Posted by Susan Lenz on
Thinking of purchasing a new incubator?
Not sure of which type to purchase? With so many incubators on the market, its hard to know where to start and what to look for. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for and here is our warning on cheap incubators ....
you may ask "Why are there cheap incubators available for around $60 and how do they differ from our quality Brinsea incubators we sell?"
After hearing of many house fires and near misses with cheap incubators and brooder equipment, here is some advice to consider:
Your house and property are the biggest financial investment you will make.
Your family is the biggest emotional investment… EVER.
It is not worth losing one or both, to save a few dollars on a incubator or brooder.
Also, will your insurance pay out, should something go wrong, once it is investigated and if it is determined that a non-compliant electrical item was the cause? Insurance companies will spend hundreds to prove a fire started with a non-compliant electrical item than potentially pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace a house…
We use and sell Brinsea equipment because they stand beside their products and their safety – backed by a 3 year Australia-based warranty on all their equipment!!!
The following information hopes to assist in choosing which incubator best suits your needs.
First of all, we need to decide the type of eggs we will be incubating and how many each batch. As we all know the majority of people will often purchase the cheapest unit as we are not sure if we are going to be serious about incubating or not. This is the first mistake. As purchasing a cheap unit will guarantee a poor hatch, wasting time, wasting money and most importantly put you off from incubating altogether.
I’ll be honest, you can get a cheap incubator online for $60 that will incubate 100 eggs, but this will guarantee you will never incubate again. Some of these are pictured below.
You dont have to take my word for it, If you spend some time online and do some research you will find some videos like this one ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlsn73thfSc ) completely independant of me, my shop and my opinions, that share similar horror stories of people wasting their money on these cheap chinese incubators. Take a look at how many comments are made and make your own opinion :-)
At Tassie Bird and Poultry Supplies we have had over 30 years experience with incubators and hatching. I have personally used most on the market, and we are proud to stock the Brinsea brand of incubators which are made in the UK. Brinsea offer a 3 years warranty on alll their products, they are reliable and have been building incubators for over 48 years.
Brinsea clinically tests all their units to ensure they work under normal conditions. Cheap units are just copies that do not undergo any testing, which is why you have trouble operating them.
"WHAT DO INCUBATORS DO?" Eggs need to be kept at consistent heat, generally 37.5 degrees or 99.5 Fahrenheit, still air incubators need to operate 1 degree higher. Then they need to be turned at least twice a day for chicken eggs, duck eggs or quail eggs. Exotics such as parrot eggs need to be turned more often, every hour is best. Where reptile eggs do not need turning and are kept in a container with vermiculite that is mixed with water to a 1 to 1 dilution. However most of you are here to incubate chicken, ducks, turkeys, goose or quail eggs, with the occasional serious breeder that incubates expensive parrot eggs for hand rearing. Whatever the purpose we have the unit that will suit your needs. Then finally the humidity of the unit needs to be at about 45 to 50 % during incubation and higher during hatch. All these parameters are built and designed into Brinsea incubators. The level of control depends on the unit you choose.
Our Eco range are all fan forced, digital thermostats and allow temperature readout via a thermometer.
Our Advance range are also fan-forced, but digital control allowing to set temperature at push of a button with alarms, humidity readouts, and cooling options.
Finally our Advance EX or EX models, include either a built in or external humidity pump which makes the incubator fully automatic, with temperature, turning and humidity. The pump will pump the exact amount of water the unit needs to achieve the humidity that you have set on the unit.
I would suggest you buy an incubator that suits your lifestyle. If you are going to be around all day and have a lot of spare time and are on a budget, an Eco model may suit you. As turning the eggs will need to be done by hand. If you are not going to be around and need a lot of automation then you can look at our Advance models, and for those who need full automation then the Advance EX or EX models is the way to go. We find our EX models the most popular of the range.
Finally the size of the unit depends on how many eggs you will incubate each time. It’s advisable that you get a unit that incubates more than your needs. I always say you can incubate a small number of eggs in a large unit and have the ability to incubate more when required. But if you start with a small unit you cannot increase the amount of eggs.
We have also found this study done in England by the North Somerset Trading Standards (their version of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Unsafe Imported Incubators. Links to the course investigation are in the article attached.
Advice from that investigation advise that you should be concerned if, when looking for an incubator –
* Price. A product that is selling significantly below the market average should set alarm bells ringing. Everyone loves a bargain, but no-one wants their fingers burnt -literally. Quality incubators require quality components, research and rigorous testing. All this is not cheap.
* Don’t assume a CE mark on the product means it is safe. A CE mark can be applied to an unsafe product by a manufacturer as it is the importer into the EU that is responsible for electrical safety – although some may not be aware of this.
* Look for a manufacturer’s address on the product or instructions. Alarm bells ring for Trading Standards when a manufacturer or importer can’t be traced from its product.
* If the product is unbranded or is a brand that you don’t recognise then do an internet search for the manufacturer. If there is no English language website for the manufacturer with full contact information be suspicious.
* Product instructions should include warning of electrical safety hazards and recycling symbols – if these are absent, the language is imprecise and badly translated then the product doesn’t comply with EU regulations and may be dangerous.
* Is the distributor/seller contactable by phone and do they give a full trading address? What is their returns policy? Reputable distributors will have this information readily available, if not, be suspicious.
We stock a great range of incubators, brooders, lights and heat plates - check our our products here
I hope this has answered some questions for you, however we are very happy to answer any further questions you may have: Call us on 0362671554 Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 4pm
