Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

Bri. · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 6:12 pm Post subject: Fans for incubators.

Just been looking round at the range of fans available at dealers such as Maplin, and was wondering which would be best to use in a fridge conversion for an incubator. Would a simple 12V fan such as this
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=1806&doy=18m5

be OK or would a full 230V fan

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1810&&source=14&doy=18m5

be better ?

mark68 · Contributing Member Joined: 02 Mar 2007 Posts: 160

Very weird, I was thinking of asking the same question. How do you power the 12v version ??

jamie_s · Site Moderator Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 1963

i use 2 pc fans in my royal icubator and they do a wicked job,you need a lil converter to crank down the juice Wink

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Jas · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 11:24 pm Post subject:

Like Jamie says you will need a 230/12 transformer i think the 230 fans may be a bit to powerfull and create too much of a draft in there, after all you only want to circulate the air.
A few years back i had a large twin door converted drinks fridge and i used the 230v fan that was allready in there and i just fitted a inline dimmer switch so i could turn down the speed to suit what i needed. Very Happy

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Bri. · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 11:32 pm Post subject:

For the 12V version I was thinking of using a fixed voltage main adaptor like this http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=19160&doy=18m5

You can also buy these in most supermarkets.

Bri. · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 11:04 am Post subject:

THink I'll pop into Maplins on my way home from work tomorrow morning and see what I can pick up. I'll have a little experiment and see what I can come up with without electrocuting myself !!!

jon_g · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 11:33 am Post subject:

What I use for the larger incubators here is computer fans, i but a computer power supply (only $10), to get a continues and even flow of air around the incubator I use a few fans.

With the pc power supply you can put many fans on the one supply.

I also have a habistat fan and reverse stat on each incubator, when the retic and burmese clutches get close to the end of their incubation they create a huge amout of heat, I take this out of the incubator using the reverse stat and mini fan.

Also on the colubrid incubators they are useful as often the day time temp hovers around 28.

Hope that helps !!
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Bri. · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject:

Just took an old PC that we had in the shed apart. There are so many wires coming out of the power supply I wouldn't know where to start !!! Did manage to salvage the fans though Very Happy

Think I'll stick with my idea of just using a 12V mains power supply and fit a female plug onto the cable for the fan.

mark68 · Contributing Member Joined: 02 Mar 2007 Posts: 160

please let me know how you get on with the new project Bri.

Bri. · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 10:41 pm Post subject:

Yeeeaaahhh. it works !!!

Did exactly what I said above. Popped over to Maplins, bought an 80mm DC brushless PC fan. Fitted a simple 2.1mm female connector to the cable for the fan, and just plugged it into a variable voltage DC plug adaptor that I bought in ASDA.

It works a treat. No sparks, smoke or big men in firemans outfits smashing down doors !!!

Not sure how many fans could run off the power supply, or if there would be a drop in performance with each additional fan, but it works Very Happy