Brinsea Products USAC27C Maxi II EX Fully Automatic 14 Egg Incubator with Humidity Control, One Size, Yellow/Black

I have bought, tested and used several different small size incubators. But this is the best one.If you are looking for a FULL automated one, this is the best option.

Has worked very well for us. We have hatched Cockatiels and Green Cheek Conure eggs that wouldn’t have otherwise.

The media could not be loaded.  I'm a previous Brinsea Mini Advance owner. Having done a lot of research before and after buying the Mini incubator, I'm sure that it was the right choice for incubating small number of eggs.. However, I now need to incubate more eggs than what Mini can incubate, therefore I decided to upgrade to the Maxi II EX model. That upgrade decision was easy since it seemed to be basically the same incubator with larger capacity. However, there was one more and pretty important difference: this new model is not tested enough, and it ruined my experience.FIRST OF ALLI'm not a grumpy customer who just complains about everything. I spent thousands of dollars on Amazon, and this is the first review I'm writing since I'm really disappointed by the product (and the replacements) I received for the amount of money I paid. While reading my criticisms below, keep in mind that these are about a $400+ incubator rather than a $50 styrofoam incubator and I have a fair expectation from this product as the owner of a previous model.EGG TRAYS ARE DEFORMED, ESPECIALLY THE SMALL EGG TRAY IS UNUSABLEThe egg trays were not manufactured correctly. They are curved in such a way that, their center touch the base fine but their outer edges are up in the air. The gap formed between the tray and the base piece, prevents eggs from properly touching the surface of the base. Even though this doesn't impact the performance of the standard tray (ie. the chicken egg tray), it severely affects the small egg tray. When I set 24 quail eggs on the slots closer to the edge tray, at least 20 eggs of them did not turn at all. Eggs can only touch the base when I push the tray down with my hands. I think the problem gets worse as the egg size increases, therefore bantam chicken eggs, partridge eggs etc. would also have the same problem.THE TRAY PROBLEM IS NOT SPECIFIC TO ONE UNIT, IT AFFECTS ENTIRE BATCH THEY HAVE IN STOCKWhen I realized the tray wasn't functioning properly, I contacted Amazon and requested a replacement, and received another Maxi II EX in a few days. After giving a quick try, I saw that the small egg tray was as bad as the first one if not worse. Then, I contacted the Brinsea customer service, explained that I was having the same problem with both units, and requested a replacement tray. After exchanging a couple e-mails and sharing photos, videos and serial numbers of the units I tried, they sent me a replacement tray. Guess what? It had the exact same problem. That time around, I got really frustrated because they didn't even check if the tray they were sending was having the issue I was complaining about or not. In their last message, they accepted that the trays were not manufactured properly and they were going to do their best to correct the problem and replace their stock. They didn't even offer sending one more replacement, since they are all probably in the same shape. If you buy any of these incubators in the meantime, keep in mind that you'll receive a defective small egg tray.WEIRD PACKAGINGThe Maxi II incubators, or at least the EX models, arrive in brown unprinted boxes. When I received the first one, it looked so weird that I would question if was a genuine Brines product or an imitation made in China if it wasn't directly sold and shipped by Amazon. However, I still suspected that they could be refurbished items. In my communications with Brinsea representatives, I asked about this and they said that they send all of these units in the same unprinted brown boxes since they don't have printed boxes. Furthermore, when the replacement tray was shipped, it was shipped in another flattened cardboard box that was taped around to keep the tray inside. The tray wasn't even wrapped with something, so it was sticky due to the tape touching it between the edges of the box. You may say "hey, why do you care about the box?", but I care about it because I paid about $450 for this thing and I want it to be packed better than a $50 incubator so that I can receive it safely. Both incubators I received were in Amazon boxes as usual. Both Amazon boxes arrived in great shape, but the contained unprinted Brinsea boxes were damaged. More interestingly, both boxes were damaged from the corner where the motor of the incubator was located, which is probably where the incubator is heavier. Don't be surprised if you receive a box damaged worse than mine and the motor/lid is broken. When I told them that they should do something about the boxes, they said it wasn't their fault but Amazon's. I'll leave this up to your judgement.CHEAP TUBINGThe pump system comes partially installed. There is some soft tubing around inside the pump and some more soft tubing going out of the pump. That soft tubing is then connected to a thicker straight tube (like a thin straw) which goes into the incubator. Due to the hacky design, the soft tube gets twisted at that connection point no matter what I did, for both units. It really felt like a "DIY hack" to inject water into the incubator rather than a high quality incubator with humidity control. Besides, even though they send some extra soft tubing to replace the tubes every few months, they don't send any replacement for the thicker straight tube. I don't know what I'd use if that thing gets damaged (it's possible to damage it after a couple hatches while putting it in & out for cleaning purposes).TURNING ANGLE MISMATCH BETWEEN INNER AND OUTER EGG SLOTS IN THE TRAYAs you can see from the product pictures, the trays have two rings of egg slots. The standard egg tray has 14 small egg slots in the ring near the center, and 14 regular egg slots near the edges. The small tray has 15 inner slots, and 25 outer slots. When you put eggs in both inner and outer slots at the same time, some of your eggs will be closer to the center than others. When the machine turns the eggs for the duration you set (ie. the Turning Angle setting), the eggs that are closer to the center will travel less distance than the eggs that are in the outer slots. Therefore, picking a turning angle is not as simple as you initially think and the users' manual suggests. For instance, if you pick a setting that would turn the eggs closer to the center by 180 degrees, the eggs in the outer slots will turn by 360 degrees. As you know, turning 360 degrees means returning back to the original position, which is not what you want! Therefore, setting eggs is not as simple as the Mini Advance model.OVERALL RECOMMENDATIONOlder Brinsea models, like Brinsea Mini Advance, have good features and known by their reliability about temperature and humidity control. These new models, inherit the same features from the older models without really adding any new significant feature. The only significant improvement is the ability to add water into the incubator without opening the lid.. However, they don't seem to meet the same quality standards as their predecessors. My bad experience about bad trays, insufficient packaging and super cheap looking tubing are strong signals to believe that Brinsea didn't do a great job with quality control this time around. Since I couldn't try hatching eggs in the unit, I'm worried that it may have more problems than I've already found out, but I don't have evidence to prove or disprove it. I'm returning the units back to Amazon and I'd advise staying away from these new models for a good amount of time until enough people (victims) try the product, find and report all issues to Brinsea, and Brinsea actually fixes all problems and stabilizes the model. I don't know how many years it took to stabilize Mini and Octagon models, and if they'll be able to stabilize this model as quick as the previous ones. Therefore, I'll make a choice between an Rcom incubator or Brinsea Octagon incubator. If I feel like taking risk again, I may also try Brinsea Ovation; however it was released at the same time as the Maxi II model so I wouldn't be surprised if it also suffers from quality control issues.

I've successfully hatched ducks and chickens in a $100 styrofoam incubator. I thought I would upgrade since Brinsea has a good reputation. WRONG move- I cannot believe I paid $400 for a product that requires me to place a tube into an open bottle of water to "control" humidit(infection, anyone-yuk!). It is a cheap setup! After three days, four of my eggs cracked and are ruined. The plastic platform is so small and does not really "contain" the egg, so large eggs roll around and don't fit properly. I am so disappointed- what a waste of money. Back to the old standby with me testing humidity and doing the turning- but at least I know I will have a good outcome.

The best for hatching. I really needed a larger one but the Ovation motor quit in the last few days of a hatch and killed them all. Went to this. Had a little problem getting the humidity lines going but once it was going it went like a champ. Perfect. Hatched 12 out of 14.