Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

I too have a concern as to what heat source is best for a home-made incubator. It makes sense to use a heat source that cools quickly like heat tape, so you don't get an even warmer temp. a few minutes after the thermostat shuts off the heat source. As I contact various suppliers of heat sources, they all seem to "not" recommend the various types of heat source they sell. Whether it is Flexwatt tape, heating elements as seen in Hovabators, or light bulbs/ceramic bulbs. Does anyone know what is the safest heat source?

Thanks,
Glenn

...as I plan on building an incubator this summer out of a 5.0 cu. ft. chest freezer from Lowes. I was hoping to use FlexWatt heat tape with a proportional thermostat. Is this best?

Thanks In Advance,
Chris
-----
"Wild balls suck...period...buy American." --jyohe

I too had a problem with using a ceramic heat emitter as the heat source in my incubator. The temp ranges were way off due to the increased buildup in heat after the thermostat shut it off.

I replaced it with a 60 watt black light bulb and it's keeping temps within 1 degree like a charm!

Hope this helps...

a standard coil heat element with a couple computer case fans. The heating element heats up and cools down very quickly so it is easy to keep consistent temps. You are heating from the bottom so the heat has to radiate through your incubating medium which seems to help with humidity. Also heating from the bottom you are not directing all that energy on the exposed portion of your eggs. The last one a built I started my testing inside of my garage which was around 45-50 degrees at the time, and the incubator temp only fluctuated .5 degrees. Once I brought it inside the temp only fluctuated .1 degree.

I have also seen people use heat tape with good success however I don't think it heats up fast enough. If you are going to go with heat tape though I would suggest using 3" instead of 11" and just loop it back and forth a few times to increase surface area. I have seen people put a dowel rod at each end of the incubator then wrap back and forth between the two. The 3" also heats up quicker than the 11" so you have better control.

Those are just my opinions...

George Knaack
GLK HERP

...will warm the air fairly quickly, especially if there is a small fan circulating the air...given its ease of use, I vote for flexwatt!!

Scott J. Michaels DVM
Serpent City

Personally I have been using flexwatt heat tape and / or heat cable for about 8 years. Different sizes for different size incubators. The advantage is that these do not burn out like any kind of heatbulb or lightbulb and you can even them out throughout the incubator.
Hope this helps,

Rob Reiding.

Hello,

To Chris...I also like my balls "Made in the USA"
To Philly...You might be safer using multiple bulbs incase one burns out!
To George...Cool incubator!, where did you get the heating element?
To Scott...I'm leaning towards using Flexwatt. It was my initial plan!
To Rob...That's just what i'm thinkin'.

Thanks again for your replies,
Glenn

Glenn,

Thanks... You can order the heating element and insulators from Lyon Electric at:

http://www.lyonelectric.com/

George

Hey George,

You know, I was looking into this a week or two ago when you gave me that link. I contacted them after realizing the element itself is not on their site, and when they got back to me, they told me that they do not recommend that I use their heating element unless it is used in one of "their" incubators. They pointed out that it could be dangerous to wire one in myself. What do you think?

Thanks again,
Glenn

Glenn,

You do have to be careful in how you wire it considering you are directly running 120 volts through the exposed element. Also make sure you don't touch the coil next to where power comes in, nothing like get shocked by 120 volts and burned at the same time... Yes I know from experience... Just make sure you don't have anything plugged in when wiring, use a ridged low gauge wire for your leads and proper insulators for you corners. I attached a picture that shows the heat coil a little better, you can also make out the loops I used in my lead wires to prevent the coil from recoiling back through the insulators. If you have never wired anything before you may want to get some help with it but for the most part it is simple.

George