I built our H2 over the weekend. It‘s more or less done by now, I need to tweak the leveling a bit, but other than that I think it‘s ready to go.
I‘d like to give a little feedback to Chris and the team regarding the build. This is going to be rather long and will focus, maybe a little too much, on things I didn‘t like, but please know that I am quite satisfied for now and I‘m really looking forward to actually using the H2. Some of the things I describe below may also be caused by my ignorance of how the system is supposed to work, we‘ll see :D
I like the appearance and just generally the look of it. The H2 with the acrylic windows has some kind of, I don’t know, 70s sci-fi appeal, it’s really nice and I can’t wait to see it full of plants.
The package was sent to Germany using UPS. I usually have a bad experience with them, and it wasn‘t any better this time. The tank was broken and the package looked like it had been opened. I‘d love to have the option of picking a carrier for future purchases.
I‘d like to suggest to add a lot more drawings and pictures to the build guide. I would have loved to look at some kind of reference build to better understand how it‘s supposed to look and how some of the parts should fit together. It took a little while before I fully understood how the system works and that the drain of the upper level will then fill the lower level. I also spent quite a few minutes trying to press-fit the drain pipe between the levels onto the upper spigot from below, before I decided that it‘s probably not necessary. I believe that some reference pictures/drawings would have helped.
The pipe with the elbow seems a few mm too long, it lifts the drainage edge of upper tray and inhibits drainage if it is mounted in a way that it rests on the spigot of the lower tray.
Attaching the side windows was very, very cumbersome and took much longer than I anticipated. The movable light mounts were always in the way and it just wasn‘t a nice experience. I was very anxious to scratch the acrylic and spoil the look before even being done with the build. If I had to build a second one, I would attach the side windows to the walls first thing, before assembling anything. Maybe think about it and change the build guide?
I attached the side windows as high up as I could, snuggly against the screws of the lights. Still, the lower end of the windows is a little bit too low and takes up some of the space the grow trays and the right side cover use. The side windows could easily be 2-3mm shorter, then this wouldn‘t be a problem.
There were some problems when cutting the acrylic windows, some of them had very sharp edges.
I would also appreciate a video of the normal operation of a finished and leveled H2 or H3: remove the covers, run the pump for the recommended time and show how the water fills the uppermost tray, then drains down into the other trays. I‘d like to check if my trays drain too slowly or too quickly, how the pipes are supposed to be mounted, how deep the spigots are supposed to be pressed into the drainage hole. I simply have no idea how long the water is supposed to stay in a tray or how long it should take for the tray to be more or less drained.
My upper tray drains significantly slower than the upper tray, but if I tried to compensate it by using the feet of the H2, then I would also change how the lower tray drains, which seems to work fine. I guess maybe I‘l play with shimming the upper tray a little, but the above mentioned video would help be judge which one of the trays is working as intended.
After powering on the H2, the lower lights turned on, but the upper part stayed dark. I checked the wiring and did not find a problem, I also checked the dip switch and it was correct. This problem automagically fixed itself after a few powercycles, but it was far from the feeling of success I was anticipating ;- )
Finally, I was missing a few things. There were no small screws for the magnetic parts, I had to raid my ever-growing collection of screws in my workshop. No big deal, but maybe review the packaging procedures? I also expected to find the lettuce seeds and basil seeds, but there weren‘t any. They also weren‘t mentioned on the packaging note part list. Again, this isn‘t a big deal, I‘ll buy seeds next week anyway, but it‘s still a little bit of a bummer. You know, being happy to having finished the build and now having to wait for Monday to buy seeds when I could have something in the nursery by now :D
I‘ll probably have a ton more questions over the coming weeks, this is all for now. Again, my overall feeling is quite positive, even if the wall of text suggests otherwise.
One more thing: it would have been nice if the mid-tier level also came with a set of grow trays and right-side cover. I‘m also wondering why there were only 12 of the circular hole covers, I‘d have expected a cover for each hole of each tray. Not sure yet if I ever even need this many, it‘s just something that made not much sense to me. I even stopped and looked through the trashed packaging again to make sure I didn‘t throw them away accidentally.
Thank you for your feedback. It is invaluable for us and we really appreciate you taking the time to put it down in writing.
We're sorry your parcel was damaged on arrival and that there were some missing items. We are looking into why this happened.
We'll definitely consider adding more pictures to help with the build. We are also planning to create videos to help with putting the unit together and also the general workings of the H-series.
