Questions
The ones people actually ask
What do I still have to do?
Refill three bottles — Nutrient A, Nutrient B and pH Down — every few weeks. Connect a water line, or top the tank up by hand. Calibrate the pH and conductivity probes roughly once a month — the screen walks you through it with two reference solutions and takes a few minutes. Rinse the reservoir between crops. Plant, and pick.
What you no longer do is test the water, read a chart, measure from bottles and hope you got the order right.
Is it really 3D-printed?
Yes, for the first units. The tower segments, the reservoir and the housing are printed in-house in PETG and ASA and finished with a UV clear coat. Printing lets us change a part the week we learn something about it, which is what the first year of a product like this needs. The joints and fittings are the same ones a moulded version would use, so nothing about how you use it changes later.
What breaks, and what does it cost to fix?
The tubing inside a peristaltic pump is a wear item on every dosing system ever made; ours is designed to be swapped by you, not by a technician. Probes last years with monthly calibration and are replaceable. The fill valve is a stainless solenoid. Nothing else moves. We publish the price of every consumable when we publish the price of the unit, and not before.
What happens when the Wi-Fi goes down?
Nothing, from the plants’ point of view. The whole control loop — sensing, dosing, refill, the screen — runs on the unit. Wi-Fi is for updates and, later, for looking in from your phone. There is no hub, no subscription and no account required to grow.
And when the power goes out?
The pumps stop and the fill valve closes, because closed is the state it rests in — it takes power to open. Nothing floods and nothing doses. When the power comes back the controller resumes on its own with its setpoints intact.
Can it live outside?
It is designed to. The production housing is sealed to an IP65 design target — rated against dust and water jets — with industrial connectors rated for the same, and the display is meant to be read in daylight. We say designed to deliberately: the production unit has not yet been through its weather testing, and we will change the wording when it has.
Is it safe to have electronics next to a tank of water?
The controller runs on an external 24 V supply that carries the UL listing; nothing at mains voltage is inside the housing, and everything that reaches the water is low-voltage. If you add a mains-powered accessory near the reservoir, plug it into a GFCI outlet with a drip loop in the cord. Our setup tutorial puts that on step one.
Why does it cost more than a tower with lights?
Because it contains the instrument they leave out: two industrial probes, three metering pumps, a level sensor, a fill valve and a controller that closes the loop between them. A planter with a timer is a simpler thing. We publish the price when the production unit has passed its tests, and not before.
What can I grow in it?
Anything that grows well in a recirculating tower: lettuces and greens, herbs, strawberries, peppers, green onions. One reservoir, one set of setpoints, so choose crops that like the same water — most of the list above does. Segments come with two, three or four sites so you can give a pepper room and pack herbs closer.
Is there an app?
Not yet, and we are not going to sell you one that does not exist. The 7-inch touchscreen on the wall is the interface: gauges, charts, setpoints, calibration and manual control. If that changes, this page will say so.