Blumat auto watering

[rives]

I hold the top underwater downside up and tap it against the ceramic piece before assembling it underwater.

I'm pretty sure that you will find that a pipette or syringe will get a LOT more air out even after you do this. The design of the lid traps air all of the way around the inside by the threads, and the only way that you are going to get it out is by flushing it out.

I buy 10ml oral medication syringes and use them for adding liquid amendments to my nutrients, flushing out the Blumat caps and a bunch of other things. You can buy them for anywhere from 15 cents to 50 cents apiece in quantity (Amazon, pet med suppliers, etc.) and they last a hell of a long time if you rinse them out. I bought a sack of 20 of them about 5 years ago and still have over half of them left - the only reason that I get rid of them is that the markings eventually wear off.

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

Do you see lots of air bubbles come out when you do that? I sure see a lot more air bubbles coming out of the top when I use the pipette than I thought was possible.

I'm pretty sure that you will find that a pipette or syringe will get a LOT more air out even after you do this. The design of the lid traps air all of the way around the inside by the threads, and the only way that you are going to get it out is by flushing it out.

I usually see a few small air bubbles when I tap the top. When I pull mine out from a plant they get disassembled and go into a 5 gallon bucket half full of water where they stay until I am ready to use them again. I can try the pipette after I do my method to see if I get any more air out of them. You guys need to make sure you are not pushing air out of the pipette when you are flushing the top, bubbles could be coming from that.

 

[rives]

I usually see a few small air bubbles when I tap the top. When I pull mine out from a plant they get disassembled and go into a 5 gallon bucket half full of water where they stay until I am ready to use them again. I can try the pipette after I do my method to see if I get any more air out of them. You guys need to make sure you are not pushing air out of the pipette when you are flushing the top, bubbles could be coming from that.

I use a syringe, not a pipette, and there is no air in it. I used to use your method and swapped over after rrog made his post. Just for grins, before posting today, I tried it again and got bubbles.

 

[Sforza]

Good advice, but I am sure that I have all the air out of the disposable pipette before I squirt the water into the top of cap. I squirt water but air bubbles come out. The disposable pipette is cheap and handy and works fine, but I read every post in this entire thread and I read where other posters used a syringe and/or a little water pump to get a stream of water directed into the top of the cap in order to dislodge bubbles. So enough posters have found that it works to try it yourself.

That is why the Sustainable Village includes a disposable pipette and directions for how to use it in the instruction sheet they include with the orders they send out. As they say, it helps you to fine tune the setting and make the Blumats more responsive. They want the Blumats to work well, since the better they work, the more they are going to sell.

 

[Sforza]

my declaration for the new year is to finally set mine up ..I have had 2 patio kits for many years sitting...going to put them in the greenhouse with raised reservoir.....yeehaw..you guys have done all the trial and error for me...

If you really do get them going, you are going to be kicking yourself for not getting them set up sooner. Getting them set up is what Edd China on Wheeler Dealers would call "a bit fiddly" but once you have them dialed in, all you have to do every day is just go stare at the plants in amazement at how well they are doing and top off the lower reservoir every week or so.

If you read the thread you know that there are quite a few different ways of running them that are effective. They are not that sensitive. The main thing is understanding the principle of how they work. Once you understand how they work, you can tweak the basic instructions a little to fit your particular circumstances without having any problems.

It is great that the more experienced users have shared some of the issues that they encountered and how they fixed the problems. That makes it much easier for us Johnny-come-latelies.

 

[Cobra420]

Has anyone run into issues with the brown dripper hose blowing up? I have mine hooked to the tap with a pressure reducer and I've run into a few instances where at certain connectors, the brown hose is blown up like a balloon.

I've been running the Blumats for awhile now and have only ran into an issue with disconnecting and reconnecting the drip tubing at connectors too often, causing the tubing to pop off the connecters from getting stretched. This was resolved by trimming out the worn out tubing.

With this new issue, I've tried to trim out the ends and it still does it after a short amount of time. If you touch them, they shoot off the connectors. I've just reset the Blumats to see if that has anything to do with it, but I doubt it.

