DIY Bar fridge incubator - How to get heatcord, thermostat probes etc into fridge

[Red-Ink]

Looks great Red Ink.
JungleGuy - I would not try to wire things up directly for two reasons. The first is that you are being too risky with the electronics. The second is that my incubator thermostat becomes a thermostat for my hatchlings after it has done its job in the incubator. My thermostats move around a fair bit.

I also put my temp probe in the egg container so I know exactly what is going on there. They can generate a bit of heat, especially later in incubation, so I monitor them directly.

Thanks Pythonmum... best thing about that inc is when it's not cooking eggs it performs double duties of keeping my beers cold so I can sit back and have a cold brew in summer as I sit back and watch the fruits of it's labour grow lol.

 

[pythonmum]

Thanks Pythonmum... best thing about that inc is when it's not cooking eggs it performs double duties of keeping my beers cold so I can sit back and have a cold brew in summer as I sit back and watch the fruits of it's labour grow lol.

I don't have that joy with my incubator, as it is a large, broken down model I picked up during the curbside cleanup. It just takes up space in the garage during the down time. Perhaps I will have to install a bar fridge by the hatchlings so I can have a handy beverage after coaxing them all to eat.:lol:

 

[Smithers]

Cheers Red-Ink

 

[mad_at_arms]

Great thread. A lot of good input
I had access to a lot of returns of these small wine and bar fridges years ago where I worked.
I'm kicking myself for not grabbing them when I could.

 

[meatman]

Here you go Mike... (and Smithers)

The condensation run off hole we were talking about, I bore it out a bit bigger to 10mm to fit the heat cord head.

The way the cord is fed through the inc, tape together with aluminium tape.

Thermometer and Thermostat probe placements, white is the thermo and the black on the side wall is the stat.

How the cords are fed through the door seals (small incision on the hinge side)

inside view

Outside view

Both cords on the side of the inc (perfect seal still achieved)

Hope that helps mate.

Hi Redink. With this set up do you have the fridge running off a thermostat as well so it heats and cools or do you just use it with heatcord and 1 thermo.

Justin

 

[Red-Ink]

Nah Justin, the fridge is off. I have the cord just running on a habistat pulse thermostat. It holds pretty stable temps even on the heat wave weeks. The highest varriance I got last summer was 0.8C and on regular days just 0.4C varriance on average.

I also keep it away from the window and on the floor mind you....

Francis

 

[killimike]

Thanks for those pics RI! That is extremely helpful... I will have to see what I can do w mine.

Just to test the thing out, and lacking time to set it up properly, I just layed out the heatcord on the fridge floor, attached to thermostat, with a thermometer to check temps. I simply closed the door on the leads, without slitting the seal or anything.

I set it at around 28-29, hard to tell exactly on those microclimates. Within an hour it was up at 28.8, and has slowly come down to 28.3 now. Hopefully it stabilises and doesn't drop too much more.

So I know the heatcord is big enough, at the very least. Will see how it goes overnight and take it from there.

Thanks heaps for your help guys, there has been some fantastic input on this thread!

 

[congo_python]

Hey guys
Haven't read all the thread but you dont want to remove the compressor and the like if it is still charged with refrigerant as refrigerant is 100 times more harmful to the environment than carbon monoxide (carbon tax lol) and too top it off its charged too a very high pressure and if you dont know what your doing you could seriously harm yourself via burns and/or serious high pressure injury.

Just a heads up is all.

Cheers
Congo

 

[andrew_p]

while this topic is hot i have a wine fridge im converting and im lucky enough to have a fan installed in the back of it as its a wine fridge its only small (18 bottles) and i was wondering if its a waste of time running a fan in a fridge so small
cheers

 

[hissnbits]

I run a fan from a old computer to help circulate air, sorta like a fan forced oven and I find more stable temps. I check temps both top and bottom and have no more than 0.2 c variation, without the fan can be a few degrees. Using 12v fans and an old mobile phone charger as the power supply. If cant find an old computer (usually easy when hard rubish collections are coming up) then you can buy them new for under $20 from places like Jaycar. As a tip get the quieter fans if keeping the incubator in a bedroom!!

 

[andrew_p]

The fridge i have has an impeller type fan in the back and when turned onn i had to put my hand near it to see if its on its that quiet..do you run the fan all the time? Or should i just use it for cooling.if it heats up to much.
Thanks

 

[meatman]

Nah Justin, the fridge is off. I have the cord just running on a habistat pulse thermostat. It holds pretty stable temps even on the heat wave weeks. The highest varriance I got last summer was 0.8C and on regular days just 0.4C varriance on average.

I also keep it away from the window and on the floor mind you....

Francis

Thanks for that Francis.

Im trying to figure out a way to use it as a heating/cooling version.
Its pretty warm up here at the moment and just using my fridge by itself sits on 35-40deg in the shade without heating.

Cheers Justin

 

[Red-Ink]

Thanks for that Francis.

Im trying to figure out a way to use it as a heating/cooling version.
Its pretty warm up here at the moment and just using my fridge by itself sits on 35-40deg in the shade without heating.

Cheers Justin

You can get cooling thermostats from the herpshop... Cut a large hole on the inc and hook up an exhaust fan to it to blow out the hot air and keep it circulating. Being up there I don't think you'd have a problem in keeping them warm, but just in case do the heat cord as well and hook it up to a thermostats as well to kick in when/if it does get cold. That's the only thing I can think off mate.. Maybe instead of using a fridge as well just do a styrofoam inc or a melanime inc so you don't wreck a working fridge.

 

[killimike]

Well, last night it got down to 28.1 degrees, from a high of 28.8. Tho that initial high could have been a bit of an overshoot by the thermostat. I will see what it does for one more day, but if it bounces back to around 28.5, that will give a daily variance of around 0.5 degrees, which I am happy with

Well, it seems to sit around 28.2, doesn't seem to have varied from that in the last 12 hours, tho ambient temps are 3-4 degrees lower now than they were on Tuesday.

 

[killimike]

I just wanted to thank everyone for all their helpful input again.

In the end, I decided to pass the cables through cuts in the door seal. Mine are not as neat as RI's, but the door seals ok

The fridge is still holding around 28.3, which is fine.

For once I am not on the back foot, this incubator is set up and running, and I don't even have any eggs on the ground! Tho the female pilb has been doing some extreme landscaping in her tub the last few days, so fingers crossed!

 

[Red-Ink]

Always a good feeling knowing the inc is all done and ready for the eggs mate