I have a Brower Tophatch (this years 2003 model - not the older one) and I have had great success with it. I like that it can be washed in the dishwasher because it is not styrofoam. Usually though I just hose it out in the laundry tub with a mild bleach solution and rinse rinse rinse. Then let it air dry in the sun. I also like the autoturner that comes with it. I use a towel over the top and that helps insulate and keep the temps steady. And I keep it in a closet in the "extra" bedroom - also to help with tep fluctuations.
My neighbor has a Brinsea and is happy with it (after she had dismal results with a Little Giant). However for me it was too expensive. Good Luck with whatever you pick!
My 2003 pictures show the insulating blanket that I sewed with chicken fabric, rather than buying the Brower insulating sleeve. Also, I have 2 weighted plastic eggs to fill in the space on one wedge as I didn't have enough duck eggs to fill it.
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I purchased my Brower Top Hatch in March 2002. I assumed I was receiving the newest model, the THI20, but having never seen one in person (I had only seen pictures), unknown to me, I was sent a THI10. I realized this after my unsuccessful attempts at hatching. They have apparently now completely stopped making these and for good reason. I have had several problem with it that can only be explained due to bad engineering and production problems. I placed my first set of eggs in the THI10 in early April. Prior to putting the eggs in, I let the incubator come up to temp and humidity for 3 days. And up until I put the eggs in, it did fine. I placed 42 chicken eggs in the incubator. This was filled to capacity. For the first few days the temperature varied little but by the 7th day I was getting wide temperature variations of 5 degrees or more. I recorded temperature as high as 102 and as low as 95 in one 24 hour period. I had placed the incubator in a room which stayed between 68-72 degrees at all time, with no drafts. My husband decided to take a close look at the incubator mechanism. We took all the eggs out and he proceeded to look it over. He discovered that the thermal sensor had actually been installed backwards facing into the tower instead of out into the incubator. He fixed this and we placed the eggs back in to complete the 21 days. We still were getting temperature variations so I placed bubble wrap around the outside and this seemed to help keep it between 98-100 degrees. We also had a problem with the turning rack riding up on the eggs and the eggs did not seem to get turned very well by the rack.
As to candling with the THI10, a brooder lamp with a 60 watt bulb and a box with a hole in it was far more effective. Candling is next to impossible with the THI10.
After 21 days, I had 11 chicks hatch. 12 of my eggs showed no growth, probably infertile. The rest showed growth to varied degrees. 11 chicks from 30 fertile eggs is not a good hatch. Due to other circumstances, I was receiving 18 more eggs. I decided to give it another try. I sanitized the Top Hatch which was very easy to do, brought it up to temp and humidity, and placed the eggs in. Again for the first few days it did fine. I still had the bubble wrap on. I got one week into incubation when I realized the plastic tower in the middle of the incubator was starting to melt. I immediately shut it off and got my husband to look at it. He was able to move the light bulb out of the tower enough to stop the melting.
I put the eggs back in and proceeded with the incubation. After two weeks, I discarded the infertile eggs and was left with what looked to be 10 growing peeps. I was very happy. BUT that very same night, the light bulb in the THI10 blew. I replaced in within 10 mins but to my shock it no longer flashed on and off as it had done previously. This flashing on and off was the temperature controlling mechanism for the incubator. The light bulb simply stayed on and was heating the incubator up to high temperatures. The highest I recorded was 104. I am hoping my thermometer was wrong. I had to finally unplug it and get another incubator to finish this hatch, which may already be dead due to excessive heat. I will know the result in a few days. All in all, I was very disappointed in this incubator.
I contacted Brower and they are sending me one of the newer models THI20's in trade for what we now know to be my THI10.
When I receive the THI20 and put it thru a couple of hatches I will report on that. I hope it is better that the THI10. And thanks to all of this, I now own a Little Giant Still Air incubator which I will also report on.
I purchased a Brower Top Hatch TH120 incubator in March, 2001, from Wings N Things Hobby Farm (great prices and nice people).
The first TH120 I received apparently had a thermostat problem, and I could not get the temperature to stabilize. I returned it without a problem, and had another shipped out as a replacement.