I had one burst the other day and lets just say I'm lucky the flooring the tents are in is concrete...

Any recommendations or ideas what is causing this?? Could the pressure reducer go bad? I have to get this figured out. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Cobra420]

Has anyone run into issues with the brown dripper hose blowing up? I have mine hooked to the tap with a pressure reducer and I've run into a few instances where at certain connectors, the brown hose is blown up like a balloon.

I've been running the Blumats for awhile now and have only ran into an issue with disconnecting and reconnecting the drip tubing at connectors too often, causing the tubing to pop off the connecters from getting stretched. This was resolved by trimming out the worn out tubing.

With this new issue, I've tried to trim out the ends and it still does it after a short amount of time. If you touch them, they shoot off the connectors. I've just reset the Blumats to see if that has anything to do with it, but I doubt it.

I had one burst the other day and lets just say I'm lucky the flooring the tents are in is concrete...

Any recommendations or ideas what is causing this?? Could the pressure reducer go bad? I have to get this figured out. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Hmm, you know what... I may have figured this out.

Is it possible the pressure out of my tap is too high for the pressure reducer to work properly? I haven't had too many issues before with my spigot turned all the way on, but this is something that just came to mind after taking the reducer apart to see if there was something wrong with it.

With the reducer hooked up, I didn't even turn the water an 1/8 of a turn and it seems WAY too strong. I can only imagine how it is if it were 100% open.

So, I've barely turned on the water for now to see how this works. First thing I've noticed is the brown tubing isn't nearly as pressurized as it was. I still have great flow out of the Blumats so I'm really hoping this resolves my issue. Other than this, they have been a great investment!!

 

[rives]

It sounds like your regulator isn't working.

It might be a faulty regulator or, as you said, the inlet pressure could be too high for it. According to the specifications, it has a maximum inlet pressure of 87 psi. Most residential systems run around 65 psi, but my house used to run at about 125 psi before I put a regulator on it and the people on the low end of town are much higher than that. You could put another, higher range regulator upstream of the Blumat regulator, either dedicated to that circuit or on the supply line for your house. Most faucets, water heaters, dishwashers, washing-machine supply hoses, etc don't like high pressure levels.

It sounds like you need a pressure gauge to do a little trouble-shooting.

 

[Eighths-n-Aces]

Has anyone run into issues with the brown dripper hose blowing up? I have mine hooked to the tap with a pressure reducer and I've run into a few instances where at certain connectors, the brown hose is blown up like a balloon.

I've been running the Blumats for awhile now and have only ran into an issue with disconnecting and reconnecting the drip tubing at connectors too often, causing the tubing to pop off the connecters from getting stretched. This was resolved by trimming out the worn out tubing.

With this new issue, I've tried to trim out the ends and it still does it after a short amount of time. If you touch them, they shoot off the connectors. I've just reset the Blumats to see if that has anything to do with it, but I doubt it.

I had one burst the other day and lets just say I'm lucky the flooring the tents are in is concrete...

Any recommendations or ideas what is causing this?? Could the pressure reducer go bad? I have to get this figured out. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Hmm, you know what... I may have figured this out.

Is it possible the pressure out of my tap is too high for the pressure reducer to work properly? I haven't had too many issues before with my spigot turned all the way on, but this is something that just came to mind after taking the reducer apart to see if there was something wrong with it.

With the reducer hooked up, I didn't even turn the water an 1/8 of a turn and it seems WAY too strong. I can only imagine how it is if it were 100% open.

