# Incubator frustrations. Little Giant still air.



## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

I have a still air 9200 little giant and cannot get the temperature to stabilize.
It's about 5 years old, maybe used 2x and the company told me they quit making
them 3 years ago, so probably can't get parts anymore for it. I would like to use
it, but don't dare as the temps go too high. I fought with it about a week now.
Should I try to get parts for it ? Does it have a wafer ? I am waiting on a call back
from the manufacturing company now.

Wednesday I bought a little giant 9300 still air with built in preset temp guage and
hygrometer. Perfect. I ran it about 6 hours and then put my tiny hen eggs in it.
Holding steady. I may go buy another one because now I have some duck eggs I
need to hatch. TSC has the best price so far I found on this unit.


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## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

I can't put a value on the "self-suffiency/DIY" aspect for you. That's your personal call and may make the difference. But from the purely utilitarian side, incubating eggs can be a PITA, requires keeping those noisy, sometimes aggressive roosters about the place, has the initial price of investment in equipment and possibly repairs/replacement (as you know), and has the risk of inefficiency and possibly complete failure of a batch. Keeping only about 2 dz layers at a time, I just order chicks from a hatchery every 3 - 4 yrs and let them deal with the hassle. For me, it's a wash on the expense side. If you keep a larger flock, then the multiple uses of the incubator over time may result in significant financial savings and balance the hassle & risks.


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

The duck eggs I am going to incubate came from a friend of mine. I had asked her to set aside some
for me earlier this spring. She only has khaki Campbell ducks, and plenty of males so I know they are
fertile. I only have 1 adult khaki female and 2 adult Muscovy females and I want more khakis. And so far, none of
my ducks have gone broody. So the incubator is part of my future plans.
I do have 12 young khakis under 2 months old, but not sure yet how many are male / females.

I have the tiny chickens and I want more of them. None of them have gone broody. They are in cages
and I rotate the male every other day between them. The lady I got them from currently has none she
wants to sell but I was able to get hatching eggs from her today. I only have the 6 hens, and 1 rooster in this
group. I have at least 3 people who want to buy what I have but I won't sell these as they are my breeders.
I have the one incubator running now with the tiny eggs from my hens. I can't buy this size bird from any
hatchery. So I need to make more of them with what I have. They are few and far between. So I have
some, my son has a trio, and the lady we got them from. I have never seen any others this size locally.
So yes, in my situation, I need to incubate. I think my son is going to loan me 2 of his machines, so I
don't have to buy another one.


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## Alder (Aug 18, 2014)

Check on Amazon for a replacement thermostat. They probably have them, or one of the hatchery sites.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

ladytoysdream said:


> I have a still air 9200 little giant and cannot get the temperature to stabilize.
> TSC has the best price so far I found on this unit.


Some times if you will turn the thermostat knob gently back and forth completely about 10 to 20 times it will clean the carbon off the inside of the rheostat and make it more steady---easier to adjust.

The incubators that TSC has been selling are upsetting a lot of people--look at the reviews----the built in thermostat/meter is off on a lot of them so if you use one double check it with a know working thermometer. Good Luck.


☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 2 out of 5 stars.
· 15 days ago 
* Don't buy *
Spend more money and get a better one. After buying this as a second incubator I realized it's just insulated as well as others and that make a huge difference for keeping the humidity consistent.



✘ No,
I do not recommend this product.
0 people found this review helpful. 0 people did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*











♂

Georgia, United States


Review 1

Votes 0

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 4 out of 5 stars.
· 16 days ago 
* good for quail eggs, bad for chickens eggs *
i have hatched over 100 quail out if this thing in in one hatching session, it works great for them but I have tried to hatch chicken eggs out of it but only have a 20% hatch rate. the controls do not work as well as you would think so be ready for that



✔ Yes,
I recommend this product.
0 people found this review helpful. 0 people did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*











♂

Arkansas, United States


Review 1

Votes 0

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 stars.
· 21 days ago 
* Unsatified *
On my second incubator and neither one keeps an accurate temp. 2 of my first 40 eggs hatched. Temp was reading much lower than machine said.



