Sara and Andrew Cooke decided to take on a project by transforming their fridge into an incubator - with amazing results. This artcile describes their processes in doing this. If anyone has any questions or comments about this, please post them on the forums on this site and Andrew or Sara will answer them for you!

Images of the project are shown on this page to help you picture the steps in this article.

Any fridge, any size, working or not, can be converted into an incubator. A larder fridge is preferable as all the working parts are usually on the outside and there is no ice box to remove.

I obtained an old fridge from the local recycling centre, but there should be no trouble getting hold of one. I would like to point out that letting the coolant from the workings out is against the law, and if the liquid touches the skin or eyes it freezes on contact so be careful. I found that if you crush the pipes with a big pair of pliers or mole wrench either side of where you cut the pipes there should be no leakage, I would also say that many countries around the world are doing this in such high amounts, that if a small amount escapes I do not think it would matter.

You could on the other hand leave the workings in place and cut the wire off. Stripping out the workings makes the unit so much lighter so it is up to you what you do. Many older fridges don't contain any gas because the pipes have corroded and it has leaked out, also newer fridges don't contain the dangerous gas.

For This Project You Will Need The Following:

1. A Fridge.
2. A Heating Element And Thermostat. We used an Ecostat combined element and thermostat .
3. A tube of silicone sealant.
4. A piece of 6mm plywood to fit inside the back of the fridge .
5. Aprox 8 feet 25mmx25mm planed batten.
6. Some screws and some sandpaper.
7. Some gloss varnish.
8. A 4 inch shower fan without timer.

Step 1.
If you want to strip out all old fridge parts,now is the time to do it.
Take out internal shelves and crisper Don't throw them away.
Wash out fridge and disinfect completely.

Step 2.
Cut and varnish 2 lengths of batten to fit back of fridge, top to bottom, one in each corner. Cut and varnish 1 piece of batten to fit across the top at the back.
NOTE. No batten at the bottom. Cut the plywood to fit the back, snugly at the sides and 2 inches shorter than the height at the back.

Step 3.
Fix battens to the fridge using rust proof screws, leaving aprox 1 inch from the top of fridge to allow for drilled holes for cables.
Above the top batten drill holes the same diameter of cables, 1 hole needs to be big enough to thread the flexible element and thermostat probe in. 1 hole for the cable to the fan, another if you want a light or thermometer probe. Holes can be drilled later if you want.

Step 4.
Temporarily fix plywood leaving a 1inch gap at the top and bottom.
Hold the shower fan against the plywood and the top of the fridge in the middle, mark the plywood around the fan, take out the plywood and cut the hole for the fan out, refit and test for a tight fit, adjust if needed. When done sand the hole in the plywood both sides and all edges, then 3 coats of varnish to all edges and sides.
At this stage it is a good idea to pre-rewire the fan and silicone the cover where the cable connections are.

Step 5.
Next we will need to push the heating element and probe through the hole in the back, fix the heating element using the fixings provided,to the back so it will be behind the plywood.
Fix the plywood to the battens using rust proof screws.
Push the fan about 10mm through the hole in the plywood and screw to the top of the fridge, push cable through pre drilled hole in the back.
A plug needs to be put on the fan cable.

Step 6.
If the fridge has a removable top, take it off and drill 6, 6mm holes though the inside top for ventilation and 6, 6mm holes in the bottom of the fridge on the shelf above behind the crisper, not below the crisper, refit the top if removed. If the top does not come off, drill straight through top and do not obstruct vent holes.

The Incubator Is Now Complete!

We use 42 egg automatic egg turners from a hovabator incubator.If your own turner is used you will have to drill another hole for the cable, we have taken ours out of the side near the 2 double sockets. .

If you manually turn eggs you can use the wire shelves that were in the fridge or make some baskets from small weld mesh for hatching as well as setting. You can use the crisper for trays of water for humidity, we use the trays in the door for that.

We have fixed 2 double sockets to the left side of the fridge, , to take all electric plugs IE. Heater, Fan, Egg Turner, Candler Etc. Once every thing is ready plug in and set temperature. You are ready to go.

NOTES.

The fridge we used had glass shelves. We took the biggest 2 and siliconed them together, leaving the plastic edges on, which gave us an air gap, and made a double glazed window which we fitted in the front of the fridge .

This means we can observe the contents of the incubator without opening the door. If you don't have these, you can have a small double glazed unit made for just a few pounds to fit your project, we also rewired the light and door switch so when we open the door the light comes on.

A seperate light and switch can be fitted if you want.

We have also converted a small table top fridge as a separate hatcher, with the parts from a broken polystyrene hovabator incubator i.e.. the heating element, fan, wafer thermostat, we added a couple of 75mm computer fans run from a 12 volt supply and found it works perfectly. We made 2 baskets from fine welded mesh folded at the edges and used electric ties to keep the corners tight .

I have posted a few photos that show the insides of the fridges, you can adapt this information to suit your own needs using existing heating equipment or bought specially.

The ecostat flexible heating element combined thermostat plugs in straight to a socket and thermostat probe are all in one unit so just fit and plug in, the dial on the plug in unit adjusts the temperature and is simple to use.

I would be happy to answer any questions about the above article on the PekinBantams.com forum.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR OWN PROJECTS!!!

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