Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[Esskay]

In recent months a large number of low cost Chinese made egg incubators have appeared on the market, sold mainly on eBay but increasingly on Amazon and other websites and concerns have been raised about their electrical safety. Trading Standards have assessed a number of these machines and reports have been issued to warn people that they do not comply with EU safety regulations. Some of these incubators are potentially very dangerous, with a risk of electric shocks and fire hazards.

 

More information on these potentially dangerous incubators can be found on the Brinsea Products Ltd website where they have published information sent to them by North Somerset Trading Standards. The full reports on each model are available from NSTS directly. These tests only looked at electrical safety and compliance; performance and incubation results were not assessed.

 

http://www.brinsea.co.uk/importedincubators/

 

http://www.brinsea.co.uk/importedincubatorsresults/

 

Egg incubators involve mains electricity, heating and water and are used in the home, sometimes by children and these factors mean a poorly designed incubator can pose particular hazards, hence Trading Standards’ interest.

 

Trading Standards are currently in the process of contacting importers of any equipment which doesn’t comply with EU safety regulations - this is taking a long time as it appears that the sellers are just changing the title of their listings to prevent them being removed from sale.

[Beantree]

That's not the only problem. Last year, when these Chinese things first came on the market, there was a spate of people buying 'fantastic automatic egg turning incubators off ebay at less than half the price of Brinsea'. They only tipped the eggs a few degrees each way and the result was chicks stuck to the side of the eggs. People were having to cull whole hatches! They had clearly never been tested by the manufacturer.

[Esskay]

We have heard all sorts of stories about these incubators. One lady had her incubator plugged in overnight (as you would expect!), she came down to a horrible smell and found that the plug had melted! The consequences of this don't bear thinking about.