# Whats a Good incubator? - Must heat + Cool



## Crestiezoo (Jan 8, 2013)

Hi all,

I have gone through 2 Lucky reptile herp nursery II incubators and 2 exo-terra (they seem identical) in 3 seasons and its costing me eggs, time and money each time they pack in.

Can anyone recommend a good reliable incubator? I need one that will cool as well as heat because my house gets extremely hot this time of year. I need a cooling one for crested geckos.

Thanks in advance! : victory:


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## Crestiezoo (Jan 8, 2013)

Or any DIY projects that can cool as well as heat would be interesting to read about


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

Adding a cooling unit to an incubator would be quite a trick.

What does "extremely hot" mean in degrees (Fahrenheit or Celsius)? To me, it means 95 degrees Fahrenheit (= 35 C) or above. Your mileage may vary.

Have you considered a window air conditioner to cool one room? Like the bedroom, which would help you sleep comfortably on those extremely hot nights.

If the house has a basement, check out the temperature there.

If you've had bad luck with commercial incubators, consider a DIY project. I'm not great with tools, but I was able to build an incubator. It is located in my basement, which is in the 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit temperature range all year.


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## baitman (Jan 13, 2011)

if aircon is out of your pricerange (it would be for me) then an idea would be to get a fridge, put it on its highest setting, leave the door open or remove it and place a fan in front, this would circulate the chilled air around the room.......


good luck.........steve


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## Crestiezoo (Jan 8, 2013)

Thanks for the feedback. I incubate my crestie eggs at around 72'F my daily room temperatures at the moment are 85'F.

I appreciate peoples idea's but I am not looking to cool the whole room down, because this would be wasting electricity for me personally I would much rather have a heating and cooling incubator, just one electronic item that I will be running.

The herp nurseries and exo re-brand are plain awful, can't believe I have had four pack up in 3 years, 2 of which were in the same year - All from new. Not only that their temperature readout on the front is usually about 3'C out.

Thanks again


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## Crestiezoo (Jan 8, 2013)

I have done a little research into Thermoelectric heaters/coolers, in particular peltier cooling devices.

I custom build a lot of PC's so I have plenty of heatsinks and cooling fans lying around. Also a few PSU's which I could convert mains electric into a 12v line. I think I will have a go at building a thermometric incubator using a wine cooler. But as a quick fix now I know I can buy peltier coolers so I will repair my exo-terra's.


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## 59sound (Feb 19, 2013)

That's worrying, I have just bought a Herp Nursery 2, you are spot on about the display being out, the number on the display has nothing to do with the actual temperature. Can't believe they are allowed to sell them like that. If someone bought one and didn't check they would likely use all their eggs!


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## Crestiezoo (Jan 8, 2013)

59sound said:


> That's worrying, I have just bought a Herp Nursery 2, you are spot on about the display being out, the number on the display has nothing to do with the actual temperature. Can't believe they are allowed to sell them like that. If someone bought one and didn't check they would likely use all their eggs!


Sorry to be the bearer of bad news  

You should get at least one good year out of them, they are under warranty for a year. Hopefully you don't share my experience!

I have started construction on my DIY build - I will post up pictures when its done, but sadly I don't have time to record a project log.


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## morris091081 (Oct 16, 2009)

I added a couple of 30mm pc fans to one if the shelves in a herp nursery2 facing opposite directions. These would run all the time unlike the heating or cooling fan the unit has built in. This kept the temps much more stable even though the display was still 2-3 deg out.


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## jezzaboi21 (Nov 2, 2016)

Anybody know what thermoelectric thing the herp nursery 2 needs can’t find any information


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