipe fitted around the bottom and wrapped with zoomed heat cable . Next level is egg crate and that stainless steel water pans 3 of them. Middle pan has a air stone in it attached to a air pump. This does a awsome job of adding fresh air to it and raising humidity.Right above the water pans are 2- 2" cooling fans attach right above pans and below next level. As the water is heat and humidity is released into the air the fans keep it consistant throught the chamber. Next level is another egg crate and last is the tubs. Each polycarbonite tub has rubber bumpers on it and glass tops allowing about 1/8" air flow inside the tub. We use no substrate in this design and hatching has been excellent with many types of reptiles. Last to finish it off is a 2 section glass top that fit around the rim of the incubator. This allows us to view the eggs and not affect the inside temps by opening the incubator up whats so ever.

 

[Silverdusk]

Beautiful!! Could you please. pretty please to a "How to" in greater detail?

Does the wire run in the pvc or wrapped around it.

What runs the fans?

How is it all wired?

What's the cost of it all put together?

Have you actually had success with Panther Chameleon eggs with this?

Again, great idea and thanks for posting.

 

[Cham King]

reply

The cooler you can get at walmart for around $50. Yes we hatched panthers chams , pythons and monitor eggs in this system.

Parts
cooler
2- 2" cooling fans and transformer
egg crate from home depot
PVC pipe 3/4"
ZooMed heat cable 50ft
stainless steel pans ordered online
clear hard plastic poly tubs ordered online
glass cut from local shop
zip ties.

Thermostat

Just remember first level is heat than crate than water pans and fans than crate than tubs than glass top. Its pretty simple if you understand incubators

 

[Cham King]

More pic

Here is a few more pic to see it better. Also another incubator we design for a friend thats a stand up.

 

[jojackson]

I like the black one Cham King, tell us the specs etc mate?

P.S Welcome

 

[Cham King]

incubator

It was designed with 1/2" insulated plastic and has 2 cooling fans mount to keep even air temps and no cold spots. I guess its easier for us being a reptile caging company we have access to these materials and parts.

 

[jojackson]

Very cool, so its built from scratch ? The insulating effect is like a fridge?
I use (in an old fridge) two free moving vents and a fan triggered by its own thermostat to regulate airflow and create even temps, when it reaches a certain temp.
The heating is bulbs near the floor on their own thermostat.
The fan is mounted over one of the vents (lower) sucking cooler air in, and exhuasting hotter air out above and opposit.
Works really well so far.
Cool design, I like it!

 

[Cham King]

unit

Yes the material its self acts like an insulator. We tried the bulb type for heating and went more with a forced air type the bulbs tend to dry it out and had cool spots. Good luck with yours.

 

[jojackson]

Neat! No problem noticed with that so far, I have about 8 thermo/hydro units at different places inside, temps and humidy seem pretty stable.
My fan is set low, right above the bulbs, so that the heating of incoming air seems rather efficient, airflow is good and the fan & heat cut out when ambient air temp reaches the desired max.
Insulation seems great since its a few hours before ambient air temps drop again enough to trigger heating/fan. When they cut out the louvers close trapping the heat will minimal heatloss and minimal airflow. Each time heating is required, the volume of air several times is renewed with humid fresh air from outside. (in laundry near back porch)
Eggbox temps remain stable within 0.5c and humidy stable (closed enviroment opened weekly for examination/oxygen exchange and reclosed). Humidty in the fridge itself is pretty irelevant to me.
What heating do you use? Forced air bulbs, Thats pretty much what mine are lOl

P.S Yes I got a bit carried away with the whole thing, got a bit 'Tooltime' about it!

 

[Cham King]

heating

Sounds great we used heat cable.

 

[jojackson]

Sounds great we used heat cable.

Ok neat, is it wrapped around the walls on the floor? What kind of wattage and how big is the unit inside? Would have ventilated egg boxes with yours then?

 

[Cammo09]

All this technical cold spot air flow stuff makes ya wonder how these critters eggs hatch in the wild lol

 

[Cham King]

heat

The heat cable is wrapped around the Pvc pipe. and goes across the entire bottom . We have used bins with no substrate and a glass top raised 1/8" up.