High-Accuracy Temperature & Humidity Sensor Kit for DIY Egg Incubators

Hobbyists building DIY egg incubators, as shown by their questions ("What's the best way to measure temperature in an incubator?") and discussions on sensor limitations ("I'm not sure if a DS18B20 or DHT22 is accurate and responsive enough"), often need more precise and reliable temperature and humidity monitoring than what standard DIY components can provide. This need is even more critical for applications like reptile sex determination, where "temperature needs to be very precise," and users struggle to find "an accurate, calibrated hygrometer to reference." A kit with pre-selected, high-accuracy temperature (e.g., TMP11x-class, as suggested by commenters) and humidity (e.g., SHT3x/4x-class) sensors, offered as a pre-calibrated module with clear integration instructions for DIY incubator setups, would meet the demand for better precision and reliability. This would improve hatch success and user confidence. The expected benefit: sales of specialized, high-precision sensor kits to the growing poultry and reptile incubation hobbyist market.

Origin Reddit Post

r/arduino

What do you use to measure temperature in an incubator?

Posted by u/hunkoys•05/29/2025

Keeping chicken/duck egg incubator's temperature below the limit is critical. I was wondering whether a DS18B20 or DHT22 is accurate and responsive enough for keeping the chamber temp within

Top Comments

u/rip1980

I was going to say 117 or 119....I'd go to 119 because it's somewhat "life" dependent if you really want to chase any drift up or down. [Also, this exists.](https://www.pcbway.com/project/sh

u/hunkoys

That's nice, hopefully the resistors are far enough away from the temp sensor and SHT45. I'm going to look into the 119s. Also, what do you think of the BME280 as a hygrometer and thermometer

u/triffid_hunter

Add [TMP112](https://www.ti.com/lit/gpn/TMP112) to your list. Also, max31855/max6675 work with thermocouples, not thermistors, which are *very* different components.

u/ResponsibilityNo1148

I use both a DS18B20 and a DHT22 in my incubators. The 18B20 is just so much more accurate for the eggs. BUT, with the resolution of 0.0625C, I’ve found you need to be really careful about yo

u/hunkoys

Dang! Thanks for the heads up. Have you tried making the values round to nearest divisible of 0.0625C? Maybe that could help. Or just round everything to the nearest tenth.

u/kampaignpapi

You could research what the commercial incubators use because it seems you're trying to replicate that otherwise you'll have to make a lot of compromises as a lot of these common sensors used

u/ResponsibilityNo1148

There are lots of ways to fix the problem once one understands it.

u/Nullroute127

Sounds like an old mini fridge would work. You get the ability to cool if your ambient is ever hotter than target, pre insulated. Just might have to open the door every so often for oxygen ex

u/hunkoys

I guess 0.1 is way to difficult to achieve. Natural incubation tends to have lower yields than in a controlled environment like an incubator on average. In my case, at least. You're right. T

u/hunkoys

For the humidity, I'm thinking DHT22 or BME280 or SHT. I haven't seen any comparison online with a control. I guess, it's just expensive to have an accurate calibrated Hygrometer to reference

u/Nullroute127

I don't know anything about incubating eggs, but I suspect your accuracy requirements are way too narrow for any practical reality. Nature doesn't need to guarantee 0.1 C precision for the e

u/Machiela

I would add one "small" detail - some reptiles hatch as male or female depending on exact egg temperatures, e.g. some turtles, crocodiles, New Zealand's tuatara. Temperature needs to be very

Origin Reddit Post

r/arduino

What do you use to measure temperature in an incubator?

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