I just got done turning a wine fridge to an incubator. Didn't really have any plan's written out but heres what I did. I didn't gut the fridge since its still in pretty good working condition and I wanted to leave it that way in case I ever wanted to use it as a fridge again.



1. Figure out what size tubs you want to use for your eggs.

2. Remove or adjust shelves as needed to accommodate the tubs.

3. Cut Eggcrate to match the size of the shelves and lay directly on top of it. This makes for a more secure shelf. You can remove the metal shelf and put the eggcrate on top of the screws if you want but I left the metal shelf in there so I can pull each rack forward if needed.

4. Pull out or remove rubber drainage tubing from the bottom of the cooler. I just pulled it out from the bottom of the cooler and positioned it above one of the water containers.

5. Remove the sheet metal backing from the back of the fridge in order to get to the bottom cover of the cooler. Or you can lay the cooler down on the glass side (not recommended)

6. Run wires for heat tape, fan, lighting, thermostat probes, etc through the drainage hole where you just pulled out the rubber drainage tube.

7. Make sure the heat, fan, lights, work to your liking and plug up the hole from the inside with some form of plumbing putty, tape, etc.



Thats pretty much it. I placed the heat tape under the bottom metal shelf and secured the shelf over it. I placed 2 water pans over it and filled it with water and some perilite in it to help with the moisture. I have the fan blowing down at the heat tape.



Since I'm not using most of the space right now, I filled the unused levels with water bottles to help the temps recover after opening the door. This maybe over kill but each tub I have about 1 inch of vermiculite/perilite 50/50 mix, with 25% of the mix weight in water. I layed some egg crates right on top the mix without pushing it down and plan on placing the eggs directly on top of the eggcrate.



My thinking was when water starts to condense on the lids of the tubs, the water would drip down and get absorbed by the substrate and not collect under the eggs alone. I set my Helix thermostat to 89 degrees and so far the temps stays between 89-91 and humidity is at 100%. The temps and humidity recovers within a few minutes after I open the door.



I'll takes some pic when I get a chance. Good luck!

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• Wine fridge incubator? - estanfield, Mon Apr 23 18:26:53 2007
• RE: Wine fridge incubator? - stickytongues, Wed May 2 15:47:34 2007