General Hydroponics 411 Farm Kit for Hydroponic Drip Systems

So I bought one of these so I could figure out how they work and perhaps make something similar cheaper. You might be able to make something cheaper, but not much. These pumps work so well, and are just perfect for what they do (lifting a constant trickle of water up from a bucket into hydroponic net cups). Really, for just over $10 you are getting a level gauge, a airlift pump, and the airline. You just can't buy it and make it yourself for that price. The ring (shown in brown in the product image) has laser drilled holes in it and when I hook it to my fish tank air pump, the water drips out at a constant rate, not really a stream, but perfect for hydroponic top drip applications. Very pleased, will buy more.

I ordered 9 of these for my hydroponics project I got going. These things work great! All I needed to do was drill two holes in the buckets I had. I used a 3/4 inch drill bit for the top of the bucket to insert the little ring than holds the hose. Then I used a 5/16 drill bit to make a hole on the bottom part of the bottom and placed the grommet. Then twisted the blue tube in the grommet.I would have given this product 4 stars because one of my 9 farm kits came damaged. The brown halo circle was folded strongly in two spots, so it was in the shape of a football or so. The good thing about it is that it still worked so I was still satisfied with the product. Everything looked so beautiful with my hydroponics setup. Highly recommend if you want the best for your hydroponics projects! :P

I have gotten two of these kits here and was very pleased with them both.I am growing in a deep water culture system and the drain/level tubes are really nice for this application. The drain/level tube allows me to see how much water I have in my system at a glance, and it also allows me to drain the water or get test samples to quickly monitor my nutrient solution without disturbing my plants or their roots inside the reservoir.I use the drip rings on plants that don't yet have enough root development, and I disconnect the drip ring once my plants have their roots down into the water. You only need an air pump to power these which is one of the reasons I like them - no need to run a water pump. I have cut the drip rings down to fit in different pots and systems, so they are fairly adaptable. With a little creativity you can make them work on any pot - I've used everything from a 2 inch pot to a 10 inch pot.I do a lot of hydroponic growing and I'll probably buy more of these in the future.If you are new to the idea of growing hydroponically, I think it would be worth your while to get one of these just to fully understand how it functions. That knowledge alone is worth the purchase price, but maybe that's just me being a hydro-nerd. At any rate, with this knowledge and this item as your pattern, you would be able to expand upon it to create the hydro system that suits your individual needs.It doesn't come with instructions, but you can find folks using them on youtube and you can figure it out easy enough.If you aren't new to the idea of growing hydroponically, then you already know how awesome that drain/level tube is and you probably already have this or something like it.

I have 5 of these. They are pretty good. They work well most of the time. I have had some problems with them though. A couple had extra plastic inside from the molding process that should have been cleaned up before they were assembled. This caused one of the units to stop working completely during it's second grow cycle. I took it apart and cut out the plastic that had been blocking the tube and it started working again. Another one seemed to have been forced together because the clear plastic tube inside was vent and crushed at the top inside the brown piece. I cut off the bent part of the tube, reassembled and it's working again. I also had one of the top rings bend rather than curve. That one also doesn't have the drip holes drilled properly, they twist around the tube rather than being in a line on the bottom.I run a salt remover at the end of my grow cycle and I soak the parts in salt remover and bleach after every round. You will still need to take these apart every round it two so that you can clean out all the salt deposits that build up inside.Overall I would give these a 3.5They work, but the quality control on the manufacturing isn't great. I bought this to replace defective parts on ones that came with bucket systems before I realized I could take them apart and fix them.You have to check on them daily to make sure they are still working, I have had a couple just stop (the flap of plastic and the crushed tube) weeks or months into use.

There are no instructions. Although building is intuitive, I could have used a dimension for drilling the water level hole (0.8125"). The odd size required some sanding to make it fit. the Drip tube was too big and had to be trimmed to fit. the drip holes were pointing straight down, rather than inward.This all contributed to a difficult build.However, once assembled, it works very well. If you are mechanically inclined, this is a good collection of inexpensive parts to build your system out of.AUpdate: After using for a few months, I decreased my rating. They are more prone to clogging than other systems I've used and do not maintain top watering after a couple of months.