Incubator Chinese No name JN 48 Manual

Mark

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I wonder if you could try adjusting the heating element shut off - see point 7 on page 3 of the manual?
Incubator Chinese No name JN 48 Manual

If adjusting the settings above fails, and you never adjusted the factory settings initially yet the unit overheated out of the box then it's a faulty unit and I would personally return it demanding a new one.

These units (as you correctly say) are supposed to be factory set to around the basic correct temps for egg incubation and only minor adjustments should ever be necessary. Once you start chasing big temp changes either way up or down it's no good. In my case, when my unit eventually died I had to keep winding the temp up to keep it stable but in the end the heater element just packed it in...

BTW, I recommend placing these incubators into a separate insulated box or insulating it in some way in order to help the machine not work so hard to maintain temps and this will prolong the life of the unit.

I have just purchased another cheap Chinese made incubator a JN-448 on eBay here and I'm ensuring I use extra insulation around the unit this time! Two nights ago I had a 64% hatch rate of quail eggs and the temps are remaining very stable I'm hoping to get more life out of this unit by looking after it.
 

Ann

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I'm sorry to hear of your troubles with your Janoel. I agree with Mark. If you can't get it working ship it back to the seller. They don't want a bad rating so they should not have a problem with replacing the unit or refunding your money.
Mine is holding out so far (fingers crossed) I have one chick unzipping now at day 19. I always seem to have an early bird :)
Next spring I will insulate with styrofoam. I think that is the way to go with these hard plastic units. I really like the ease of cleanup and sanitizing though. Better then the foam inky's.
Good luck, keep us posted on the outcome! Ann
 

Shawn S.

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Thanks Mark and Ann.

Mark, I did try playing with the HD and HU settings. The manual doesn't really say what to do. Unless. Was doing something wrong, it didn't change anything.

I don't think I have much choice but to send it back unless the seller can just send a new thermostat/controller. I looked inside at the current one to see if there were any loose wires but everything was good.

I was looking forward to using it especially since it came with the styrofoam enclosure like you were saying that the plastic enclosure sits in.

I have always had success with my old Hovabator. 90+ % every time but I was very preoccupied with the thermostat and constantly making adjustments to maintain the temp. I was hoping that an all digital thermostat might take away some of my need to attend to it so much.
 

Mark

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I have always had success with my old Hovabator. 90+ % every time but I was very preoccupied with the thermostat and constantly making adjustments to maintain the temp. I was hoping that an all digital thermostat might take away some of my need to attend to it so much.
Yeah Shawn I was the same after my Hovabator died I got the JN48 and enjoyed the digital set and forget display. Hovabator now have the digital thermostats (I think) but they're probably more expensive.

I hope the retailer doesn't give you any grief returning the incubator - they shouldn't and you've definitely tried everything you could to get it functioning correctly so they can't hold that against you.

Good luck mate! Let us know how you go :)
 

Ben Jamin

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I have just today got my new no name 39 egg incubator and I am running it empty with just some water in 1 channel. At the factory default 38 it was rising way above like shawn's on my probe thermometer. I've dropped the temp setting on the unit to 34.4 but the temp is fluctuating about 2-3 degrees. I've dropped the HD and HU settings right down and I'm going to see if that helps (currently sitting in the cardboard box with holes cut in the front to access the bits and pieces).

It seems it takes a while for the thermostat to register the change and shut off the heating element. I'm wondering if the mass of eggs will assist with stabilising the temp when I put em in. I think it will be fine in the end as I'm using my own eggs which are piling up on the counter at the moment (getting close to 10 a day now). It's funny that I tried to do this in a foam esky with a light bulb and a bowl of water with a sponge in it. Because I have digital gauges I'm worried about a rise of 2 or 3 degrees. It is a bit exciting, though I kinda wished I had bought Mark's blue incubator. No humidity reading on the unit either but I'm just going to wing it unless I splurge on a new thermometer with RH.

I wish I knew what the Hd and Hu settings did.
 

Shawn S.

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Hi Ben,

I'm sorry but I'm not really able to help. I will say that my heating element never turned off. A thermometer inside confirmed it wasn't just a faulty digital display.

The seller sent a complete replacement. The new unit works perfectly.

Hopefully, you can sort your unit out without having to get a reply replacement.
 

Mark

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I found that running the incubator and leaving it overnight or a full day before readjusting helped me from chasing the temperature in circles.

Extra mass could make a difference to how fast the temp fluctuates forsure but it shouldn't drop or rise dramatically and at the end of the day empty or full an incubator is supposed to be designed to keep a constant temp over a long period.

Your incubator is supposed to be running at the correct and steady temp before the eggs go in so if yours is fluctuating a lot then it might be faulty?
 

Ben Jamin

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I left it overnight and it seemed a bit more stable when I went out this morning but not vastly. The probe still spiked whenever the heater came on.

When I lifted the lid I saw that my manual temp probe (poking through the box and unit from the side) was quite close to the motor on the egg turner, which being metal conducts heat well. I then Rotated the egg turner and low and behold my 2 readings became very closely aligned (im guessing .2 deg difference which could easily be the distance in the box). To top it off when the unit heats up it seems to do it slowly (which is probably more to do with me not seeing spikes on the manual probe).

Overall my confidence in the unit has increased dramatically and I'll be putting the eggs in shortly. Unfortunately it doesn't come with a count down timer so I will put a reminder into my phone to take the eggs out of the turner.
 

nsw85

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Hi, first can i say you have a great forum here and thanks for allowing me to sign up!