The incubator was very easy to clean there was some residual manufacturing oil and debris on it, so I put all the parts except the motor base into the dishwasher. Very simple, clean, and efficient. I really like this feature. I noticed the incubatorıs turning motor was very loud at first, much louder than a running refrigerator. As the gears broke in over the course of a day or so, the noise lessened considerably, though itıs still a tad louder than a fridge.
For temperature and humidity control, I used the glass thermometer that came with the bator in conjunction with a digital thermomether/hygrometer I purchased from a scientific company Technika - for $35. I laid it across the turning rack per Browerıs instruction booklet, as I did the glass thermometer. Itıs a little on the awkwardly large size, so I helped support it by stringing a wire between the two bars. As with all thermometers, there is a possibility of inaccuracy, so I have decided to use the glass thermometer as a base mark and check it with the digital. Absolute accuracy in humidity is not as important as absolute accuracy in temperature, so Iım happy with the ease of use and donıt mind its standard deviation of 6%. These take up room in the bator, but Iım not hatching a great many eggs.
After reading Macıs comments (on previous page) on its temperature sensitivity, I copied his method by Scotch-taping bubble wrap to the outside of the bowl, bubble side in, and surrounded the whole thing with an open topped box. I set it up and let it run without touching the thermostat over the weekend. I kept a recording thermometer near the bator, and checked it every few hours, and checked its overnight low in the morning. Although I felt the location was in a stable environment, it still varied too much ranged from 63.8 degrees to 74.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The TH120 followed these temperatures practically to a tenth of a degree. I relocated the bator to a closet in the guest bedroom, minus the cardboard box surround. The ambient temps range from 66.2 degrees to 67.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and the bator temps are now relatively stable at 99.5, with an occasional drop to 99.0 for about an hour or so.
~Several weeks later~
I am disappointed in the TH120ıs performance. I had none of my twelve eggs hatch. I think the main problem was temperature instability. If the TH120 is in a location which fluctuates even a couple of degrees, the incubator will mirror this change. With the solid-state thermostat, it should sense when the temperature is too high and turn itself off, and likewise, sense when it is too cold and remain on for a longer period of time. This DID NOT HAPPEN. The light blinked on and off at the same rate whether too hot, too cold, or just right. Therefore, I had temps which were much, much too high and much, much too low and alternately toasted or froze the embryos. I had a recording thermometer on the outside of the incubator the temperature swings over a 24 hour period were between 6 and 8 degrees. Rather than adjust the incubator temperature (difficult) I tried to stabilize the environment I put a desk lamp in the closet with the incubator and turned it on when the outside temperature dropped, like at night. This did smooth out the temps somewhat, but I had only two eggs out of twelve that even developed embryos.
Another thing which may have added to the temperature fluctuation was the fact that I had so few eggs in the incubator. The bator is designed to hold 48, and I only had 12 (six, after I put six under a broodytoo late to even develop embryos they had already been toast). Eggs in the bator respond to temp fluctuations much more slowly than the air surrounding them, and a large number of them will hold a more steady temp than just a few. It might be worth it to try to put a few partially filled water balloons in the bator along with the eggs if you only have a few eggs to hatch. The water in the balloons should work as a heat reserve against temp flucuations.
On the candling wih it: When I took it out of the box and put it together I kinda scratched my head-bone and was wondering how in heck you candle with it...I tried it, but it really didn't work well. I tried first with light tinted eggs, and didn't see much. With the dark-shelled Marans eggs I needed a more focused light. I ended up using a smallish cardboard box with a hole cut out in it and put it on a 75 watt table lamp like a lampshade. That worked much better.
Conclusion? I really wanted to like this incubator, and still think itıs a good one IF and ONLY IF you have a location that will not change more than two degrees no matter what the weather. If I had known just how sensitive the TH120 is to temperature swings, I may not have purchased a Top Hatch but rather gone for a bator with more reliable insulation. Call me irrational, but I think an incubator should be able to handle a few degrees of temperature change over a 24 hour period. Brower may want to change its design a little if they made a Top Hatch with a double-walled construction (like your average insulated plastic coffee mugs) this bator would be outstanding.
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