Waterbator reworked

Yup, still beating this drum.

Had neighbour build me a sheet metal tray. The turkey roaster just wasn't big enough for the eggs and the clunky wafer unit. The theory is sound, but still working out the details.

This tray is 14 inches wide, 22 inches long and 6 inches deep. It's a small swimming pool! That is what I asked for but in my head it was smaller, somehow.

The 60 watt bulb was NOT cutting it as a heat source under this tray.  Bumped up to a 100 watt bulb. Still not cutting it. The bottom area of this tray is probably double the size of the turkey roaster and heating it was proving to be a problem. I was not able to get it up to temp so ditched it and went back to the turkey roaster.

OF course I have 12 eggs that are getting hot and cold and hot and REALLY cold.

Today I dug out the heating pad I recently got at the thrift store and set it in the bottom of the monster tray. Wine box water bladder on top of the heating pad. This takes up only half of the available space, which means I have lots of room to set that clunky wafer unit. Bonus!

Now it's just wait and see how fast the heating pad is able to heat up the water and to see if my current wafer unit can maintain temps at a reasonable level. This wafer unit is NOT ideal.

I post this fascinating news break because I know many of you are clamouring to copy this design and start hatching eggs without the issue of humidity being a concern.

So, find yourself a sheet metal guy, an old heating pad at the thrift store, a wafer, some lumber and a wing nut, the inside bag from a box of wine and hatch yourself some eggs!

when Mister built my frankenstein incubator... he wired in the lightbulb base to a dimmer switch, and then I used a heat lamp bulb.... by turning it up or down with the dimmer I could actually regulate the temp pretty decently!  was a very genius idea on his part I think


just thought I would throw that out there in case your heating pad doesnt end up working 

Hmm...dimmer switch... interesting.

I was going to offer up to use two 60 watt bulbs, that make 120 watt. You must have twice the area to heat. BUT my big question is how do you get the automatic turner to work? 

Uno, what about something like this?

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Rowdy, yes I do have a MUCH larger surface area to heat. As well the roaster was black enamel, this 'tray' is shiny sheet metal and I wonder if its reflective qualities make it harder to heat? Where as the black of the roaster grabs heat quickly.

THe auto turner is a nuisance, I have it with me everywhere I go, attached to the end of my arm. It does dishes, weeds gardens and folds laundry too! SO while I have to carry it around, which can be annoying, it does have many uses.

I like that switch/thermostat Flicker Chick, but have tried to keep the cost of building this thing to a minimum, so anyone could copy it without spending too much. But Hub is cruising the net for potential thermostat/switches. I think he also wants to build a better bator, but for him, if you can BUY the part you need, why would you try and MAKE it instead? He's no fun.

uno wrote:Rowdy, yes I do have a MUCH larger surface area to heat. As well the roaster was black enamel, this 'tray' is shiny sheet metal and I wonder if its reflective qualities make it harder to heat? Where as the black of the roaster grabs heat quickly.

Yes I have to agree, maybe paint the bottom black, some BBQ heat paint.   Aluminum foil reflex both heat and cold.

And them pesty multi tools, what would we do with out them.

Update, again.

The heating pad was a no go. It was not consistent and tended to overheat. At one point the water temp hit 105! No wonder it was in the thrift store. I lost some eggs to this glitch.

I abandoned my custom made tray and went back to the turkey roaster and light bulb.

In the meantime a friend who works at the recycle place, knowing I am inventing a water based incubator, brought me some 16 litre bags from wine boxes. They are huge! I had been working with a 4 litre bag that didn't quite cover the bottom  of the roaster. This 16 litre bag sure covers the roaster bottom!

Obviously I do not use 16 litres of water! The empty portion of the bag hangs out  of the roaster and provides a place to squish the air pockets to. Air pockets mess up temperature readings, you want them OUT of the way and I scoot them into the empty space in the bag. Also, when I started this adventure I was using black garbage bags to hold the water and I could not see a water bubble. The wine bags are clear and I can see where the air pockets are.

With this wine bag now covering the entire bottom of the roaster, I have a more level spot to set my wafer unit on, and it is working better.

Have learned that the two digital thermoms are not exactly telling me the truth. They are meant to measure AIR temp. They were not meant to measure surface temp. I have them taped to the wine bag. They are a little confused by this. I noticed that when I had the towel over the roaster (there is no lid, just a towel) the temps shot up by about 2 degrees. Towel off, temp falls. But an old fashioned bulb thermometer jammed under an egg read the same temp whether I had the towel on or off. Ah ha! The digital thermoms are telling me a combination temp of the water  AND the trapped air. I now know that I need to subtract 1.5 to 2 degrees off whatever the digital thermoms read and thsi has proven right over and over by comparing them to the bulb thermom. Overall my wafer is working very well to regulate temps, despite the fact that it is rather crude.

Also, if you can find the original pics somewhere, you will see that the bottom part of the wafer is a chunk of metal.  This metal absorbs heat very well,  and after a while it's own heat started affecting the wafer's performance. I had to buffer the metal plate from contact with heated water bag. A piece of cardboard does the trick. Now that the steel isn't so hot, the wafer is working better. I am very happy with my temps, using now a 100 watt bulb instead of a 60.

Have 8 good eggs, at least a week away from hatch.

I have to work out the kinks with my custom tray, maybe paint the bottom surface black like Rowdy suggested. Now with the 16 litre bags I can really make it wall to wall waterbed for eggs! Will have to find a way to bump up to 2 light bulbs, cause 1 just wasn't cutting it.

Now how come you aren't all building one of these in your kitchen? Gee whiz people, it's practically free! And humidity has not come up ONCE in this conversation. Wahoo! Oh..last time I felt the eggs did not evaporate enough, blamed the roaster lid, and this time have left the lid OFF and covered it with a towel. I even flip a little bit of the towel back now and then to let the moisture escape. Mind you, with all the rain we've had, the humidity in the air here is just wicked!

I made my incubator out of an old cooler, a 40 watt light bulb, a computer fan on an adapter, on a hot water tank thermostat. Easy peasy. Warms quick, keeps stable heat, humidity is supplied by two bottom trays....decent hatches. I just have to quit opening the bator during hatch time. I know better and I always open it.