Please let us know if you need any further help or have more feedback.
And we'd love to see some photos when you've got things growing :- )
I built our H2 over the weekend. It‘s more or less done by now, I need to tweak the leveling a bit, but other than that I think it‘s ready to go.
I‘d like to give a little feedback to Chris and the team regarding the build. This is going to be rather long and will focus, maybe a little too much, on things I didn‘t like, but please know that I am quite satisfied for now and I‘m really looking forward to actually using the H2. Some of the things I describe below may also be caused by my ignorance of how the system is supposed to work, we‘ll see :D
I like the appearance and just generally the look of it. The H2 with the acrylic windows has some kind of, I don’t know, 70s sci-fi appeal, it’s really nice and I can’t wait to see it full of plants.
The package was sent to Germany using UPS. I usually have a bad experience with them, and it wasn‘t any better this time. The tank was broken and the package looked like it had been opened. I‘d love to have the option of picking a carrier for future purchases.
I‘d like to suggest to add a lot more drawings and pictures to the build guide. I would have loved to look at some kind of reference build to better understand how it‘s supposed to look and how some of the parts should fit together. It took a little while before I fully understood how the system works and that the drain of the upper level will then fill the lower level. I also spent quite a few minutes trying to press-fit the drain pipe between the levels onto the upper spigot from below, before I decided that it‘s probably not necessary. I believe that some reference pictures/drawings would have helped.
The pipe with the elbow seems a few mm too long, it lifts the drainage edge of upper tray and inhibits drainage if it is mounted in a way that it rests on the spigot of the lower tray.
Attaching the side windows was very, very cumbersome and took much longer than I anticipated. The movable light mounts were always in the way and it just wasn‘t a nice experience. I was very anxious to scratch the acrylic and spoil the look before even being done with the build. If I had to build a second one, I would attach the side windows to the walls first thing, before assembling anything. Maybe think about it and change the build guide?
I attached the side windows as high up as I could, snuggly against the screws of the lights. Still, the lower end of the windows is a little bit too low and takes up some of the space the grow trays and the right side cover use. The side windows could easily be 2-3mm shorter, then this wouldn‘t be a problem.
There were some problems when cutting the acrylic windows, some of them had very sharp edges.
I would also appreciate a video of the normal operation of a finished and leveled H2 or H3: remove the covers, run the pump for the recommended time and show how the water fills the uppermost tray, then drains down into the other trays. I‘d like to check if my trays drain too slowly or too quickly, how the pipes are supposed to be mounted, how deep the spigots are supposed to be pressed into the drainage hole. I simply have no idea how long the water is supposed to stay in a tray or how long it should take for the tray to be more or less drained.
My upper tray drains significantly slower than the upper tray, but if I tried to compensate it by using the feet of the H2, then I would also change how the lower tray drains, which seems to work fine. I guess maybe I‘l play with shimming the upper tray a little, but the above mentioned video would help be judge which one of the trays is working as intended.
After powering on the H2, the lower lights turned on, but the upper part stayed dark. I checked the wiring and did not find a problem, I also checked the dip switch and it was correct. This problem automagically fixed itself after a few powercycles, but it was far from the feeling of success I was anticipating ;- )
Finally, I was missing a few things. There were no small screws for the magnetic parts, I had to raid my ever-growing collection of screws in my workshop. No big deal, but maybe review the packaging procedures? I also expected to find the lettuce seeds and basil seeds, but there weren‘t any. They also weren‘t mentioned on the packaging note part list. Again, this isn‘t a big deal, I‘ll buy seeds next week anyway, but it‘s still a little bit of a bummer. You know, being happy to having finished the build and now having to wait for Monday to buy seeds when I could have something in the nursery by now :D
I‘ll probably have a ton more questions over the coming weeks, this is all for now. Again, my overall feeling is quite positive, even if the wall of text suggests otherwise.
Cheers,
René
Thank you for your feedback. It is invaluable for us and we really appreciate you taking the time to put it down in writing.
We're sorry your parcel was damaged on arrival and that there were some missing items. We are looking into why this happened.
We'll definitely consider adding more pictures to help with the build. We are also planning to create videos to help with putting the unit together and also the general workings of the H-series.
Please let us know if you need any further help or have more feedback.
And we'd love to see some photos when you've got things growing :- )
Your experience sounds a little like mine : )
I can’t wait to see photos of your setup and your plants :D
Kind regards Amy