reptipro 5000 vs diy?

[strhunter2]

i was wondering i can get a reptipro 5000 incubator for 30$ or i can build one for about 50$ using a stc1000 as the thermostat (may be upgrading to a herpstat in the future) my diy one will be in a small mini fridge so it wouldnt be much bigger which one would you suggest and why

Thoughts? preferably asap lol

 

[acpart]

Here are my thoughts:
--If you build your own, I assume it will only heat and not cool. That's fine as long as the thermostat is really good and the ambient temp in the room with the incubator never gets above your incubation temp
--I have used the Reptipro5000 for a number of years. It works well, with one caveat: If the ambient temp changes greatly in the room, the Reptipro seems to be slow about the cooling function especially kicking in. That means that when the temp in my living room is, say, 75, and I'm incubating at 82, the temperature does stay steady. However if there's a heat wave (I have no AC) and all of a sudden the temp in my living room goes up to 90, the display on the Reptipro may say 86. If I knock it back a few degrees, the cooling function kicks on and it goes back to maintaining the temp adequately. So, if you either have a pretty steady ambient temp throughout the breeding season, or can be attentive enough to make these small adjustments, it will work fine.

--My unofficial research suggests that, at least with leopard geckos, it's really important to have as little temperature fluctuation as possible. With the Reptipro I had approximately 10% hatch with mild to moderate deformities including notched eyelids, missing toes or leg bones or loose rear leg ligaments. This season I upgraded to a Thermo-Bator from DVM exotics (I don't know if they're making them anymore) that maintains the temp to within about a degree and measures it to a tenth of a degree. I had no deformities this season (though, admittedly, a smaller number of hatchings due to factors not related to the incubator).

Aliza

 

[Neon Aurora]

I just use a styrofoam cooler. =P I put a strip of heat tape inside as well as some gallon jugs of water. It's regulated by a herpstat. The jugs of water make it so that even when you open it, the temperature barely shifts. Unfortunately I only had two 3 eggs hatch last season (my first). This had nothing to do with the incubator, though. Every egg (except one) that I put in Hatchrite died while every egg (just 2) that I put on vermiculite hatched. So I had 3 healthy hatchlings with my little styrofoam box.