Help with my Sportsman 1202

I am playing with my 'new' old sportsman. I am trying to get it up to temperature and become familiar with it before hatching season for me starts.
What I have run into today is the light that comes on and off when the thermostat kicks in and off is just flashing now. Does anyone know what that means? I was told it was a replaced thermostat, but you never know.
I hope someone can give me some ideas.

not much help with the sportsman but my brinsea light flashes when it approaches the correct temp.

When it flashes it is good, it means it is up to temperature and holding steady.
When the light is full on the heat is full force to rise to temperature.
When no light then is is not applying any heat, usually if it has gotten too hot.

If the light is flashing and you are not at the correct temperature you will need to increase the dial till it starts flashing and holding at the temperature you want.

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!!! I thought something awful was happening!
Not quite at the right temp yet, but getting close. Will turn the dial a bit more.
I knew I could count on you all for help.

What type of thermostat do you have? Wafers or electronic?

Wafer and I think it is hooped! It holds well, but I can't get it up to temperature. Maybe another thermometer to check the 2 that came with it are correct. Is it easy to put in an electronic one?? Or should I just replace it with another wafer?

There are two setting on the Sportsman. One sets the operating temperature and normally that control closest to the front and the other control set the emergency shut off if the normal wafer fails and gets stuck on. You neat to set them both up. The normal operating one is set for 99.5F and the emergency one is set for 103. A bit tricky to set but once its set you do not need to touch it again.

I have replace mine with the electronic one and its easy and works excellent. It keeps the temp with .25 of degree.

Interesting, I may take a picture of the sideof it so you can tell me what is what.

Well, thank you. I think I may have figured it out. The guy I bought it from said the front thing was for the increasing or decreasing the speed to the egg turner. Probably why he sold it, couldn't get it to work properly. I will have more of a play around, there may be more questions to come!!!
I would be happy to have any hints or feedback from anyone experienced with these machines.

Thank you all for your help! You will be happy to hear that she is running smoothly and holding temperature well. Mystery solved. I suppose it is a good thing to actually know what all the knobs are for.

Excellent. Now you need to fill it with fertilized eggs. Also remember the switch in back on on the left side is for the turner. Up to turn manually, center position stop and down for auto. Some Sportsman are tricky to get the turner going. The best way is to run the manual switch up until the turn goes all the way over to one side and just starts to come back, then switch to to auto and you should be good to go.

Thanks for the hint on the turner.
I have to sit on my hands for a bit with hatching!! I did move everyone into breeding pens yesterday, so I am getting ready for it, but we are -23C and I don't have the room to keep them inside for longer than about 5-6 weeks (even that is a stretch!). It will have to be the end of Feb or early March before I think seriously about it, but it is going to be tough now!!!

coopslave wrote:Well, thank you. I think I may have figured it out. The guy I bought it from said the front thing was for the increasing or decreasing the speed to the egg turner. Probably why he sold it, couldn't get it to work properly. I will have more of a play around, there may be more questions to come!!!
I would be happy to have any hints or feedback from anyone experienced with these machines.

Whoa, has anyone heard of that? I haven't, and I am not sure if this is correct information. Not that I know that much, but it just seems odd to want to adjust the speed of turning, why? Sorry I don't get that. Maybe incubators do have that, but I would think it unnecessary, unless maybe there is a good reason that I just don't know about, I really don't know all that much, in the scope of things. Coopslave, spend a little money and buy an electronic thermostat from somewhere, I got mine from Berryhill. It was pretty simple to put in, from that I understand, my Husband did it though. That way you won't have any worries about an old wafer thingy....just my two cents. I have a really, really old one, and last year I thought that the wafer might be going, so before I got into hatching eggs, I had purchased a new thermostat and felt very comfortable knowing that I had this. Just a thought, I don't know if that is in the budget for you, but I think worth it....I am a baby when it comes to things not working right and I always like to be prepared.

If my memory serves, I was reading in the manual that I got for it online, that each turn of the thermostat moves it one degree. I had made the mistake of only moving it a little bit and it probably never was right.....I am going to see if I can get the link for a manual for you. Hold on....my incubator is a 1524, probably old as time itself, the baskets can hold goose eggs and emu eggs -- it has a rotational arm one, where the eggs sit flat in long basket things, I found the manual for it on the internet, that is where I am going to look for you....I went to the site for the G.Q.F. incubators and there are many different models of manuals that you can download -- have a look, maybe you have one the models listed and you can download a manual -- [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] hope this may help you out a little bit, good luck, you gonna have fun with your new incubator!!! Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

A rapidly flashing indicator light is normal with an electronic thermometer. I retrofitted an old wafer unit with an electronic and this is what the instructions stated. Since then I've bought 2 new units and all the lights flash rapidly when it reaches full temperature.

You can download a set of instructions for GQF Sportsman Incubators from
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If this doesn't work - Google "GQF"