The Moonshiner's Pepsi Cooler Incubator

It all started one day when I drove past a garage sale and saw this Pepsi cooler. I instantly thought incubator or hatcher. Luckily it didn't work, and was being sold as "Scrap, Make offer".
I got it for what was in my pocket: $7. It was pretty dirty and had some broken parts, so I started stripping and cleaning it. This is what I ended up with...
I didn't draw anything out or have a solid plan, just a rough idea of what I wanted. I'd had a Sportsman at one time, and had built a sportsman type before, so I knew the functioning parts and their placement. With the cooler I had to work within what I had, and I had the plan to run it opposite as most; putting everything in the bottom and circulating the air upward instead of downward.
First thing's first, I decided on using a false top and false side wall for the air to circulate through.
The cooler had a working fan for the compressor and a non working one mounted at the top. I removed the broken one and used the mounting bracket to mount the working one. Then I boxed it in.
Pic of the fan used...

And fan installed in box with grid. (Cooler is upside down in pic)...
Right side up now showing runners to attach false wall, and some wiring going it...
You can also see the lower vent. There's one at the bottom to pull fresh air in, and a second through the top above that fan, to exhaust air out. Both are 1 1/4" pvc pipe and fittings.
Next the false wall attached....
I planned to install 6 shelves and use Hovabator/Little Giant type egg turners, since I already have 3 of them.
The shelves are standard wire grid closet type. I bought 2 8' ones and the brackets at Lowe's. Forgot the price. Probably $40?
Brackets for shelves, plugs for turners, lower fan and heating element...
Plugs we're purchased from Wal-Mart.
$3 each. Used 4.

Fan was from Amazon for $17.99.

Heating element was from Amazon. 250 watts. Purchased 2 for $10.50.

Everything installed. Brackets to hold heating element were brackets from heating element in a Hovabator. I just had to drill them out a bit...
Installing shelves.
Wiring fans, heating element, and thermostat.
First test run. Everything worked and that element gets HOT...
With everything working I finished mounting everything securely and tied up all the wiring.
Purchased a couple more turners. About $50 each. Started more test runs while adding turners to check air flow...
Was using several little dial thermometers.
Purchased from Amazon. $5.50 each....

I was getting temps about 1° difference from top to bottom. The thermostat was one I salvaged from a broken Hovabator. It kicked on and off at about a 1° difference so from highest to lowest temps, from top to bottom, was about 2° give or take.
I moved on to air flow. There was plenty. In fact, I worried the lower fan might be pushing too much.
I had good flow, and the intake vent was pulling in quite a bit of air. The exhaust vent was pushing out really well too.
I wasn't sure if the bottom fan was gonna cause an issue or not, but decided to add a plug-in dimmer cord. That way I could adjust the air flow lower if needed.
Dimmer cord came from Amazon, and was$11.99. I've used these for years on my heat lamps in brooders. Makes it easy to adjust temps without having to move lights...

Installed...
Also around this time my helper (young son) was questioning and figuring out how this whole thing worked. Or how it was supposed to work. He was a little disappointed it was just an incubator and not a time machine.
The one thing he did not approve of was the small red indicator light that came with the thermostat. He thought it just wasn't big enough or bright enough to see. He had a ceramic light socket that he had torn out of an outdoor fixture. He decided we needed to add it with a regular bulb, to function as the indicator light.
That would be easy to see. When we opened the door and heat escaped, it would kick on. That would be a bonus light for when I was adding or removing eggs, etc.
We discussed options on where to mount it since I was getting limited on space. He quickly added that if we mounted it at the top, not only would it light up more but if it gave off heat, it might just add enough to the top to even it out with the bottom. A 1° or so difference.
Genius. I installed the light and he was exactly right. The bulb did even out the temps through out.

Next I moved on to humidity. Bought a few of these. Amazon $6.80 each...

My water pan is in front of the heating element of course, and my humidity level so far is about 5%- 7% higher at the bottom then the top.
Pics of hygrometers installed...
So this is where I'm at. Haven't tried hatching anything yet, but will soon. It seems to be working pretty reliable and maintaining temps well. It'll run about ten minutes or so, then the heating element will kick on for maybe a minute or so, then go back off. I like that instead of kicking on and off constantly or running almost constantly.
Well, I think that just about covers everything.
It was a fun project. I'll run some test hatches over the winter. Really looking forwards to next spring, so I can have it up and running full capacity, full time.
Hope you enjoyed the project.

EDIT to update...
After firing it up recently I had issues with the heating element. Although it worked perfectly at maintaining a constraint correct temperature throughout it failed on day two. I had a couple back up ones but they both also burned out within a couple of days.
Back to the drawing board.
I purchased a different type and am testing it. Will report back.

Purchased from Amazon. $19.99

End of season update.
After replacing the heating element with the one above the incubator ran flawless throughout the summer and into the fall.
I ended up hatching over 1,100 chicks with it so I'm very pleased with how well it worked.