Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone used a mini fridge with a ceramic heat emitter?

I was thinking mini fridge, heat emitter, computer fan and a proportional thermostat instead of my Ranco.

Opinions?
I may just have to build it and test it out before next season, see how it holds temps etc.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

You could technically use a waffle iron or hair dryer as the heat source if you wanted to? The only reason I would say no to the ceramic heater is it takes up more space in the incubator, the heat source is more direct and concentrated onto a spot(just like a spot light only just heat), and I would be afraid it is going to dry the air out more. The best thing in my opinion is Flex Watt. It is easy to use, you can cover all the sides and/or bottom and top of incubator and it takes up no room at all.

Also, I thought Ranco was a proportional thermostat? Maybe not? I like the Herpstat becuase you can control with an offset and sycronize it with another digtal or manual thermomter and they will track the same.

I am in the proccess of building our first incubator and your proposed set up sounds just like what we are going with except we are using heat tape instead of a ceramic heater. I think that what you are proposing will work well for you.

We have not tested ours for stablility of temperature yet. We did test that it can get warm enough. Still need to add a bit more insulation before we are going to do the stablility test. We are planning on finishing it up in the next two weeks so we will be ready to start putting males with females.

I was intending on posting pictures when I am done.

I decided to use a Radiant Heat Panel for a heat source and they work great. I also have the smaller cooler style incubator,if you would like to see a few pics let me know. George

Do the radiant panels hold up well in high humidity applications such as incubators? I would imagine yes, as you seem happy with your setup. I was thinking more long term like 3-5yrs down the road. Will the panels start falling apart or anything? I havent used them so I dont know. They seem really nice with even heat, reliability and low cost of use on electricity.

I built my first one last season and used a full sized single door stand up style freezer with 6 foot of 11" flex watt ran by a helix dbs 1000. It worked great all of my eggs (around 100) went full term in the incubator. No kinks nothing . . . ..
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1.0 Sunrise (sshhh)
1.0 orange ghost mojave
1.0 Het pied
1.0 Hypo
1.0 Spider Het Hypo
0.1 orange ghost mojave
0.1 mojave (best looking one ever! thanks Jeff Luman)
0.1 Pastel Het ghost
0.1 Hypo
0.1 mojave
0.4 Het nerd Orange Hypo
0.2 poss Het nerd Orange Hypo
0.1 poss Het albino
0.1 het pied
0.1 Bell Jungle
0.6 normal breeders
0.1 black pastel (unproven)
0.1 Tiger ball (unproven)
0.1 genetic reduced pattern
0.1 black back
1.0 posslble salmon boa
0.1 BCI 8.5 ft
1.0 hypo okatee
1.3 Anery 100% het hypo amel and motley
1.1 snow corn
1.1 anery motley
0.1 ghost motley corn
0.1 lavendar het hypo
0.1 miami het hypo
0.1 miami
0.1 sunglow
0.1 candy cane
0.1 love line okatee
0.1 blue tail monitor
2.2 felines aka boa food ;o
And I am not gonna count all those rats . . .

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Hmmmm...

I think it's because my apartment may have been too hot. I kept getting temp spikes...
I used a mini-fridge with a foot of heat tape.
Perhaps more heat tape, a non-ranco thermostat.
I'm moving to a better apartment as well, so that should help.
-----
"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

If your leaving during the day and turn the AC off and the apt goes to 98 degrees it may get too hot inside. The thing isnt gonna cool itself. You might need to leave the AC on low to keep the room below 89-90 degrees. If that isnt the problem, then it may be your controller? I always thought Ranco's were good, but I really couldnt tell you? I would use 2 thermometers. The one on the controller and then another digital one that can monitor high/low temps. Set your incubator and let it run for a few days and monitor when and how much temps are spiking. Put a bunch of bottles filled with water inside and this helps maintain even temps. You need to trouble shoot the problem.

Also, more Flexx Watt wont hurt, it will just run less to maintain the same temp. I would use like 1' of 10" Flexx Watt for every couple cubic feet of space in the incubator, but that is not a scientific amount. I actually used the guts from a havobator in mine. The heating element shoudnt have to run very much as long as the incubator is well insulated.

This is my first year using them and so far they performed very well, super efficient, stable, and easy to use. I purchased mine from Repile Basics,very well built and they do not emmit any odors. Good luck, George

I made one like that last year using a half fridge, 2 feet flexwatt, a computer fan, and a herpstate. Worked out great no problems had 100% hatch rate. I actually just got a single door cooler with glass door for this upcoming season so I don't run out of room.
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1.1 Spider
0.2 Pastel
0.1 Pastel het clown
0.1 Pastel het ghost
0.1 Mojave het ghost
1.0 Mojave
0.1 Lesser
1.0 Lemon blast
0.1 Fire
1.0 Cinnamon het clown
1.0 Pin het albino
0.1 Albino

I would think that using a CHE in such a small space would dry the air too much for an incubator.

i use a 30 bottle wine cooler for my ball eggs. I can fit 4 clutches in it. I use 10" heat tape, about an 18" section. I do NOT use a fan either, once again i believe that it would dry the air as well. The large piece of heat tape in such a small bator helps keep the temp pretty even.

Here is what i did:

i gutted the cooler

cleaned it well

added the tape with aluminum tape and a HerpStat, and added water bottle at the bottom:

And i get 100% hatch rate on viable eggs. Its that easy.
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Thanks
Chad Ramsey

here it is holding 28 eggs

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Thanks
Chad Ramsey