Cooler Incubator by Degei

Since the other cooler incubator thread turning into a mildly amusing drama, I figured I'd post mine. I built this incubator back in early 2005 based of some plans on the internet and some general common sense.
I have incubated multiple ball python and green tree python clutches in this since. (even both at the same time)
While this design is more money, I think it is far more practial than a styrofoam one in durability alone, not to mention size. I have had this "tutorial", if you will, posted on my site since it was built.
Cost was around $200, but half of that is the thermostat and the cooler was over $50.
Enjoy.

http://www.degei.com/supportfiles/howto/inc/index.htm

And just for fun, here's what it's doing right now. (due the 10th)
Oh, and I should add, my "egg boxes" are a Marth Stuart 9x13 casserole travel thingy I got a Kmart.

http://www.eyehit.com/~damon/c1.jpg

http://www.eyehit.com/~damon/c2.jpg

http://www.eyehit.com/~damon/c3.jpg

Why do the eggs appear so dried out? Close to hatching?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phil

Why do the eggs appear so dried out? Close to hatching?

---

Yes, they are due in 9 days or less. Normal dimpling.

Very nice :>

Strong work man. I'm done with any drama on the other thread, but I had to call him on it. He had to know I would recognize "his" work. :D I'm all for people making their own incubators. There are a ton of people on here that will confirm that I am always happy to assist individuals who have questions while making any incubator, with direction, pictures, diagrams, schematics or whatever they need, if they are confident enough to make their own. Nice work on yours. I promise I hadn't seen your tutorial before today :gj: You said your tutorial has been up since you made it in 2005. All the pictures on the site say they were created today. Where did you have the older tutorial?

Very slick.

I like it. I built one from a "camping" fridge by rubbermade.

Is that the spider clutch man?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PythonWallace

Strong work man. I'm done with any drama on the other thread, but I had to call him on it. He had to know I would recognize "his" work. :D I'm all for people making their own incubators. There are a ton of people on here that will confirm that I am always happy to assist individuals who have questions while making any incubator, with direction, pictures, diagrams, schematics or whatever they need, if they are confident enough to make their own. Nice work on yours. I promise I hadn't seen your tutorial before today :gj: You said your tutorial has been up since you made it in 2005. All the pictures on the site say they were created today. Where did you have the older tutorial?

---

Internet time stamps do not work the same way it does on your local pc. When you access a page for the first time, the files go into cache, and thus are created on your computer for the first time.
But since I feel "called out" on it...
That inc. was built prior to 6/30/2005.
Here's a post with images still active... (from Sept. 2005) where I was helping out someone...
and low and behold... you can find a reply by me "bigretic" as I am known various places, and you'll notice the post is unedited. If you care to wonder why the post is doubled, it's is because there was a forum crash there a couple years ago and recovery/migration that caused old posts to duplicate.
http://forums.bobclark.com/showthrea...ight=incubator
If you have any other doubts, I could... oh never mind... :colbert:
Seriously though, I'm all about just helping out. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chandler reptiles

Is that the spider clutch man?

---

Yea, hey give me call this week.

I didn't mean to sound like I was calling you out. Nice work on the incubator. I only commented because I felt a little "called out" by your comment about the drama in the other thread, and the fact that you decided to post your 3+ year old tutorial here as a response to that. Like I said, people who can make their own will. Some people who can't will ask me or someone else to walk them through it. Others will bend over and fork out the $800+ for a well known cooler incubator, or $1,200+ for a small commercial incubator, and the few that are left over will give me a call. :) How consistant does yours stay with only a foot of flexwatt? Does it get up to temperature and hold it without your thermostat jumping around? On a couple of my different prototypes I didn't use a ton of heat tape and I had issues getting up to temperature, and when they finally would, my thermostat would be all over with the amount of power it was putting out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Damon Theis

Yea, hey give me call this week.

---

I'll give you a call tomorrow afternoon.

What I've found is that as long as the room temp is at least 10 degrees below the desired incubation temp, the setup is rock solid.
If the room temp for example, gets to 80 or above, and the desired temp is 88.9, the unit will spike up to 90 or over. Through trial and error, I can attribute this to heat that is actually put off by the fan motor.
While it is not perfect, in reality, it has never affected hatching. I, however, resign myself to working in and "unperfect" environment, much as nature. :cool:
It can be resolved by killing the fan when you "have the a/c off" on hot days, but I rarely do unless the incubator hit's 93.
( let the boo's begin... lol. i'm a bit more careful on chondro eggs than bp eggs, but my hatch rate is consistant in both species. )
So to the point, that one foot is more than fine for that cooler setup.
I have actually lucked out this year on spacing of clutches or I would have had to build another one.
Thankfully, that is still keeping pace. :bow:
-d

I've been looking for this tutorial everywhere! I swear I had a link to it back a couple years ago but lost it. You are awesome! :bow:

I tried to use your link tonight and unfortunately the page is down =(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cougr

I tried to use your link tonight and unfortunately the page is down =(

---

http://www.eyehit.com/degei/supportfiles/links.htm

hosting was changed due to bandwidth issues, the link above is active.

Thanks a billion =)

I set one up like yours last spring. I did not cut the windows in the top and did not screw the wires down to the side. I figured I might want to use it as a cooler again someday. I also used just 1 ft of flexwatt and it was perfect - it created just enough heat. Even if I opened the cooler for a minute or so moving things around, it was back up to temp in a couple minutes.

Perfect hatch rate last year..

Thanks for posting the design!

I've got another clutch hatching in mine right now... :gj:

Awesome! Are the windows necessary? Or just there for aesthetic reasons?

The purpose of the windows is to be able to monitor the humidity saturation in the egg containers and incubator without having to open it and lose heat.
They are not necessary, but in the long run, I do think it makes the incubator more effecient.

whats with the water bottles? heat distribution?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lucas339

whats with the water bottles? heat distribution?

---

It's more heat retension, than distribution.