What IamETOH said above. In a pur fect world a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) is the safest way to go, but not required. It's just an extra safe guard. You see them in areas around your home where there's water. Like outdoors, bathrooms, and kitchen counters.

long as your using it indoors you should be fine. Gfci is to save your butt if the machine comes in contact with water.

just to keep you from being shocked should something happen

First, there's no way that incubator uses 9300 watts. The number isn't the wattage, that would be more wattage than an arc-welder uses, which melts metal, not just incubating a few dozen eggs. That it has a 110V plug at all says it can't draw more than 20 amps, which would be 2200 watts or less. I can't see it drawing more than 5 amps though, so maybe 500-600 watts total, about as much as a mid-range gaming PC.

Second: GFCI is just a different outlet, you can get them from any hardware store for $20-$40, and they wire up the same as a normal outlet they just have a built-in circuit breaker right there. So you can retrofit any outlet to be GFCI fairly cheaply.

I very well could have goofed on the wattage (I now cannot even find where I found that info)

I am thinking a simple power strip (like what is recommended for computers) may be enough in this case?

(my little space heater says 1500W so the incubator watt I found must be way off

And yeah, I think someone saw the model number, assumed that was the wattage?

Yeah, they actually make GFCI-rated power strips too.

GFCI basically is a SUPER fast circuit breaker, that's guaranteed to cut power no matter what to avoid shocking anything. It's as much to avoid egg-membrane causing a fresh-hatched chick to get electrocuted as it is for your own safety.

But for your personal safety? Yeah, just a basic power strip will be plenty safe enough.

I am thinking it insists on a GFCI because you put water in the bottom of the incubator, which is far from the electric stuff but 'just in case' cause I know sockets by sinks have to be GFCI now and thus are in the addition to our house but not anywhere in the main house (which actually still has several 2-prong sockets, old house is old)

Ah, yeah, that would explain it.

But like I said, it's cheap to get a GFCI outlet, could upgrade the outlet it'll be plugged into? :) Takes nothing more than a flat-head or phillips screwdriver, turn off the breaker for the circuit then unscrew it and screw the GFCI on the same way, and you're done pretty much. If you're upgrading an old 2-prong to a 3-prong you need to add the ground wire, but that's not difficult either and anyone at Lowes or Home Depot would be happy to explain how to do that.

I am thinking it insists on a GFCI because you put water in the bottom of the incubator,

Bingo! that's the reason.

A CFCI unit is there to protect people. GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter, which operates differently than normal circuit breakers.

A normal circuit breaker opens the circuit when the current draw down the 'hot' leg (the black wire) exceeds the breaker's rating, with some allowance for short 'surge' currents, such as when a motor starts up. Circuit breakers are there to protect the wiring from overheating from overloads. If you touch an exposed wire connected to a 20 amp circuit breaker, the breaker will not trip unless your body draws more than 20 amps while you are being electrocuted. 1 Amp for a few seconds can be enough to be lethal.

A GFCI breaker, on the other hand, has a circuit that monitors the current flow between the 'hot' (black wire) and 'neutral' (white wire) legs, monitoring them to insure they are 'balanced,' meaning the amps going down the black wire match the amps coming back down the white wire. If they deviate my more than a few miliamps, the GFCI will open the circuit within 0.2 seconds. If you touch an exposes wire that is GFCI protected, the power will be cut off before your nerves finish relaying the message to your brain, before your reflex system can even kick in to pull your finger back. It protects you from injury, however, it WILL still hurt, and you WILL instinctively use ALL the words your mother told you never to say in public. GFCI breakers are there to protect lives.

An earlier post mentioned a GFCI-equipped power strip, and that sounds like an EXCELLENT IDEA for the incubator. That way not only will you be safe if the water splashes where it shouldn't, but so will the chicks.

(which actually still has several 2-prong sockets, old house is old)
You might want to see if you have an electrician buddy or two who would be willing to help 'modernize' the house wiring. Make sure they're Licensed, though, or your Home Insurance will be very unhappy with you if there's an electrical fire in a circuit he 'helped' with. From what I'm hearing, it sounds like you need a few circuits 'split up' so you don't have so many rooms sharing the same load. (Watching Zha Zha Gabor regularly blow the fuse on the 'single circuit' farmhouse in Green Acres was funny, but that's because it was TV land. We don't need that sort of hassle in Real Life.)

Upgrading the electrical system of a house to current code is very expensive. You are looking at somewhere between $5000 and $10,000

That's why I just mentioned it in an offhand way, instead of 'recommending' it.