✔ Yes,
I recommend this product.
0 people found this review helpful. 1 person did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*











♂

Lewisburg tn


Review 1

Votes 0

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 stars.
· 22 days ago 
* Junk *
Temp spikes all the time read out is wrong will never recommend this.



✘ No,
I do not recommend this product.
0 people found this review helpful. 0 people did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*











♂

Collegeville, PA, United States


Review 1

Vote 1

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 stars.
· 24 days ago 
* Reads wrong temp! *
I am very upset with this incubator. I have been hatching chicks for 3 years now for my 4-h project. This year I decided to finally buy my very own incubator. At first every thing was fine- at least I thought it was. All of the eggs that my club purchased for this project were from the same place. On the day they were suppose to hatch none of mine hatched. I decided to check the temperature of the incubator with 2 other separate thermometers because another person doing the project had the same incubator as me and her chicks weren't hatching as well. When the incubator was telling me 99.5 it was actually around 96-97 degrees Fahrenheit. Only 3 chicks pipped THREE days late and were so weak. They were not even strong enough to hatch on their own so I had to help them. Although they r alive (2days ago they hatched) their abdomens aren't fully closed and they r still pretty weak. I had 28 eggs in the incubator and all were alive on day 18 of incubation. I was only able to rescue 3 super weak chicks 



✘ No,
I do not recommend this product.
1 person found this review helpful. 0 people did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*











♂

Longview, TX, United States


Review 1

Votes 0

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 5 out of 5 stars.
· a month ago 
* Excellent!!!! Love it! Super Easy!! *
I bought 2 of these last year and raised a lot of poultry in them. They are super easy to set up and to work. I just got back home from purchasing my 3rd one as I am expanding on hatching out more eggs. I would highly recomend this brand. It also witll take the turner, I purchased two egg turners as well.



✔ Yes,
I recommend this product.
0 people found this review helpful. 0 people did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*



♂

Grayson ky


Review 1

Votes 2

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 5 out of 5 stars.
· 3 months ago 
* Really grate as far as keeping temp *
I'm really happy with it I put 26 eggs in it and had a 100% hatch rate



✔ Yes,
I recommend this product.
2 people found this review helpful. 0 people did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*











♂

Summerville, SC, United States


Review 1

Votes 4

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 stars.
· 4 months ago 
* Killed all of my eggs *
i bought this incubator after reviewing a few others. It worked for about 3 weeks, and then one day I checked on the eggs and found that the thermometer read 75 while the one I added to the egg box read 98 degrees. Every single egg was cooked to death. My literal nightmare.



✘ No,
I do not recommend this product.
4 people found this review helpful. 4 people did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*











♂

Washington, United States


Review 1

Votes 7

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 stars.
· 7 months ago 
* Waste of money *
We set eggs in this five separate times with the assistance of a veteran breeder. Three times they started to develop. Twice they made it to lockdown. Once, one egg tried to hatch. That means we wasted over five dozen of our own fertilized eggs. We will not be buying from this brand again.



✘ No,
I do not recommend this product.
7 people found this review helpful. 2 people did not find this review helpful.
*Helpful?*











♂

Pope, MS, United States


Review 1

Votes 7

…
☆☆☆☆☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 stars.
· 10 months ago 
* No Good, absolute junk! *
This is the second Little Giant, I have owned. The first one was great, but this new digital style is garbage. First off the digital gauge is completely wrong. The heat must be terribly inconsistent throughout the incubator. With the old style we had consistent hatches, but a cat got into my garage and destroyed the incubator when I wasn't using it. I bought this new style and it's been a total failure. On the 1st set of 41 eggs we had three hatch. I filled it again and watched it like a hawk and ended up with 7. I used a separate thermometer inside the incubator with both hatches. I had to set the digital temp to 103 degrees F to get the thermometer to 99 both times. I'm guessing that thermometer was not completely accurate either because the ones that did hatch were 2 days late both times.



✘ No,
I do not recommend this product.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

ladytoysdream said:


> Should I try to get parts for it ? Does it have a wafer ?


You should be able to look at it and see the thermostat.
Wafers are pretty obvious and are simple to replace.