We are having our 2nd try at incubating eggs. The first time was unsuccessful thanks to the power company doing maintanence in the area.

We are at day 12 with 1 doz sussex and all seems to be going well except for keeping the water up to it.
I put approx 1200ml to fill 3/4 of the base which keeps the humidity between 50 and 60.
But that will dry out in approx 50-60hrs.

I am worried that it will dry out at end of day 20. What should i do
 

Mark

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Hi, first can i say you have a great forum here and thanks for allowing me to sign up!
Your welcome mate thank you for joining us!

We are at day 12 with 1 doz sussex and all seems to be going well except for keeping the water up to it.
I put approx 1200ml to fill 3/4 of the base which keeps the humidity between 50 and 60.
But that will dry out in approx 50-60hrs.

I am worried that it will dry out at end of day 20. What should i do

You seem to be doing the right thing by monitoring the humidity and keeping a close eye on your incubator so that's good.

I assume you mean when it's time to remove the egg turner and you give the water a top up in preparation for the hatching stage you are worried the water will fully evaporate just as the eggs are starting to hatch at around end of day 20?

Yeah, it's not a good idea to open the incubator whilst the chicks are hatching out but perhaps you could give it a quick top up on day 20 knowing that the water should last through to end of hatching? I don't think this will hurt. In my opinion, it would be worse to let it run dry just prior to hatching out than risk temp shock by removing the lid and adding water because a higher humidity at hatching is important so the chicks can peck through the shells. Personally, I would give it a quick top up on day 20 but of course that's up to you.

In the future, you could modify the side of the incubator (or somewhere) with a small hole which could be used to fill the water reservoir without having to remove the lid every time and just plug the hole with something like a rubber plug or a cork etc.. worth a thought maybe :think:
 

Ben Jamin

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My cheap incubator has 2 small (barely noticeable) holes on one side near the bottom. I'm only using the middle hole to top up every 2 or 3 days but will top up both holes when I take the eggs from the turner. I'm not measuring humidity levels though. This is my first time using an incubator so just sharing my experience.
 

Mark

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Email question:

Hey Mark,

Well, I have finally had my first Hatch! 31 baby fluffs out of 48. I checked the non-hatched, and found 10 developed chicks but they never hatched and the others 3 were cloudy inside, and the others were just yolks. But, this was my first hatch. I think I lost the 10 do to the temp for some reason would not come back up to 100 degrees like on day 15 then I managed to get the temp regulated again. My question is this. On this Incubator, we have the same one, there is a " Work" light, is that suppose to be illuminated or what? I cannot find anything about that light. Maybe I am having a really blind sighted moment, but I would like your advice! Also, I had to change my CA to .4 to get to 100 degrees. Thanks in advance hope to hear from you!

Thanks for contacting me and congrats on your excellent hatching rate 65% isn't too bad at all.

My understanding is the "work" light is supposed to be lit when the unit is on but if the unit is working then the led might simply be faulty.

It's not unusual for the unit to need calibration in order to get the temp setting correct so adjusting the CA slightly is correct and normal.

I will post your question on our forum here so others can see it.
 

Ben Jamin

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Every unit is different but the work light on mine only comes on when the temp drops below a threshold (pretty sure this is configured by 1 of the 2 settings HD & HU, you're not supposed to touch). It's basically the thermostat kicking in and turning on the heating element. Once it hits the upper threshold it clicks off and essentially coasts for a while. The temp inside will vary depending on when in this cycle you measure it at (mine peaks a little after the work light goes off).
I'd say it's a balance between keeping a constant temp and the longevity of the heating element. Turning the element on and off regularly and quickly will keep a more even temp but your element will fail sooner (IMO - I'm not an expert and have no real idea how those 2 variables actually work).
I'm wondering if the unhatched were just not given enough time (there can be a fair time lag between the first and last chick to hatch).
 

Mark

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Yes that's probably the case that the work light is tuned to the thermostat, which is probably why my unit didn't last very long because it was always working to keep the temp regulated hence I never saw it off! I should have insulated mine from the beginning...

Yes the unhatched could have been late but it's possible it was a temp change at the wrong time that halted development and hatching. Wrong humidity can also be a big factor too little and they can't get out of the shell and too much they can drown in the shells.
 

Ben Jamin

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Yeah you're right it could have been for any number of reasons.

One thing I found was that my unit gave the appearance of being really stable by not showing an accurate reading on the display. You could force the unit to show the actual temp registered by clicking the Set button twice. I thought that was pretty clever (to hide the true reading) but also a little annoying. It allowed me to watch the units sensor measure the rise in temp after the work light went on.
 

Mark

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Hmmm, that's an interesting feature! Perhaps two readings displayed in the next model would be more helpful - the desired setting and the actual setting... :rolleyes:

At the end of the day, for a cheap incubator it does work pretty well considering a person could spend serious money on a branded Brinsea etc and for a backyarder (like me) even though I do quite a lot of hatching it still might not be justifiable to fork out 1k or more really.
 

Sean61

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My counter resets to 159 when i press reset but the day counter will not zero out. Any suggestions?
 

Mark

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My counter resets to 159 when i press reset but the day counter will not zero out. Any suggestions?
That's odd - can you scroll the days back to zero rather than trying to reset?
 
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