Brinsea

~Comments on the Brinsea Octagon 20~

After a disappointing experience with the Brower TH120, I bought a Brinsea Octagon 20. Yes, it is expensive, and yes, itıs worth it. It was very easy to use, and held the temperature unbelievably well.

Photos of incubator and temp graph comparision between Top hatch and Octagon CLICK HERE

The Oct. 20 holds 24 standard-sized chicken eggs. It has specially designed separation bars that can incubate any size egg ­ even at the same time (okay, maybe not ostrichŠ). Banties and large fowl can be incubated at the same time. It has a molded hard plastic foam base, which has water holding pockets for humidity control. It can either sit in a cradle for automatic turning, or it can be alternated in placement on its three-sided base to turn the eggs.

Pros:

• Ease of use- plug it in, add H20, adjust the temp, and itıs up to temp in under an hour.
• Very sturdy ­ built to last.
• Incubator is very quiet.
• Clear top for hatching observation.
• Wonderful temp stability ­ thermometers are calibrated, so youıre not driving yourself bonkers trying to figure out if the temp is correct. (see temperature comparison charts between TH120 and Octagon 20 during start-up testing.) Over the incubation period, the Brinsea handled a ten-degree difference in environmental temperatures without a problem.
• You can incubate only a few eggs and the temperatures will not vary, whereas other incubators with less insulation need to be full to operate properly.
• Easy to clean and sterilize ­ pop it in the sink (sans clear top with fan motor) and scrub with hot water and detergent. The fan housing is held on with 7mm nuts, and is easy to take off and remove hatching debris from the fan blades. Note on disinfecting: the molded plastic foam base is not porous, per se, but it does have little air bubbles that have solidified in the matrix. Some are open to the interior surface of the incubator. I would use the same caution disinfecting this Œbator as a Styrofoam Œbator ­ the tiny pores open to the surface could potentially harbor bacteria. I use Tek-Trol Dubble R Supply (use Search option) as a disinfectant but diluted bleach will work too.
• The water pockets are deep ­ making the surface area exposed to the surface more or less the same at the top as at the bottom. This means that the humidity doesnıt drop lower and lower as it evaporates ­ a plus if youıre leaving for a long weekend!
• The plastic egg tray is easy to remove without jarring the eggs (for humidity adjustment).
• The eggs can be placed on their sides or vertically.
• The optional wet bulb arrangement is built for this incubator ­ it is easy to install. It is also easy to read, as the business end is inside the Œbator and the reading end is outside. The reservoir is easy to refill without opening the incubator. It doesnıt take up valuable floor space in the Œbator.

Cons: Most of the things I list here are really minor annoyances ­ I just thought there was room for improvement or small fixes for things.

• The digital thermometer display is small ­ because of the tilting of the cabinet, it is difficult to see if you have placed the incubator in a small or dark space, like a closet or cabinet.
• The digital temperature display is in Celsius, which may be a little disconcerting to those unfamiliar with it, but the instructions provide a conversion chart. Another handy conversion tool Click Here
• The size and configuration of the water pockets made it a little difficult to increase humidity above the pocketsı maximum capacity. There are four small air vents on the bottom side of the incubator, which mean that if you try to increase the humidity by overfilling the pockets, it drains right out of the Œbator. I raised the hatching humidity by draping a clean washcloth so that it dipped into the water pockets. This increased the surface area beautifully without dripping out (be sure not to cover the vent holes)
• The wet bulb humidity reservoir runs out of water every couple of days ­ not critical, but if youıre taking continuous readings it gets a little old.
• One problem I had with laying the eggs on their sides (but not exclusive to the Brinsea) was that with very round eggs, two chicks were mis-oriented and had their heads and beaks in the small ends of the eggs, and they died in the shell. If I would have set them vertically during incubation instead, they would have pipped correctly.
• The cradle fits rather tightly in the notch in the base. This causes a slight ³clicking² noise as the filled incubator turns. I solved this problem by rubbing the surface of the cradle peg with a pencil (graphiteıs a great dry lubricant ­ no WD-40 oily mess). Solved the clicking instantly.

~Conclusion~ The main complaint Iıve heard about this incubator is its cost. Well, when you consider the quality, it is remarkably inexpensive. For example, compared to other incubators in its price range, such as the Lyons Roll-X, thereıs no comparison. The Brinsea beats the pants off it in terms of thermal insulation, quality control, and egg-size flexibility. My only disappointment is that I should have purchased the Octagon 40 to hold more eggs!

Overall, I had a great experience with this incubator.

We have a Brinsea Octagon 20. It is a UK company, but they now have a US branch.

The design is unique in several features:
"Egg turning is effectedby rotating the whole cabinet through 90ş. This can be done manually by turning the incubator on its own three position base, or fully automaticallywhen mounted in the self-turning cradle."

You take the incubator out of the cradle for hatching.

It has "heat bars" in the cover.

It is more expensive that the styrofoam incubators.

We felt it was the best design for us becuase of the self turning feature and that you could use it for a variety of egg sizes, but we haven't actually used it yet, but are eagerly awaiting our first hatch and will let you know the results.

Here's the results...

Our first try at incubation was a dud, but not too suprising as it was just too early and the Feb/March warm spell (we lost all our snow here in MN!) sent everything into layer mode.

We have just completed our second try at incubating guinea eggs with better success. We have 2 keets and three more have pipped. The eggs are still pretty early for guineas though so I didn't expect a lot more than that even though we set 34!

The incubator was wonderful to work with. The temperature stayed constant and the bars that you use to seperate/hold the eggs worked extremely well so that the different sized eggs could be held securely without wasting space.

The auto turn cradle was nice too. We're going to try some chicken/duck/goose eggs next to see how it handles them.

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