Best incubator thermometer/hygrometer

[Corey Gilson]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a really good thermometer/hygrometer that would fit in an incubator? Maybe even one with an alarm? My cheap one just caused me to seriously overheat some button quail eggs I was incubating, and they're almost certainly cooked at this point. :-(

[Todd Allen]

I think most any cheap mechanical dial hygrometer is fine as you don't need much accuracy for humidity and the mechanical ones tend to be pretty good mid scale having more trouble with accuracy at the extremes.

Temperature is more fussy.  No matter what means an incubator uses to regulate temperature there's going to be temperature swings.  Ideally you'd like the range it swings through centered on 99.5 F and the more accurate your thermometer the better.

The most accurate type of affordable thermometers are the old glass mercury ones.  And bigger is better as it makes it easier to read.  But you don't want to use it directly as they are cumbersome and hazardous if broken.  But you'll want one to use to calibrate whatever thermometer you use in the incubator.  Note the more common safety thermometers of today don't have mercury and aren't as good.  First check the accuracy of your glass mercury thermometer.  Partially fill an ice cube tray with distilled water and freeze, put the ice in a glass and add a little more distilled water.  Let it sit for 10 minutes or so, stirring a couple times.  The water with lots of ice remaining should now be at 32F and you can test your glass mercury thermometer with it.

Inside the incubator I recommend an inexpensive bi-metallic dial guage thermometer.  Ideally you want one that reads something like 0F-200F as it should be factory calibrated at 100F (range mid-point).  Now heat some water to 100F using your glass mercury thermometer and test/adjust your dial thermometer for accuracy at 100F.

Note, digital thermometers are easier to use but cheap consumer ones are woefully inaccurate and lab grade ones are frightfully expensive.

On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 11:07 AM, Corey Gilson <cgils...@gmail.com> wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation for a really good thermometer/hygrometer that would fit in an incubator? Maybe even one with an alarm? My cheap one just caused me to seriously overheat some button quail eggs I was incubating, and they're almost certainly cooked at this point. :-(

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[ChicagoDucks]

For what it's worth, I use a wet bulb thermometer for humidity readings and I have a copy of this chart (below) by my incubator so I can calculate relative humidity.  I haven't had much luck getting accurate readings from a dial or digital probe hygrometer in my forced-air incubator.  

I appreciate Todd's suggestions on the thermometer!  Getting consistent thermometer readings drives me nuts.  Last year when I was trying to dial-in our incubator before we set eggs, I put a bunch of different thermometers in the empty incubator to get a good setting. And we still used two thermometers the whole time we were incubating.  

On Sunday, February 17, 2013 1:30:51 PM UTC-6, ToddAllen wrote:

I think most any cheap mechanical dial hygrometer is fine as you don't need much accuracy for humidity and the mechanical ones tend to be pretty good mid scale having more trouble with accuracy at the extremes.

Temperature is more fussy.  No matter what means an incubator uses to regulate temperature there's going to be temperature swings.  Ideally you'd like the range it swings through centered on 99.5 F and the more accurate your thermometer the better.

The most accurate type of affordable thermometers are the old glass mercury ones.  And bigger is better as it makes it easier to read.  But you don't want to use it directly as they are cumbersome and hazardous if broken.  But you'll want one to use to calibrate whatever thermometer you use in the incubator.  Note the more common safety thermometers of today don't have mercury and aren't as good.  First check the accuracy of your glass mercury thermometer.  Partially fill an ice cube tray with distilled water and freeze, put the ice in a glass and add a little more distilled water.  Let it sit for 10 minutes or so, stirring a couple times.  The water with lots of ice remaining should now be at 32F and you can test your glass mercury thermometer with it.

Inside the incubator I recommend an inexpensive bi-metallic dial guage thermometer.  Ideally you want one that reads something like 0F-200F as it should be factory calibrated at 100F (range mid-point).  Now heat some water to 100F using your glass mercury thermometer and test/adjust your dial thermometer for accuracy at 100F.

Note, digital thermometers are easier to use but cheap consumer ones are woefully inaccurate and lab grade ones are frightfully expensive.

On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 11:07 AM, Corey Gilson <cgils...@gmail.com> wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation for a really good thermometer/hygrometer that would fit in an incubator? Maybe even one with an alarm? My cheap one just caused me to seriously overheat some button quail eggs I was incubating, and they're almost certainly cooked at this point. :-(

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[Belmont Feed & Seed]

Come by, and I will replace them for you. I can also show you my set-up with the incubator that I have. It works pretty good. Lidia.