Cooler Incubator by Degei

[Chandler reptiles]

Yea, hey give me call this week.

I'll give you a call tomorrow afternoon.

[Damon Theis]

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.
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.
-d

[wuffielover]

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!

[Cougr]

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

[Damon Theis]

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.

[Cougr]

Thanks a billion =)

[JenH]

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!

[Damon Theis]

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

[Blue Apple Herps]

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

[Damon Theis]

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.