Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a 4" fan hooked it up and works fine. The problem is the fan motor heats up to 109 degrees which inturn heats the incubater up to that temp. Any ideas????

Dude...I was worried about you when the others told you to use an A/C fan that wired directly to a cord. What I've always done (and I've built several incubators over the years), is use a 12V D/C fan from Radioshack. Then get like a 6V or 9V (or even better, and adjustable) adapter. The plug has a transformer in it, it steps the voltage down to where you need it, and the fan wont run like its trying to get your set-up airborne. I've found that you need just enough voltage to get the fan gently turning for best results in an incubator. Good luck!

I found another fan and its .11 amps and the power supply that i have converts to 9 volts 100 MA.
i hooked it up and it runs. Should this be a problem?
Thank You, Casey

nm

Ahh ok so then volts is just the rate of speed at which it is delivered(and watts is the torque/power available).

Which means i can run this 12 volt fan on this 9 volt dc converter...since the converter is rated at 450mA and the fan is only 150mA.

Heya JP,that helped me out too...thanks.

...and i was wondering what was up with the ac fan comment too.

I tried that last year,and the temp stayed on 90F!Then i cut on a second fan(ac),and it rose up over 91F.That's when i figured it all out.....Which is also why i just went without last season(I only had two eggboxes though,so it was easy).
-----
Charles Glaspie

Tanstaafl:
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".
An acronym created by my favorite author Robert A. Heinlein.

First for the original poster, current (amps) and voltage (volts) are two different quantities. The analogy that comes to mind is a water hose. The current is analogous to the amount of water flowing through the hose, and the voltage is analogous to the diameter of the hose (if I remember the analogy correctly).

Again, I'm just saying what has worked for me....small DC fan and an adapter/tranformer gives a safe, gentle result. I just prefer to work with the lower voltage, and it gives me exactly the results I need with no added heat.

I have seen fans heat the incubator before, but the incubator is usually small and well insulated. I think a dc voltage fan will also produce heat, I'm not sure how long it would last running on reduced voltage.

JP, your analogy about electricity and plumbing was a little off. Current would compare to the quantity of water, voltage would compare to water pressure. When voltage is reduced current increases.

The power source I had yesterday I noticed was a 9v and the fan was a 12v .11a . It worked fine but I wanted to be on the safe side so today I bought a 12v 500ma power source. Now I just need to fine tune the heat. Buy the way, the incubator is a med. size fridge.
Thanks for everyones help!
Casey