[Buffy the eggs layer]

My Rcom Suro is on the blink and looks likely to cost £80 to put right. The availability of a wide range of replacement parts on the P and T site makes me suspect that part failure is an inbuilt feature of the product so I'm reluctant to buy another.


I'm thinking of buying a cheaper model, that way I won't be quite so disappointed if it breaks after a couple of years. Anyone got any recommendations for fully automatic model that is less than £100?

[Eve]

A secondhand Brinsea 

[Womble]

Hi Buffy,

Commiserations to a fellow R-com sufferer!  Incubators just shouldn't do this to eggs, should they? 



I think a fully automatic model is too much to ask for less than £100, if you want anything better than the Suro.

We originally bought the Suro, having asked my parents for an incubator for Christmas. They bought us a propagator instead  , but were then so embarrassed by the mistake that they insisted on buying us an incubator as well - that's why we went for a cheap one!

When it went kaputt, we replaced it with a Brinsea Octagon, and would definitely recommend. You can get an "Octagon 20 Advance" for about £150 by shopping around. That gives you temperature control (duh!), and a humidity readout, but no pump or cradle. However, the design of the octagon means you can do the turning yourself very easily, just by rocking the whole unit from edge to edge whenever you walk past it - you don't have to open the lid and turn the eggs or anything.

From experience, it seems you get what you pay for I'm afraid! 

[roddycm]

I got a fully automatic secondhand Brinsea for 100 quid from a gamekeeper who was upgrading. Fits about 42 hen eggs and is simply brilliant! Regularly get 100% hatch rate! I think the model is a hatchmaster but I am not sure!

[waddy]

Brinsea are very good but don't totally trust the humidity readout in hot dry weather. Be prepared to add a wet cloth or you could end up with shrink wrapped chicks as we and another of others did.


Helen

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Humn,


           no Womble....Incubators shouldnt do that but now I know that the Rcom does do that I can always put mine to use as a kitchen utensil.


  Roddycm,


  I wouldn't mind buying a genuine second hand one as you did, but dont fancy taking a chance on ebay.


 Perhaps a decent make (Brinsea) would last longer than the Suro and will therefore be worth the money.


You do realise of course that by the time I have tracked one down, spring will have arrived and I will have a coop full of broody hens!


Thanks for the feedback

[HesterF]

I'm generally a believer of 'you get what you pay for' and have two Brinsea Octogans (40 and 20) which are fab and I've had some amazing hatch rates in them, particularly with chicken eggs. I've got cradles for both but as said above, they're easier enough to turn manually (even with goose eggs when you open it and turn them end over end). My only problem is also mentioned above - at hatch the fan seems to dry out the membranes so I now cover pipped eggs with a damp cloth.

[chrismahon]

Don't think I have ever heard a bad word said about Brinsea Buffy. You do get what you pay for and the idea of buying second hand is a good one. Their spares team has been very helpful to me in the past, when I was trying to repair a Spanish semi-automatic using one of Brinsea's control boards.


I thought the spare parts prices for the Suro20 very expensive, so when the turning motor failed I just used it as a hatcher. It may be that P&T are cannibalising new or second hand units to get the spares. When our pump was faulty a purchase they tried to replace it with a faulty second-hand unit! I managed to fix the pump myself. The incubator was a bit of a joke anyway as it wouldn't hatch properly unless operated in a room above 20C.


My preference is for simple semi-automatics. The latest is a Covatutto24, which is well made and cost £140. It is the model stoked by all the shops here so must be reliable.

[lord flynn]

have had good success with Brinsea Octagons (not ones with humidity pumps). They do have quite a fierce fan quite close to the eggs so monitor the humidity inside and out and keep an eye out when hatching as others have said-they have water channels but they don't have much of a surface area for evaporation. They are still miles better than the awful thing I had before.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

I agree that you get what you pay for and my Suro cost about £140 which I thought was a an indication that it was a good model. I was mistaken. Anyhow thanks to Womble who posted me a pump and a fan from his broken suro and I set about replacing bits this morning. Its now whirring away hapily in the kitchen. As I was fixing it, I too wondered if P and T used second hand parts.


I may have caused it to burn out by running it in an unheated utility room so this batch will be incubated in the kitchen.


I have a brinsea brooder which has been great so my next incy will be a brinsea!

[Marches Farmer]

Wonder which country poultry kit is manufactured in these days?  Are some suppliers following the road to China and pretending their kit is still manufactured in the UK, Germany, Japan or wherever the brand name suggests?

[chrismahon]

Whatever incubator you use I recommend using a surge arrestor socket with it (kind used for electronic equipment). We blew a component on the board due to, I suspect, a voltage surge. They don't cost much but could save you a lot.


The Suro20 shouldn't be operated in an ambient temperature of less than 20 degrees Buffy. It's written in the incredibly small print of the instruction sheet.

[Womble]

The Suro20 shouldn't be operated in an ambient temperature of less than 20 degrees Buffy. It's written in the incredibly small print of the instruction sheet.

What, along with "Rcom is bringing miracle of new life", or whatever it said? 

The truth is, we live in a draughty farmhouse that only had decent central heating installed three months ago, and we still have to shovel coal for that!  A constant 20 degrees ambient temperature?  You'll be lucky!

In the end, we put ours in a huge polystyrene box with a fan heater set at 20 degC. Perhaps the temperature fluctuations were still too much, as we never achieved a decent hatch rate, and then the controller went nuts and cooked the eggs anyway  .

Good tip on the surge protector though, whatever brand of incy you have  .

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Well the pump is clearly operating fine and feeding water in but it is only achieving a rh of 31 not 45 which I have set it to. I'm so keen to do a fertility test withmy latest bach of croads that I am going to try and DIY the moisture levels.


I'm with womble re the cold farmhouse but after our first winter her with temps of minus 12 for weeks I must have got used to it. When we do occasionally put the CH on we think 15 degrees it too warm!

[Womble]

Buffy,  I think you'll probably find that the water is hitting the sponge but dripping THROUGH it, rather than dampening the whole length of it.  If I'm right, you'll find water in the lower tray, if you lift the grey insert out.

The solution is to use a longer bit of sponge, or double up it's thickness.