So, I've barely turned on the water for now to see how this works. First thing I've noticed is the brown tubing isn't nearly as pressurized as it was. I still have great flow out of the Blumats so I'm really hoping this resolves my issue. Other than this, they have been a great investment!!

been there. done that ......



not sure if t's your inlet pressure of just wear and tear but your pressure regulator is the problem. i tried taking one apart to fix it but there isn't anything inside it thats serviceable. call the Blumat folks, they helped me when i ran into the same problem.

the problem with the lines popping off can be solved with a small piece of standard aquarium air line. cut a short piece and slide it over the 3mm where it hooks to the barbs on the supply line. you have to finesse it a little, if you just shove it on the 3mm will just roll under and bunch up on the barbs. that won't solve your defective regulator problem but it will keep the lines from blowing off.

dealing with what you are seeing is the reason i don't want fuck with the silicone 8mm ......... pucker factor is a little too high for me

It sounds like you need a pressure gauge to do a little trouble-shooting.

the only problem with that is finding adaptors/ connectors. you can get them on the net but if you are in the states it's tough/impossible finding the right sizes at the local hardware stores. they don't do metric for the most part. very frustrating. barbed fitting are easy enough to get and hook up but close to impossible to remove

 

[HookNLine]

Going to place an order right now. 5 gallon smart pot, which one do I buy?

Option 1

http://www.amazon.com/Blumat-Cerami...&qid=1450640338&sr=8-19&keywords=blumat+tropf

Option 2

http://www.amazon.com/Blumat-Deck-P...&qid=1450640338&sr=8-20&keywords=blumat+tropf

Thanks.

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

They are the same kit, order the cheaper one.

With a 5 gallon pot you want to use two blumats per pot.

 

[Jhhnn]

They are the same kit, order the cheaper one.

With a 5 gallon pot you want to use two blumats per pot.

I just use one standard blumat per 5 gal fabric pot. Works great. Moisture from the dripper descends into the soil in a flat cone so there's a ring of dry soil at the top of the pot & a 6" or so wet spot in the middle. The constant moisture level more than compensates for the soil not used by the plant.

 

[whythefnot]

Thanks a bunch everyone! It was a very long skim, and I'll be the first to admit I skipped about 50 pages or so around the 175 mark, but I'd been having a 12-pack sitting around for about a year while I didn't have a garden (and while I read through this thread!) and I finally installed them last night. I already had everything I needed except an extra tee and a bleed valve. It was too easy!

 

[Sforza]

Thanks a bunch everyone! It was a very long skim, and I'll be the first to admit I skipped about 50 pages or so around the 175 mark, but I'd been having a 12-pack sitting around for about a year while I didn't have a garden (and while I read through this thread!) and I finally installed them last night. I already had everything I needed except an extra tee and a bleed valve. It was too easy!

Installing them is very easy. Getting them dialed in is bit trickier. No need to read the thread to install the system, but the advice on how to set them up so that they are reliable and provide the maximum growth potential is invaluable.

 

[DizzyGround]

I haven't read the whole thread.

It must not be bad to talk about some issues again and give tips for others too.

I just installed them and fount out that the 3mm line must not be pulled by the 8mm mainline. the 3mm pipe should be free of any pulling. It might be tricky if you must use the curved 8mm pipe. I used duct tape to tape the 8mm line to each pot. Me and many other newbies must lift the pots to find perfect moisture level. After lifting the pot the pipes are at different position and if the 3mm line is being pulled it might leak water more than in relaxed position.

Best way you do this is buy alot of 3mm line as many tell you. If you don't have extra 3mm line do some mcgyver stuff.

Im using coco and trying to keep them little dryer than soggy wet. When the pot feels bit lighter then soggy wet thats my current aim for.

What do you find the best moisture level for coco?

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

I run my coco on the wet side, I keep it so there are no dry spots showing, very wet and my plants grow like crazy.

 

[stoned-trout]

its still on my list,,, 2 patio kits been sitting too long ,like years...soon..i got 7 large milk crates lined with weed block fabric....prob try and plumb up a brute trash can for res or a rough black plastic container from home depot....yeehaw set up in greenhouse for testing..i cant find the extra small line I bought too..

 

[ChasingGreen]

Do stores sell these locally or do you have to order them online?

 

[Mikell]

Depends on your stores nearby...

It worth looking, I picked up a box of blumat for a fraction of retail. Bloody tit behind the counter had no idea what they were or were worth.

 

[stoned-trout]

i have never seen them in stores...yeehaw