Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I setup my incubator tonight after purchasing a 120V PC fan. I hooked the helix controller up with both the heat tape and PC fan plug into the pigtail. Both the heat and the fan worked fine for about 10 minutes then the fan stopped and didn't come back on. I'm guessing all the tweaks the helix was making to digitally control the temperture was to much for the fan. I unplugged the fan from the helix pigtail and plugged it into the wall directly. It started right up and has been running fine for an hour non-stop.

So my question is should the fan have worked properly the way I first had it hooked up or does it need to just remain plugged into a wall outlet. Additionally will the fan just burn up running at a continuous state with nothing to shut it on/off?

Thanks. I'm getting excited as I have lots of breeding and this year I want to be ready when the eggs come.....assuming they do

Russ

Hooking the fan up to the thermostat was most likely what caused the problem to begin with. Since your fan will not be generating heat (or causing any type of cooling effect) it will be fine to leave it plugged in for the duration of the incubation period.

I used 2 PC fans this past season, both of which had been "recycled" from old PCs. They did just fine for the roughly 60 days that they were plugged in.

Technically, you can leave your PC on 24/7 will little ill effect on the fans. They are made to last for years with minimal wear.

My fan is plugged directly into the wall socket since January of 08 with no ill effects.
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Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

The little fans do generate heat. Just point a temp gun at the motor. They will be 105F or maybe more. In a very small well insulated incubator a fan will cause over heating.

My incubator is large, 4ft wide and 8 ft tall, it has three fans that ran continuously until recently. I went in one day and the incubator was over 90F, the johnson t-stat I use to over ride the helix was off. One fan had gone bad and would barely try to turn, the temp gun said it was 150F at the motor. Now my fans are connected thru the johnson t-stat.
Mike

The fan should be running constantly to keep the temps consistent throughout the incubator. The only thing that needs to be plugged into the thermostat is the heat source.
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-Jeff
http://jefflumanreptiles.com

I've used a dimmer to slow one of those 120v fans before. Anything less than about 85% power and they won't turn at all. The Helix thermostat will only put out enough power to heat to the desired temp, it makes sense that the fan wouldn't be running after the initial warm-up.
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-Jeff
http://jefflumanreptiles.com

I appreciate all of the advice.
Russ