Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

If anyone has knowledge on building an incubator from an old wine fridge I have gutted the back pulled the freon lines and have stripped out the nuts and other parts from inside. I am sticking in the back 11 inch flex watt from the top to bottom. I am using a Spyder robotics therm. My question is where should I make the hole for my heat tape plug and the Thermostat wire? Also I am planning on drilling a hole big enough to stick the entire plug into the hole. Do I want to tape off the hole once threaded or do I need a little hole for air circulation. Also I am going to try and not use a fan. I will have plenty of time to monitor the temps. I am in a cool basement. Any other suggestions will be welcome and thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Bill

without a fan you are asking for trouble. you have to be able to circulate the air. with that said, in my converted fridge incubator, I drilled a hole in the bottom left corner of the back and ran all my wires through it. I then used the expanding foam to fill the hole in to prevent a draft. You do not want to add holes to your incubator for ventilation. You should be checking your eggs briefly daily or every other day and that should be more than sufficient to provide fresh air. If you add a hole you are inviting bugs to make home in your egg boxes which can be very bad.

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Josh & Krysty Hutto
J&K Reptiles

Various Ball Pythons, boas, dogs, cats, fish, an amel tiger retic female, a couple sulcatas and a few other odds and ends.

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

did you hatch the two head ball in your sig and did it live?
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Pastel 1.0
Spider 1.0
Normals 1.2
Het Pied 1.0
Leopard Geckos 1.1
American Bulldog 1.0

No I didn't hatch that and I actually didn't realize that I clicked on that until i posted it. It was a two headed yellowbelly and died shortly after crawling out of the egg.
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Josh & Krysty Hutto
J&K Reptiles

Various Ball Pythons, boas, dogs, cats, fish, an amel tiger retic female, a couple sulcatas and a few other odds and ends.

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

>>Hello,
>>
>>If anyone has knowledge on building an incubator from an old wine fridge I have gutted the back pulled the freon lines and have stripped out the nuts and other parts from inside. I am sticking in the back 11 inch flex watt from the top to bottom. I am using a Spyder robotics therm. My question is where should I make the hole for my heat tape plug and the Thermostat wire? Also I am planning on drilling a hole big enough to stick the entire plug into the hole. Do I want to tape off the hole once threaded or do I need a little hole for air circulation. Also I am going to try and not use a fan. I will have plenty of time to monitor the temps. I am in a cool basement. Any other suggestions will be welcome and thank you in advance.
>>
>>Best regards,
>>Bill

i used a broken pop fridge for mine i used a che and black light not flex watt but and a helix. why drill such a big hole? i would drill a small hole the size of the cord and if you had to cut the cable and splice it back together then cap it and electrical tape it in mine i did not use a fan for a long time it worked fine but my heat was from the bottom after a while i added the fan just to circulate the air and keep it the same temp everywhere.
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reed at www.ReedsDragons.com & www.KillerEnclosures.com

you should really think about adding a fan. it will help circulate the air and temp in the incubator.

all fridges have an existing hole, i would find the hole and reuse it. it makes no sense drilling another hole when you have one there available to use.

post some pics if you can i'm sure you can be pointed in the right direction.

Pitoon

I use a small aquarium fan to circulate air in my incubator. I ran all of my wires through a 3/4 inch hole int a electrical junction box mounted to the outside of my fridge. Good luck!

id like to see a better pic of the aquarium fan
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Thanks
Chad Ramsey

Sorry, I didn't realize that pic didn't have the fan in it. I just zip tied it to the bottom rack on the left side. It keeps the temps pretty even.

i used am existing hole as well. you can see it on the right toward the bottm.

i had to drill it out a tad, then i put the wires through then cover the hole with tape.

I do not use a fan yet either. Granted its a SMALL wine cooler. Probably only 4 clutches. But when i test ran it, there was LESS than 1/2 degree difference form the top rack to the bottom.
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Thanks
Chad Ramsey

Thank you to all who replied to my message. Very helpful. I am going to test run it for a week before I add a fan. I might be able to run it with out one. I am in a pretty cool area where the incubator will be set up. Once I add the heat tape I will post some pics. I believe I will be able to run the wires through the existing hole.

Thanks,
Bill

Hello,

Well I finished it today and all the advice was perfect. Here are some of pics of my incubator. Does anyone know where I can buy an AC powered fan during winter? No one carries them during winter.

Thanks again and enjoy the pics.
Bill