- Joined
- Nov 7, 2012
- Messages
- 5,172
- Location (City and/or State)
- South of Southern California, but not Mexico
http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incukit-xl.html is the web page.
I bought the proportional thermostat and two fan/heater units. My thinking being if one heater/fan unit failed the other could be already in place and running.
In this thread https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/incubators.165150/ I have a few images of the way I mounted the controller/proportional thermostat and the top fan/heater. the bottom fan/heater is mounted to the underside of the bottom shelf aimed into a water pan. I shielded it so it would not get dripped on from condensation.
The first issue, following the set-up instructions lead to what I would characterize as an omission and that is covered in that other thread.
Now the biggy and why this is NOT an acceptable units for my application.
My Follow-up on the first questions and second question to customer service . . .
"
Hi Evan,
Thanks much for the clue on the exit. It worked, of course. Seems like it might be a good thing to include in the written instructions somewhere?
I am using a SensorPush logger/probe to monitor the inside of the cabinet where I will be putting eggs. Once deployed, both the fan/heat devices from your company and the SensorPush are within 0.1 degrees F of each other. I set the Thermosts to 87.5. When the SensorPush indicates 87.4 the sensor for the thermostat reports 87.5. Sometime before reaching the setpoint the heat units are reduced to 3% (and then 1%) and it keeps heating until the incubator (by both the SenosrPush and the thermostat) indicate 94.4 +/- 0.1F.
Why would it heat past it's set point?
This is more background...
I have consulted with friends who have similar incubator setups with other thermostats and heat generating devices and they suggest an all the time small fan is required.
I don't understand why that would be so, a fan might reduce different warm or cold zones and make the whole cabinet more uniform, but it does not explain why the Incukit heats past the set point.
The set up is this...
I have a commercial refrigerator body with two inches of foam insulation all around encased on the inside with some sort of fiberglass/plastic sheets and the outside skin is metal. The interior space is five feet vertical with a two foot by two foot foot-print. I have one 125 watt heater/fan unit mounted in the cabinet ceiling and one below the bottom shelf aimed into a large pan of water. The bottom unit is shielded from condensation drip just slightly bigger than it's own diameter. The SensorPush and thermostat probe are in a plastic show box to one side about 12 inches below the ceiling heater/fan unit.
I incubate tortoise eggs in plastic shoe boxes with vented lids. The eggs are buried in a perlite/water crystal/peat moss blend (a common media). I have used Reptibators (ZooMed) before with great success. However total egg production now exceeds the capacity of four Reptibators. I expect a few hundred eggs this year. The refrigerator cabinet will hold 18 plastic shoe boxes (all are in the incubator with the media) during the trial period to set the system up."
An their response (highlighted text done by me). . .
"Hi ,
Normally, with the type of incubator you are trying to build we the following issues. One is that the room temperature is close to the desired temperature of the incubator. This makes it so the incubator does not loose very much heat which in turn lowers the amount of wattage that is requited to heat the incubator. This then makes it possible for the two fans to overheat the incubator without the heating element. Each fan on this kit produces about 25 watts of heat constantly which in a well insulated container can cause it to overheat. If the heater percentage drops to zero but the incubator keeps heating this is the case. The only fix for this is to remove or unplug one of the heater/fan units to reduce the heat created by the fans.
Thanks,
Evan
IncubatorWarehouse Customer Service"
I bought the proportional thermostat and two fan/heater units. My thinking being if one heater/fan unit failed the other could be already in place and running.
In this thread https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/incubators.165150/ I have a few images of the way I mounted the controller/proportional thermostat and the top fan/heater. the bottom fan/heater is mounted to the underside of the bottom shelf aimed into a water pan. I shielded it so it would not get dripped on from condensation.
The first issue, following the set-up instructions lead to what I would characterize as an omission and that is covered in that other thread.
Now the biggy and why this is NOT an acceptable units for my application.
My Follow-up on the first questions and second question to customer service . . .
"
Hi Evan,
Thanks much for the clue on the exit. It worked, of course. Seems like it might be a good thing to include in the written instructions somewhere?
I am using a SensorPush logger/probe to monitor the inside of the cabinet where I will be putting eggs. Once deployed, both the fan/heat devices from your company and the SensorPush are within 0.1 degrees F of each other. I set the Thermosts to 87.5. When the SensorPush indicates 87.4 the sensor for the thermostat reports 87.5. Sometime before reaching the setpoint the heat units are reduced to 3% (and then 1%) and it keeps heating until the incubator (by both the SenosrPush and the thermostat) indicate 94.4 +/- 0.1F.
Why would it heat past it's set point?
This is more background...
I have consulted with friends who have similar incubator setups with other thermostats and heat generating devices and they suggest an all the time small fan is required.
I don't understand why that would be so, a fan might reduce different warm or cold zones and make the whole cabinet more uniform, but it does not explain why the Incukit heats past the set point.
The set up is this...
I have a commercial refrigerator body with two inches of foam insulation all around encased on the inside with some sort of fiberglass/plastic sheets and the outside skin is metal. The interior space is five feet vertical with a two foot by two foot foot-print. I have one 125 watt heater/fan unit mounted in the cabinet ceiling and one below the bottom shelf aimed into a large pan of water. The bottom unit is shielded from condensation drip just slightly bigger than it's own diameter. The SensorPush and thermostat probe are in a plastic show box to one side about 12 inches below the ceiling heater/fan unit.
I incubate tortoise eggs in plastic shoe boxes with vented lids. The eggs are buried in a perlite/water crystal/peat moss blend (a common media). I have used Reptibators (ZooMed) before with great success. However total egg production now exceeds the capacity of four Reptibators. I expect a few hundred eggs this year. The refrigerator cabinet will hold 18 plastic shoe boxes (all are in the incubator with the media) during the trial period to set the system up."
An their response (highlighted text done by me). . .
"Hi ,
Normally, with the type of incubator you are trying to build we the following issues. One is that the room temperature is close to the desired temperature of the incubator. This makes it so the incubator does not loose very much heat which in turn lowers the amount of wattage that is requited to heat the incubator. This then makes it possible for the two fans to overheat the incubator without the heating element. Each fan on this kit produces about 25 watts of heat constantly which in a well insulated container can cause it to overheat. If the heater percentage drops to zero but the incubator keeps heating this is the case. The only fix for this is to remove or unplug one of the heater/fan units to reduce the heat created by the fans.
Thanks,
Evan
IncubatorWarehouse Customer Service"