hovabator thermostat ?

[boutiquegecko]

For those of you using hovabators. Do you have any photos of you have your thermostat hooked up to it? Did you take the disk out? Just having some issues getting mine to keep steady. It fluctuates about 1 degree so far and I don't know if that's bad or not.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

I leave the wafer on and get it set for the room tempt o 82 then I plug it into my thermostat that is set at 80.

IMO 1 Degree is not bad at all, mine varies .7 even with a thermostat.

The biggest thing with the hovabator without an additional thermostat is if the room temp goes up or down so does the incubator temp.

 

[boutiquegecko]

I am having the hardest time keeping the temp steady. I tried with the wafer, but the incubator light would keep shutting off even though the thermostat was on. Then I took the wafer out, and it seemed all was ok. But, it will go on at 82, off at 82.5, and the temp keeps rising to 87. Why? It's driving me crazy. It was so much worse with the wafer. Any suggestions? Room temp is steady 80.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

what thermostat are u using?

 

[rrhill]

I'm having the same issues. I have 2 hovabators loaded with quail eggs upstairs in the loft. The temps get close to 110 (yeah it sucks) unless I run the a/c up there. I can get the temp to low 70's with the a/c. Luckily the quail eggs seem to handle temps of 100-104 pretty well. I will see in about 4-5 days if there were any issues. Thank God I don't have any leo or BP eggs! Hopefully this fall I will be able to put some eggs in one of those Nature's Spirit incubators or just get off my lazt butt and fix the one I built last year.

 

[boutiquegecko]

I'm using the zoomed 500. I know, not the best one, but it's what we have to make do with at the moment. I wouldn't care if I kept the eggs at room temp, but I'm trying to get temp around 84-85 to get a mix of male/female. If I can't get it to work, looks like I'm returning it and will just have all females.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

The room temp has to be stable for the hovabator wafer to work, if you let the room temp rise so will the incubator temp. If you set it at 100 for quail and cut off the air and the room temp goes up 10 degress so will the incubator. The wafer only works where room temps do not go up or down. Its not a thermostat but more of a power meter, it directs a certain amount of power to the incubator once set, it does not adjust like a thermostat if temps go up and down.

I use an alife and they suck but I only get a .7 degree up and down max with it. Its normally within .5.

I have a zoomed 500 someone gave me and Ive never looked at it or plugged it. Ill find it and plug into an empty incubator and see what it does.

Thing is, your zoomed is cutting off then the temp rising, Id say the thermostat it bad, it should stop sending power when it cuts off and if your room temp is 80 all the time there is no reason for the temp to rise abouve the setting on the thermostat.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

Ok I found mine and it must be the rheostat 500, it only has low medium and high for output options so its not much help for a comparison.

 

[rrhill]

I have one of those alife brands too. I used it once and gave up on it. The temps in the room were stable but the little alife seemed to cut off or on whenever it felt like it (Used it with heat tape). I probably got a bad one with my luck. I just went ahead & sent some $$$ to Matt @MG to get a good thermostat. I won't be depending on a hovabator for gecko or snake eggs. I think it works fine for quail though. :main_thumbsup:

 

[boutiquegecko]

My thermostat is brand new. I just can't figure it. I set it, it won't go on until the temp hits about 82 or so, then goes off at 83.5, but the temps rise to 87. I guess it could be a bad one. Funny, I had bought the rheostat too, but mine didn't take American plugs so I returnd it. I wanted a thermostat anyhow, just wanted to see if that would work.
Awsome if you can find your zoomed 5oor to see how it works with your incubator.

 

[boutiquegecko]

Oh, I don't have any eggs in it yet. They are baking in the garage where the temps about 82 and doesn't much change.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

Id bet it is a bad thermostat, once it cuts off the power to the incubator should too, so not to raise the temps.

I know the alife sucks but it had never been more than .7 total up or down and normally .5 from my high setting. I set it at 81 and get a reading min max of 80.5 - 81.2.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

Ro, Ive been very lucky with my Alife's KNOCK ON WOOD!

 

[Milwaukee Reptiles]

Id bet it is a bad thermostat, once it cuts off the power to the incubator should too, so not to raise the temps.

I know the alife sucks but it had never been more than .7 total up or down and normally .5 from my high setting. I set it at 81 and get a reading min max of 80.5 - 81.2.

It is possible that the heat element is so hot that it actually continues heating until it cools down to the temperature of the incubator, which could lead to such a problem. Just a thought

 

[boutiquegecko]

I had thought of that, just don't know a way around it. I tried placing the temp probe closer to the heat source. But there would still be the temp difference in the incubator and I don't think that would be good. It changes fast too. It will read 82.4 one minute and then up a whole degree or more the next minute or two. I'm going to check the termometer, hadn't thought of that.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

You may want to increase the size of the hovabator with a fish cooler from the pet store, that's what I did and I don't have any temp problems even with a crappie thermostat.

 

[Russ S]

I've never been able to hold consistent temps with a hovabator, so i simply made an incubator with a cooler and a piece of 11" flexwat tape, and a decent thermostat. It holds temps within 2 degrees and takes hours to lose temps if the power goes out.

 

[Milwaukee Reptiles]

Adding a couple of water bottles may also help stabalize the temp like living next to a big lake does.

 

[Russ S]

Adding a couple of water bottles may also help stabalize the temp like living next to a big lake does.

oh i forgot to add that we put a couple of the gel ice/heat packs from the pharmacy area in to help keep the temps steady, thanks for reminding me.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

I forgot about that too, I have a pickle jar full of water as a heat sink, it takes water longer to heat up or cool down so it helps to keep steady temps.