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## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

They are tricky.....especially still air, so I've read....glad I have a fan.
I added a larger knob to make very small adjustments _much_ easier,
then wait like 2-3 hours before adjusting again,
and run it for 2-3 days before adding eggs and wait at least 4-6 hours for temps to stabilize.
And never trust the thermometers on the styro units,
I check all my therms against a human mercury oral thermometer.
Used a buddy's incy (to hatch for them) this time as they were having trouble.
Thermometer on unit(which clearly says 'for reference only') was 6-8 degrees off.


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## Alder (Aug 18, 2014)

Agreed. I finally went to a fan model with a turner and electronic controls. But I still check the temps 2x/day and have a thermometer inside with the eggs to check against.


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## Clem (Apr 12, 2016)

I've found that if you cover the bottom of the incubator with pea gravel, or marbles, the mass will hold the heat steadier. I also discovered that the little stick handle thermometer was really difficult to work with, so I got one of these

Then turn the stick thermostat all the way up, plug it into the digital controller, set the low temp at 99.5, cutoff at 100.5, pit the probe at the top of the eggs, and never worry about it again.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

Alder said:


> Check on Amazon for a replacement thermostat. They probably have them, or one of the hatchery sites.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

before you give up or buy any new parts,

I have used up to 8 of those at a time.

your problem is probably in the seal between the top and bottom sections.

what I do is:
1. remove all water and run the bator on high until there is no more humidity in it. usually will read about 30%.

2. still with no water in it. take duct tape and run it all around the seal. I use 4 pieces of about 17 inches each to make it easier.

3. now set your temperature to about 100F.

4. when it stabilizes, you are ready to set your eggs.

5. set the eggs, add a little water and tape the joint again,. 
the temperature will go down. don't worry about what it stabilizes at. 
the eggs will hold the temperature down for a long time until they get up to the mean temperature in the bator.

7. and maybe this should be #1.
DO NOT Turn your temperature up at any time.
The 100F is as high as it will ever go if the humidity drops.
If it reaches 100F, just ad water and the temp should go back down.

....jiminwisc.......


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

I appreciate all the responses. Thank you 
I have not set up a second incubator yet. I got a old one from my son yesterday.
I probably will have to buy another new one.
I have 2 batches of eggs to put in. One is the duck eggs and one is the tiny eggs.
Will update as I make progress here.


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## Forcast (Apr 15, 2014)

I have used the one you have for over 20 years I have replaced the waffer ones. Go on line a find the direction s for your and youll have a good hatch.


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Well I did break down and buy another new incubator. Just set it up today and got 52 ducks eggs in it. 51 are khaki Campbell and 1 Muscovy. The Muscovy was mated by the khaki male so the baby will be a mule. I was just curious to see what it will look like. I know if it is a female it will lay eggs, but they won't be hatchable.

I have the old bator plugged in, and heating currently. Will check it soon and  hopefully I can get it to temp and it will hold steady. I think it is a hova bator. It does have a wafer. That one will get the tiny egg group.

The first one, the 9300 is holding steady. That one has 40 tiny eggs in it.

So progress. Plan is to sell some ducklings, and then keep a breeding group here year round. I am thinking about 10 adult females would be a good size group. I will have to find some egg customers who like duck eggs. My current chicken egg customers only want chicken eggs.

I may regret hatching so many duck eggs but will be thrilled if half of them hatch. Some of the eggs are older ones.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

ladytoysdream said:


> Well I did break down and buy another new incubator.


What kind of incubator did you get?


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

The second new one is also a little giant 9300 still air with built in preset temp guage and hygrometer.
TSC has them for $ 50. The Country Max farm store wanted $ 60. The first one I caught on sale for $ 35.
They won't clearance sale because they are a year round item the store sells.
I really hope they stay working well. I have them on a table. So they can't get bumped by the dog.

I really like the hova bators. The old one here is holding temp well. Turned it on last night.
I hope to get eggs in it today. I can't afford a new one of them though.

