A quick DIY incubator

The other day I was visiting a friend who was having a cleanup after an unsuccessful attempt at breeding lizards. They had no use for the item in the pic above which is a warming pad. It keeps a low but constant temperature for reptiles to lay on. It had the benefit of being adjustable too.

Immediately, my scheming mind jumped on a use for it at Ligaya. Being winter here in Oz, my ferments and bacteria cultures aren't really rocketing along. The cold weather doesn't kill them but drastically slows them down.

'If I can fit this into an insulated container...' I thought to myself...

Snagging it and some other useful bits, I returned home and looked for a suitable container. As luck would have it, I had an old Esky sitting in the shed. We call them Eskies here, but you might call the insulated cooler box something else where you are.

I was so happy with the simplicity of the build that I thought I'd share it here...

An old esky made an excellent insulated box for the project.

Cut the wires on the heater, leaving a couple of inches to play with.

Lay the heater in the bottom of the tub then mark a good place for a hole. I needed to trim the plastic on the heater a little.

Drill a hole in the esky wall and poke the wires through.

Connect the wires back with the rest of the lead. Just match the colours and join them however you want.

Seal up any gap in the hole and away you go.





It took a little playing with the controller to get a good temperature. I'll probably drill another small hole and stick a meat thermometer through the lid to show me the temperature inside. The temperature on full got up to 37°C and down to 20°C on the minimum setting. Eventually I found a setting that held a constant 24°C, which seemed about right.

That's it, I have a temperature controlled incubator for my apple cider vinegar, bokashi and whatever other ferment or culture needs a bit of warmth to see it through the cold weather.

Quick and easy!

Just a note: This warming pad was AC, so if you're going to have a go at making one of these incubators yourself, make sure you follow all the common sense rules that go with the territory.

This is #originalwork. The pics were taken by yours truly.

Check out how our garden grows on our blog, Ligaya.

We have a YouTube channel and a Patreon page that you might like to visit.

We're also members of the Homesteadersonline community. Click the image for the invite link to join us