Is THIS how this works?

Just curious. Because I’m pretty sure I just shelled out $1600 on 4/20 to wait for 4 months to have a machine delivered that didn’t pass the simplest of quality control checks in making sure the two hoses that control draining and filling were switched (after searches on this forum).

Then after sprouting a seed that was questionable after traveling with me for 8 yrs from the Cannabis Cup I procured it from in Amsterdam to line up exactly with when it could go in the pod and into the machine to start growing, wasn’t apparently a priority to the only person answering all of the emails or communication on this board that doesn’t reply to emails until well after the end of the day (in Denver). So now 4 days later in STILL trying to get this machine online, and responding to the email I got yesterday at 5PM after responding twice over the weekend, I get nothing back in regards to how I get the hoses switched back to the correct positions.

Oh but I’m sure I’ll get a free nutrient pack refill on my next re-up since I can only use the prescribed nutrients in the exact bottles for this machine —

----WHO HAS A DIAGRAM TO HOW I SWITCH THE HOSES BACK TO THE CORRECT SIDES— ???

I’m sure this a SUPER rare case and the switching of the drain and fill hoses is something that has literally only happened a few times, as always.

SERIOUSLY – any help is appreciated. What isn’t appreciated by me or anyone who reads this is the first post from an excited consumer getting on this forum to bitch up a storm. JUST LENE AND GROW RIGHT??

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Do you have any tools handy. Take a look at the screws and figure which tools u need and have at it. I’ve done it and will most likely do it again. Once you get the back panel off the left side would be next. Then you will have access to drain and fill hoses. Ull need to grab some thin zip ties because the old ones will get cut when u swap hoses. Took me roughly 30 min or less to get mine apart and fixed. Good luck it’s fairly easy

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@LtcTerps
Any chance you would record the next time you disassemble your device? This forum could use a good breakdown video

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Great idea I may be able to get a good video in upcoming weeks even with grow still going on since it’s not a high priority seed :call_me_hand: I’ll use gropo if I can find it :joy: I may have photos

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only ones I had. U need to switch d and f obviously :roll_eyes:

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You’re the man @LtcTerps ! I’ve got some pics a champion shared a few weeks back (that champ is awesome) of disassembling the which might help @Just_Lene_N_Grow now, but will in the future

disassembly

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Also very helpful @James no need to guess what tools you’ll need now and shows how to remove some of what he’ll need to do :call_me_hand:

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Send me your email and I’ll send you pdf instructions

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@Just_Lene_N_Grow

Welcome to the forum. I’ve found you will get much faster results on the forum for questions or concerns than the helpdesk, but that’s my opinion. A lot of successful growers here willing to share knowledge and help you along the way if you do run into issues.

Using the search option Ive found answers to questions I had in what seemed like many people may have already encountered many of these problems and posted about it which may result in info on how to fix it. For me it did, so thanks to all the seasoned vets (@Todd.grobo , @Osage , @chris_barfield and anyone else I missed in the “donner party”).

The first 17 days or so for me was not at all what I expected from an automated device. Still isn’t considering the money invested. Some issues i accept as being end user errors, but much of it on the unit and of course for me immediately the sky is falling, but things get better. Took some sound advice from a few forum members rather than wait for support to get back to me, made some changes and Linda is doing much better today.

She looks like she’s pushing through the nute problems since I’ve adjusted manually, diluted and added some beneficial fungi as well lowered pH

I don’t know where you are on this planet, but a lot of us deal with hotter water temps too. Because of this many picked up water chillers and external pumps to increase our chances of successful grows and decrease our chances of root rot. Some folks don’t need it at all and grobo has stated both that you do not necessarily need it, but it is being considered for future builds. I purchased the extra equipment off of amazon and I felt better about taking control of what I could control such as room temp, water temp, rH, Moving my device onto tiles rather than on carpet yada yada yada pretty much everything in the event of failure other than inside LED.

Having spare equipment handy such as
Reliable ph meter (necessary)
Reliable EC/ppm meter (necessary)
Water chiller (necessary for me)
Dehumidifier (necessary for me)
Water pump (necessary for me)
Air pump
Humidifier
Extra air stones
A WiFi extender (wasn’t necessary)
Full line up of nutrients in case something like a bottle empties into the reservoir and I need to take over manually (some people here manually feed w/ great success). There are also others knocking it out of the park with just a grobo and none of this stuff. If you ever move away from the grobo all of the above could be used in almost all grow spaces.:+1:

I know the unit is covered under warranty, but I wouldn’t expect a replacement item to come overnight. I really can’t speak on that process at all as I’ve not had anything fail.

There is a lot you can control. From what I can tell all of our units only real need is connection to the internet to “check in” (hello.dms). Most everything else can be 100% end user controlled.

It stinks that your unit didn’t come properly assembled or free of issues. There is consolation that you’re not alone for what it’s worth and folks here to help. We have matching club jackets so welcome aboard image
no poll was taken on colors or affiliation

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@Just_Lene_N_Grow,

((#Welcome)):

:wave::wink:

((#AmazingHelpTeam)): :wink::smiling_face_with_three_hearts::sparkling_heart::green_thumb:

@Derald,

((#WelcomeBack)): :wave::wink:

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Glad your plant is making what ended up being the solution was it dilution? And thanks for the kind words

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I appreciate all of the responses and now understand the importance of this forum as there seems to be as little help as possible coming from Stephen or the Grobo team. After pulling the unit apart and not knowing where to go from there, because I was only given instructions on how to pull the unit apart and nothing more, I made several attempts to disconnect the fill and drain plugs but finally gave up out of fear of breaking something or messing with the circuit board scrunched up right beside the plugs.

I put it all back together, filled it by hand with no idea of how high to fill it because they took the water level stickers away for reference, and turned it on with the 1.5 inch tap root hopefully working in the pod as intended.

I don’t know how I’ll continue to refill it at this point and in observing it in the first couple days saw that looked like a withering sprout that was doing better in the paper towel than it is in the pod. I’m away now visiting my dad out of town and won’t be back until Monday when I can check it out again. If my coveted seed doesn’t make it, I’ll most likely be close to abandoning this whole project and filing a return for the product as it wasn’t anywhere near what I intended it to be breaking into the unit to get it to work properly, let alone paying such an insurmountable price for something that seems more like a gimmick that I got duped on because of the small amount of space in my apartment to grow. Maybe it’s not my time to start this project after all, we’ll see when I get back. Thank you again everyone for the kind words and encouragement!

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.

  1. 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

  2. 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 :wink:

  3. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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… :joy::wink: 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 :seedling: 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 :seedling: 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 :canada: 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

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Hi my name is Derald and I found your posting while doing research on just this topic. My air compressor went out and they sent me the tools and a new air compressor but no instructions on how to take the unit apart. If you’re able I could sure use those pdf instructions. My email is deraldbolin@msn.com

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Hey @Derald,

If you email me at support@grobo.io I can load you up with all of the repair guides I have! I’d love to assist in getting your airpump working again.

Cheers,
Stephen

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