I used to own a 400 egg cabinet incubator. I sold it a few years ago. Just could not get the hubby to
help me. Now that I have ducks, he is more motivated. But I am the one who feeds them and cleans
their area. Never ending. Good thing, I enjoy my birds.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

ladytoysdream said:


> The second new one is also a little giant 9300 still air with built in preset temp guage and hygrometer.
> TSC has them for $ 50. The Country Max farm store wanted $ 60. The first one I caught on sale for $ 35.
> They won't clearance sale because they are a year round item the store sells.
> I really hope they stay working well. I have them on a table. So they can't get bumped by the dog.
> ...


Just read the reviews on that incubator---most everyone I know that has bought one----hate them, meters read wrong, I have a friend that bought 4 in one day, loaded all 4 down in the next few days----None hatched 3 weeks later----she was so mad because some of the eggs she payed a lot for, but she Never put another thermometer in them to check how accurate the built in ones were---she figured they were new and should be right----Wrong. Don't trust the built in meter, read the reviews.

I know I am a man, but I never asked my wife to help me. She did go and help me load about every 10x10ft chain-link dog kennels I bought(a lot of them)---With-in one year I went from 30 chickens and 3 chicken pens to 67 pens and had over 1200 chickens on the farm at one time, from 1 Styrofoam to several Styrofoam, then to eventually 5 cabinets(never used the 5th one) hatching a little over 6000 chicks in a little over a year. Even though I stopped hatching for over a year I am around 10,000 hatched since late 2014. I went from 1 brooder to over 20, buying chicken feed by the 20 bag pallets every 2 weeks and buying bulk corn by the ton and grinding all of it. I was busy---LOL. It was my Hobby and I just never asked her to help with it other than her selling some already gathered chicks to someone that was coming to pick-up if I was doing something else. The bird-flu scare 2 years ago about shut me down and I hated it. Finally had a new Auction to open 3 months ago and I have hatched and sold a decent amount of chicks in the last 3 months----but again we were "scared" by another bird-flu deal in the states close to me----so even though that seems to be past---I am cautious about getting back heavy into hatching/raising right now.

I said all this to say---if your husband will give you a quick hand with the heavy lifting----you can do the rest. (or go get your feed where they will load it, get a neighbor hood young boy to unload it for a couple dollars Or get you some 5 gal buckets and unload the bags by pouring/scooping what you can lift into the buckets----I have seen little ants make huge mounds---one grain of dirt at the time) If you can sell a few to start with, put that money back into your "hatching business" sell some more, hatch some more, buy something else you need, sell some more----LOL----Its Nice to have a Hobby that pays for its-self!! I am a Firm Believer that we are Not getting any younger and we should Never NOT pursue our dreams because we feel we can not do them alone----instead, I feel we should be figuring out How to do it ourself/alone with Min help if that is what it takes to reach our dreams. Staying Motivated is the Answer.


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Fire-Man said:


> I am a Firm Believer that we are Not getting any younger and we should Never NOT pursue our dreams because we feel we can not do them alone----instead, I feel we should be figuring out How to do it ourself/alone with Min help if that is what it takes to reach our dreams.


You understand , thank you 

I can still lift the 50 pound bags of grain off my truck and carry them over to my covered containers that I keep the grain in.
I grew up on a poor dairy farm and am the oldest of 4. Dad always had a can do attitude. I used to say I was Dad's right arm man. My dad lost his lower right arm as a teenager when his Uncle accidently shot him when out hunting in the swamp.
So if Dad wanted to tear down and fix a tractor, that's what we did. We had a assortment of critters including chickens.
And Dad sure loved the auctions. He would go to one every week. So I carry on his ways. ( Thank you Dad )


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Okay. First update.
The first hatch was due yesterday. In the new LG 9300. Nothing happened.
So today I started opening up the older eggs first to see what went wrong. 
43 eggs total, and all were unfertile. Only one had blood in it. The rest
were just the yellow yolks. These were all my own eggs.
Son is going to get me another tiny rooster. I feel the incubator did what
it was supposed to do. Stayed on temperature correctly.

So next hatch is due next week. Again all tiny eggs. A few are mine, four came
from my son's tiny hens and the balance came from my friend. Seems so some
of them should hatch. That group is in the old incubator from my son.


