Reviewing the rcom 20 incubators we believe you will get a much longer life from your humidity unit if you were to use ionised water, however we have found over the last 6 months that brita filtered water also aids the humidity unit to work better longer term as we found a low limescale build up.

Please remember to remove limescale after every incubation to also aid the life of your humidity unit.

Hello, all sorry for the long absence again but it is just so hectic. The number one question at the moment is what are the settings for the rcom incubators for egg types.

I suggest the following settings for Duck, Geese and Chicken Eggs

Humidity 45% for all turning days and for the last two days (non-turning days) I suggest 62%, i have found these to give the best results overall.

I leave the temp setting at 37.5c throughout the whole incubation period.

I hope this helps.

Yes we are about 1 month away from the launch of this new incubator and are very excited indeed. We have been involved since the concept of this new r-com egg incubator. This was designed to have the big 3 off temperature control, auto turning and humidity control at a price that make the R-COM brand more available to all incubation enthusiasts.

Please see our site for full details under Suro Incubator.

From the 25th April 2008 the new range of rcom incubators will be back in stock. These are the incubators with the new humidity system. We will also be getting new stock of the RCOM Pet pavilion and RCOM Bird Pavilion range.

I am biased so please try to balance my comments:-

Both Brinsea and RCOM have upgraded their incubators this year, both are supposed to be improvements :-

Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance, the new octagon 20 incubator. This has been rebuilt with a new heating system and therefore easier to see inside the incubator, also with a new digital readout with push button control. So is it an advance on the old model? Well maybe, it is easier to use but I still find the fan so close to the eggs a real pain at hatching time and filling up the humidity groves are still fiddley. I gave the old Brinsea 5-10 and would rate this 5.5/10 maybe more if the fan was further away from the eggs at hatching time. Price from £199.99 to £224.95

There is another model in this range Octagon 20 Advance EX this is as above with humidity control, this does indeed help with filling those annoying humidity groves but still does not take away from fan location. Price from £275.00 to £299.95.

RCOM 20 Standard this has also been upgraded it now has a complete rebuild on the humidity system, it now works on a a small heater unit in the water resivoir which raises the water temp to aid evaporation which is moved round by a gentle fan. It has full digital temp control as before and full autoturning. Price from £209.99 to £249.99 (As it has full humidity control it rally jumps past the Octagon 20 Advance to the EX model but at £70-£90 cheaper is is a must choice.)

RCOM 20 Pro, this also has had an overhaul and also has the new heated humidity system but the whole menu function on this model has been fully upgraded to a new easy to use lcd screen. Within the menu you can choose various egg types and press a button and the incubator will do the rest for you. It knows what temps, how long to turn the eggs and then when to stop. It also knows when to raise humidity. A stunning incubator. The USB model comes with computer software which allows you to keep accurate egg records on screen. Prices from £299.99 to £369.99.

I highly recommend the RCOM above the Octagon models as in my view you get so much more for your money! Humidity controlled RCOM incubators from £209.99 or full AUTOMATIC ‘SMART BRAIN’ RCOM incubators from £299.99 leaves the others standing.

There is one more plus, the heating in the R-COM incubators is not directly in the egg section but gently wafter in through gentle vents ensuring hatching is much easier for the birds, yet powerful enough to keep very even temps.

If you have the budget go for the RCOM 20 Pro, if not the RCOM 20 standard will be a super incubator for you.

From early April 2008 our new range of r-com incubator will be available for sale, we are offering a brand new humidity system where instead of the sponge system the new RCOM 20 range will have a heater system ensuring a much more accurate and faster humidity system. None of the r-com incubators will have the old Brinsea adjustment hole in the back that caused so many problems with the old models. We will also be offering state of the art animal brooders known as r com pet pavilions, parrot and exotics brooders known as rcom bird pavilions and also a range of specialist r-com reptile incubators known as the Juragon range. They will also be available on www.r-com.co.uk at the same time.

What is the temprature for an old brinsea hatchmaker for incubation? The incubation temperature is the same for hens eggs at 37.7 centigrade or 100 farenheit the incubator model really does not matter. When to put water in the rings? Ok this is harder, it really depends on your enviroment so i would suggest getting a hygrometer as you should run about 40% - 45% for the first 19 days and 60% - 65% for the last 2 days. Should I turn the eggs once a day? To be honest no you should turn a minimum of 3 times a day ideally 5 or more. For this model place a X on one side of the egg and a O on the other side so you know you have turned all eggs each time. Hope this helps Clare

Humidity in an incubator is a very important issue - as it controls many things but what you need to do is to enable the chicks are the right size to escape the egg. The biggest and I mean biggest cause of eggs hatching in your incubator is humidity that is too high. Humidity for chicken eggs is 40-45% for 19 days and 60-65% on the last 2 days. If you have a still air incubator this is fine. Who still has a still air incubator? Not many so we mostly have moving air incubators (ones with fans in to ensure even temperaturs in the incubator). The problem with this is it gives false readings on hygrometers you may be using. None of the current incubation incubation books I have read have understood or explained this point and hence the incubators improve but hatching does not. I have however calculated humidity readings from the current hygrometer options and to get best hatchings I suggest. Still air incubators 40-45% for 19 days then 60-65% for next 2 days including hatching day. Moving air incubators (fan assisted) 28-35% for 19 days then 48-55% for next 2 days including hatching day.  Why is it different? Really it is not it is just the moving air is affecting the readings on the hygrometer. (Please not RCOM incubators are accurate moving air incubators and can be run at 40-45% and 60-65% as their set up reads where the air is not affecting the probe)