Re: incubator ideas

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Posted by Dan on September 09, 2000 at 22:35:56:

In Reply to: incubator ideas posted by Jon on September 09, 2000 at 17:48:39:

: I am trying several styles of incubators for my leopard tortoise
: eggs. Anyone know of a good heating element(heat tape etc.) that could adequately heat a mini refrigerator? I plan to hook it up to a wafer-type thermostat, unless anyone has any ideas on that.
: Thanks for your input.
:

I usually use Flexwatt heat tape for dry incubators (i.e. tortoise incubators). It is cheap, fairly reliable and is available in 12" and 3 or 4" widths. I would not use it in a really humid incubator due to condensation. But if you keep the incubator dry and use plastic containers to retain moisture around the eggs it works fine.

Plumbers heat tape can overheat if your thermostat fails. Flexwatt will heat up, but it maxs out at about 115 F. You've cooked the eggs but you have not burned the house down. The moral is use two thermostats in line so if one fails you have a backup. I use electronic pulse proportional thermostats instead of wafers. They are expensive but reliable and accurate.

Besides placing the heating element in the bottom of the fridge, you may want to put in a small fan to circulate the heat. Without a fan you may get a temperature gradient from top to bottom, or even side to side, which may be fine if you monitor several areas with thermometers. You can produce males on one shelf and females on another.

My latest incubator is a large styrofoam "Husky" cooler from Wal-Mart ($5) with an $85 thermostat. It will hold 4 plastic shoeboxes. I use eggcrate material (plastic lighting grid) on 3" pieces of PVC tubing to create a space in the bottom of the cooler for the Flexwatt.

Good Luck.

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: : I am trying several styles of incubators for my leopard tortoise : : eggs. Anyone know of a good heating element(heat tape etc.) that could adequately heat a mini refrigerator? I plan to hook it up to a wafer-type thermostat, unless anyone has any ideas on that. : : Thanks for your input. : : : I usually use Flexwatt heat tape for dry incubators (i.e. tortoise incubators). It is cheap, fairly reliable and is available in 12" and 3 or 4" widths. I would not use it in a really humid incubator due to condensation. But if you keep the incubator dry and use plastic containers to retain moisture around the eggs it works fine. : Plumbers heat tape can overheat if your thermostat fails. Flexwatt will heat up, but it maxs out at about 115 F. You've cooked the eggs but you have not burned the house down. The moral is use two thermostats in line so if one fails you have a backup. I use electronic pulse proportional thermostats instead of wafers. They are expensive but reliable and accurate. : Besides placing the heating element in the bottom of the fridge, you may want to put in a small fan to circulate the heat. Without a fan you may get a temperature gradient from top to bottom, or even side to side, which may be fine if you monitor several areas with thermometers. You can produce males on one shelf and females on another. : My latest incubator is a large styrofoam "Husky" cooler from Wal-Mart ($5) with an $85 thermostat. It will hold 4 plastic shoeboxes. I use eggcrate material (plastic lighting grid) on 3" pieces of PVC tubing to create a space in the bottom of the cooler for the Flexwatt. : Good Luck.

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