• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Incubator I made today

F

FamilyZoo

New member
Joined
Aug 23, 2004
Messages
69
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
63
Location
Callahan, Fl
150 qt Igloo cooler, temp control unit, digital thermometer/hydrometer, and heating element. Testing it over night in the garage where it will drop to 30 degrees tonight. Don’t plan on keeping it in the garage :spinner03 Plan on hooking up a variable speed fan that I can turn on and off tomorrow in it. Parts cost me 25%-30% of anything comparable that I could find on the market already built.
DSC03133.JPG

DSC03134.JPG

DSC03135.JPG

DSC03137.JPG

DSC03136.JPG
 
I am glad to see someone doin the cooler deal. I kow there is a company that sells them like that but they are outragous.. Lookin good!!!Now to sell them...lol..kiddin
 
I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking humidity but wouldent work with a sealed bottle unless there was a drastic temp change and condensation occured.. Mabey a catlyst for heat retention? I dunno...
 
Water bottles act as a heat sink. After messing around in it and the ambient temperature drops, the water bottles which are holding heat allow the incubator to get back to normal temperature quicker. They also help in stabilizing the temperatures when it’s in normal operation (less work for the temperature controller and heating element) . I opened it this am when it was 35 degrees out. Thermometer dropped to 61 degrees before I closed it. Inside temperature went back to 85.2 degrees about 2 minutes after I closed it.
 
I was about to also ask why the bottled water? I have never seen anything like this set up with bottled water. I figured you may have been planning on using the bottled water heat conductor to spread out the heat more evenly and to hold it longer.

I would advise one thing, be careful, should one of those bottles leak. It looks as if you have electrical wiring running down to them; this could get you fried if those bottles leak and the insulation on the wiring is not perfect and waterproof.
All the best,
GB
 
I put silicone on the threads of the bottles, soldered all wiring and water proofed the electrical connections. The grate resting upon 2 inch piping so there is no weight on the bottles. I looked at all the places it could short out and think I have them covered. But just in case we I put a smoke detector next to the incubator for now...lol

I want to rig up the circulation fan and one other cool thing, and then I will write up how I did it. I took pictures along the way of building it.

Total wattage for heat is less then 60, thus another reason for for the water bottles to help hold the heat in. Even at a low 60 watts it seems not to over work keeping at 85 degrees. I haven’t tested it at higher temps yet.
 
Did you ever finish the product? Post instructions, I'd love to see how this worked out for you.
 
It has been running fine, so far. Even moved some AFT eggs into it. Changed out the 3-inch wide Flex watt for the 11-inch wide. Put 3 feet fit in fine on the bottom. Been tweaking with and messing with the fan. Tried to mount it with some PVC piping, but it looked to much like a "Frankenstein" project.
The fan I’m using is radio shack 120v stereos equip type, it only likes to run at high speed, and so I have been playing with it with a rheostat to slow it down. I think when all said and done, I am going to hook it up to a timer and let it run at full RPM twice a day for a minute or two. With out the fan, the air is stagnant and the humidity collects on the top. Turning the fan (manually) on twice a day this past week has really help. Fan works fine setting on the bottom blowing air up. Nothing fancy.
Bought a transformer that the unit can plug into and that I can plug into the SUV in case of an extended power outage (Radio shack). It handles 150 Watts and I am using less then half of that.
I have been working on and off (mostly off-lol) on instructions on how I did it on a web page. I will try and get it done by the end of the weekend.
 
Looks cool. This is what the bottled water is for: If you increase the mass inside the incubator, then the temperaure inside will remain more constant, so there isn't any large fluctuations in temperature, which could harm the eggs.
 
not for humidity

The water bottles in the bottom of his incubater help with thermal regulation.

Water changes temperature slowly so the idea is to set the water to the desired temp and any minor changes in the surrounding environment will not affect the abient temp inside the incubator.

Its the same reason you use ice packs in a cooler to keep things cold (with the aid of the insulative properties of the cooler of course). The cooler is also an insulater for the warmer water and thus keep your babies from having a panic attack.
 
Very nice set up, Mark. Thanks for sharing.
 
and it works!!

Pictures of my first hatchlings that went the entire incubation period in the cooler incubator. Its an Albino AFT gecko :crazy03:
22feb05AFT%20002.jpg

22feb05AFT%20016.jpg

22feb05AFT-1%20005.jpg
 
allright !

good job . trying just a herpstat (proportional) on my hovabator for the time being myself . ill post back here to let anyone interested know how it works :)
 
Back
Top