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## Forcast (Apr 15, 2014)

Sounds like you got it worked out. Get a new rooster. And give it a go!


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

You also might want to learn to candle eggs. That way you won't waste all that time incubating infertile eggs. Or risk having an egg explode in the incubator.


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

I went to the auction today with my son and his family.
I ended up bringing 3 tiny roosters home. 
I probably will keep 2 and sell 1.
One of them better be fertile.
One is a Japanese dwarf.
I also plan on doing some candling this next time around.
Live and learn.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

years ago I used to run 8 LG and Hova's.
duct tape is your friend to help keep the temp steady. take four pieces of duct tape. each one as long as the LG is wide. tape the crack where the top sets on the base. this is a major place for air to leak out.

I had auto turners in all of mine.
I added water through one of the small holes in the top of the cover. I used a funnel with a 8" piece of plastic tubing taped to it.

this way I never had to open the bator until it was time to take the eggs out of the turner for lockdown.

.........jiminwisc........


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## Guest (May 21, 2017)

[email protected] said:


> years ago I used to run 8 LG and Hova's.
> duct tape is your friend to help keep the temp steady. take four pieces of duct tape. each one as long as the LG is wide. tape the crack where the top sets on the base. this is a major place for air to leak out.


I found that wrapping thick strips of batting around the sides of Styrofoam incubators greatly helps to stabilize the temps.

But these two that I painted with epoxy are holding the temps without being wrapped! I am very happy with them! I will always treat Styrofoam incubators this way in the future.


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Update.
So the old incubator hatch is due this Friday. The tiny eggs.
I moved them over to the first LG 9300 on Saturday because my son
needed the old one because he had bought guinea eggs at the auction.
So my son stopped today, and candled eggs for me.
Out of 43 tiny eggs, 29 have a chick in them. The other 14 were NOT fertile.
We broke them and all the insides were yellow yolks. So that is 32 % Duds.
So how does one figure the hatch percentage ? Out of the good eggs ?
So if all 29 fertile eggs hatch and live ...is that 100 % ?

Duck eggs, I lost about 1/3 of them. The ones that were duds were all the
Muscovy eggs. Must be my khaki did not get the job done. And his mate,
her egg was not fertile either. I had it marked with her name.
So that it also a LG 9300 and that is due next week.
Humidity on both is about 51 to 54 percent.

*You can color me egg-cited *


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

The hatch started yesterday about noon when I saw the first chick out.
I had to open the incubator and take out 12 this morning. They were rattling
around and jostling the other eggs. . 3 more still drying off in the incubator
and a few more pipping. So far, hatch is just over 50 %.
Humidity was high 70's and did hit 80 %. Only thing I did was make sure
the wells were full of warm water when I did the lockdown on day 18.
And finally one of my tiny hens went broody and I was able to give her
7 eggs her size yesterday afternoon. She is holding the nest real tight 
Puffs right up when I put my hand next to her. She has a wooden nest
box in a wire cage by herself.

I am thinking of giving the new chicks some hard boiled eggs.
Is it the white and the yolk both ? Or just the yolk smashed up ?


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## Guest (May 27, 2017)

ladytoysdream said:


> I am thinking of giving the new chicks some hard boiled eggs.
> Is it the white and the yolk both ? Or just the yolk smashed up ?


Chop them up, whites and yolks both.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

hi all,
you probably know this, but muscovy are not derived from the mallard.
any eggs hatched from a cross of any other duck and a muscovy will be a "mule".

In my mind I think the muscovy reminds me of a cormorant .

.....jiminwisc.....


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

I ended up with 16 tiny chicks. I had 6 more that should have made it. 3 started piping but
did not get out and 3 more had fully formed chicks. So I figure hatch rate at 72 %.
16 out of 22 fertile ones. 
I bought some cheesecloth today and thinking of putting it under the duck eggs due
to hatch Wednesday. I am also thinking of buying a fan online.

Jim, yes I do know about the Muscovy cross and it equals mule. I had the duck eggs
candled the other day and all eggs in the bator now, should be all pure khaki campbells.


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