Hello @Just_Lene_N_Grow
I can empathize with a lot of this. Kinda makes you feel a little helpless at first or cold feet w/e. My unit had issues and it took some time to get a definitive answers to legitimate problems. I’m hesitant to say all of my units issues are now fixed since it’s so soon after resolution, but it sure seems that way. No more erratic behavior being attributed to wireless/ everything is functioning. I’m sure if your pump is hooked up improperly then swapping the tubes as mentioned above will fix this.
I’ll start w/ some of the easy stuff.
I recently had a similar issue where my drain worked, but the pump would not fill and my plant survived w/ one manual filling for the week.
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Was the unit expensive?
Yup, i spent more on this unit and extras w/ warranty than my first car. I shared many of the frustrations and questioned the unit that you have and w/ the lack of space available the Grobo was still ideal for me. Things have improved for me in all things grobo. The unit, growing, support due to super-stephens return, just about everything has gotten better
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The best part of Grobo?
The community! Lots of knowledgeable users that can be extremely valuable when it comes to the grobo (especially on weekends) or other mediums such as soil grows and all things cannabis. Keep in mind I haven’t harvested a grow in my unit so when that time comes I may change my opinion here
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Will support ever get back to me?
Yes! Receiving my unit just so happened to fall inline with @Stephen ‘s vacation. The answers I received from the grobo team left a lot unanswered and me feeling like I was also “duped” into dumping money into a unit that clearly was troubled and I would have to not only modify what I could easily access on the backend, but potentially disassemble as well and manage daily for entire grows. For me, not what I was sold and not ideal with traveling, kid stuff, social ect this wasn’t going to work me. If concerned about the validity of the grobo then It’s important to take a look around on the forum at the 100’s of others here currently successfully growing. Here is my plant yesterday after several issues including nutes and LED (a little behind schedule, but doing well)
j
The folks at grobo have lives and families and although they do support your device those hours of operation are weekdays (M-F). I know that’s cringeworthy to type/read because who doesn’t have a functional helpdesk in the evening and on the weekend? (A) A fairly new company, but this was likely one of the many reasons AG was created. I hope this changes in the future because a lot of folks that have 3k sitting around to invest in legal growing are typically at work when grobo is at work. Not ideal for the end users.
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Should I Manually fill?
In short, you can, and I have, but please note that doing so does not allow the grobo to feed nutrients or ph^ v to an acceptable range determined by the water you’re using and the sensors inside. All of the bottles are engaged with the pump shortly after fills. Good thing is your seedling won’t need nutes so getting the ph right (5.6-6.5) is ideal. The grobo won’t dispense nutes until day 11. Hopefully you have a good pH pen and if not, order one. You’ll use it for any future grows inside or out of the grobo. Not only will you be able to know what is in your grobos reservoir (temps, ppm, PH, EC), but you’ll have control and accordingly adjust to where you believe the values should be in the early stages. I highly recommend the bluelabs pens. If you decide like several others here to manually feed you can and although Grobo makes mention that it’s not ideal, it does work and is possible. I have only needed to intervene once in regards to nutes to correct my unit which seemed to dump quite a bit of bottles 4/5 in which spiked the res and by day two of that week I noticed deficiencies which resulted in taking over. Notice the browning tips
I have the full line up of advanced nutes on hand in the event I need to take the grobo feeding out of the equation w/ other assorted beneficial fungi. While the grobo is sold and designed to automate all of this for you and some do just that, grow really impressive cannabis with the Grobo, Imo if you want to guarantee a successful grow you need to be prepared to take control in any environment. Keep in mind I’m in week 4 of my very first Grow in a Grobo, had some trouble and took action so some of these statements may change as we progress as I continue to allow grobo to automate this.
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How does the helpdesk work?
Honestly, my first three weeks I wasn’t sure the helpdesk worked at all. While I did get a reply here and there. The answers provided were less than ideal and offered zero solutions. Submitting the ticket to support is step one. Give them as much info as possible, pics vids, readings - Stephen loves that sh… and it may help them help you. Stephen whom returned to work this week has been catching up and I’m sure you’re answers are coming this week, mine did. I didn’t think anyone on the Grobo team cared, but it’s clear now that not only does Stephen care he will do everything in his power and exhaust all resources until your device is working and you’re growing! This has been my experience.
A couple of things you can check to make sure the unit is mostly functioning enough to keep your growing unit this gets sorted out.
Is the air stone producing bubbles? If yes great
Are inside LED’s on? If yes then these are truly the only two “must be working” at this point for the seedling to start growing.
I doubt you’ll need to manually fill again as I’m sure this will get resolved, but if you do need to take the whole plastic shelf with the cocopod and seed in place out to manually fill, a regular solo drinking cup with some reservoir water balances perfectly. This will allow for you to work inside the unit or fill manually without exposing your roots to light and keeping them wet if you need to check for issues with intake blockages, hose pinches ect.
Also note as stated above, your grobo for the first ten days of germination does NOT use or need nutrients (could use some beneficial fungi, but that’s neither here nor there). Only bottles one and two to correct pH levels will be used. If you used distilled/RO water your plant will continue to grow although slowly in the water provided without pH’ing yourself until this gets sorted. I’d advise checking anyways if you have meters and adjust accordingly. I fully expect that Stephen will be in contact with you next week to sort this out and I hope your makes it. I know you’ve stressed the importance of the seed.
I did see that a picture was posted and made mention of “U need to switch d and f” w/ break pics. If you’ve already tried this I’m not sure what’s wrong and support will get to you
If you’re not comfortable making the change w/ the advice of others on the forum then wait for support. The grobo team is in
did not intend for the production facility in Michigan to fail in building this unit (not sure where yours was assembled, mine was Michigan - I think). I’ve read a lot of posts and haven’t come across this one issue yet. I completely understand not wanting a further setback or potentially damaging something else without the expertise of support. Sorry for the trouble, but I’m certain if you stick it out good things are coming.
James