Depending on how the house is built and wired, it can also be done in stages. That's where the Chicago building codes really shine: having all the wires in hard pipe make pulling new wires for a circuit fairly easy.

all though i am a electrician im just going to be bunt don't lessen to a word most people are going to tell you if it is asking for one have one installed its like a 20-30$ job to do, if it rains ect and ther light stops working it will kick out saving your chicks from being shocked and killed, its also a good idea encase some thing trys to eat the cord it might same the animals life or at lest stop the fire from being a thing, just get one installed with a proper cover on it if its out side ect just spend the money and do it right the first time!

tho in a second note mattering on where your putting this and how well your keeping a eye on it, i cheep way is a power strip with a surge protector and breaker that's like $15 at wall-mart the big danger with it and why there calling for a gfci outlet is cuz your basically having a heater on 24 7 and if temp control fails it would melt and short out, so mostly there covering there ass saying to use one. the chances of any thing happening as long as you take good care of the unit are extremely small

it is inside and on a surge protected power strip, I think the main thing that makes them insist on GFCI is you put water in the incubator and GFCI outlets are used by sinks and outdoors in case of water contact... but I have done WAY worse when it comes to plugging in water related things into normal outlets and surge strips, a cup of water in the incubator is nothing like a 70 gallon aquarium.

i think you are good like i sad its more of a thing to cover there own butts.

obviosly not impossible. also very reasonably not recomended. basically you can expect the wiring it draws current from to get very very hot. possibly hot enough to melt older, non-high temperature insulation. and that's where the hazard comes in. so it really depends on the age and condition of the rest of the wiring you want to connect it to. if this is going to be in a seperate outside building that the wires running to it, aren't running through the house, well that's one thing. another possiblity is you could buy the required, basically an outlet with a kind of circuit breaker in it, at the hardware store, and you know, turn off the breaker to the circuit that outlet you want to use is in and replace the outlet yourself. that would be neither expensive nor take rocket science to do.

wiring isn't rocket science, but you do want to use everything up to spec for the kind of current load you're talking about.

you say you're using a strip that has a breaker in it? sorry i didn't see that sooner. well basically problem mostly solved. that SHOULD protect what its connected to. still sounds like a LOT of current to me. but the breaker in the strip SHOULD kick before every wire in the house becomes a radiant heating strip.

My mom has one of those egg incubators, made out of styrofoam with a window. The heater in it is probably not much more than 100W, so its pulling like 1 amp, maybe 2 max, any higher and you'll probably cook the eggs.

To figure out wattage for something: Watts = Volts * Amps. For example, a standard 110V portable heater is 1500W on high. That's approximately 13.6 amps

The NEC requires you to install grounding-type receptacles on 15A and 20A branch circuits.

Sec. 210-7(d)(3) permits any of the following installations when replacing a 2-wire ungrounded receptacle:

© Replace it with a grounding-type receptacle protected by a GFCI device (circuit breaker or receptacle). Since the grounding terminals for the receptacles are not grounded, you must mark the receptacles with the words “GFCI Protected” and “No Equipment Ground”

Let’s talk about the last two options. A GFCI-protected grounding-type receptacle without an equipment-grounding conductor is safer than a grounding-type receptacle with an equipment-grounding conductor, but without GFCI protection. This is because the GFCI protection device will clear a ground-fault when the fault current is 5mA (+ or - 1mA), which is less than the current level necessary to cause serious electric shock or electrocution.

I forgot to give the source.

http://ecmweb.com/content/replacing.....ed-receptacles

A GFI outlet is designed to save your life if you are taking a bath and drop your running hair dryer into the water. Simly put, it's a super sensitive cirrcuit breaker.
With the GFIpower strip, make sure it's plugged into a 3 prong grounded outlet, or it won't properly trigger if it needs to.

If the line of outlets already have a GFI then you can install an outlet (or use one) durther down the chain, a GFI outlet has the ability to protect downstream outlets. And yes since it contains water, it's a good idea, it would also be 930w probably a typeo

Bavarian and Ramseys are correct on the GFCI operation and requirements respectively. The power strip is not an acceptable replacement. Surge strips protect circuits against inrush from the power lines only. The panel breaker protects against fires from circuit faults. The GFCI protects YOU, not the chicks from electrocution. At 100 milliamperes your heart goes into fibrillation. Without a medical defibrillator, death is imminent as CPR is non effective while the heart is in fibrillation. At 200 milliamperes you stop breathing. If you are fortunate enough that the heart has stopped or not in fibrillation, CPR may save you. You MUST use a GFCI with this device as it lacks built in safeties in order to keep production costs down. The dampness and heating coil combination make the hazard. From what I have seen, this unit has a two prong plug so there is no grounding requirement. You do not need to upgrade house wiring. A GFCI will work without a ground when properly installed on a circuit with no equipment ground. Testing it is more complicated as the ground would normally be used for testing with the built in test circuit. GFCIs must be properly tested before use. Some GFCIs will supply power when hooked up wrong but offer no protection.
This incubator by its nature exposes you to the most dangerous 100 to 200 milliampere range that cause fatal heart fibrillation. You MUST use a GFCI with this machine. The warning is not to protect the company, it's to protect you. BTW, I'm a Florida Electrician, retired.

Found an interesting solution to your problem. The Tower Manufacturing 30340001 15 amp 2-Wire GFCI Outlet Adapter on amazon.com for $17 plus shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+Tower+Manufacturing+30340001