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I'm done with autovalves and salts with my indoor grow too. I'll still use them if I do a water only soil grow indoors, but mostly I expect that they will just get used for vegies outdoors in the summer. At least a couple of my pots next winter and maybe all of them will be coco in a kind of air pot, set up with the automated top irrigation like I used this run with the solos. I think managing salt nutes is easier with runoff, and small pots of coco/perlite are pretty much impervious to overwatering once plants are established. Just my take on it after trying both, I know that several great growers here make the autopot system work well with salts, but I also know that even they periodically run into nute balance issues caused by the subirrigation setup. Different strokes.Yup i do keep lids on. i had just put them back in the trays after their weekly mini flush. i had rinsed the trays out and letting them dry out a little before i turned rez back on. i will turn the rez on the the morning
Ahh yes that makes sense about sealing surfaces not lining up. i've been keeping a close eye on them. none of them are filling to above the clamp ring. about 1/2 -3/4 of the inlet port (clamp ring) is submerged. i think i've caught all of them empty at one point this week (just before valve refills)
The more i deal with these things and read about others issues with them this will probably be my only run with them with coco and salts. i may try them with my CoM soil water only. but i am working on getting all the parts to DIY a irrigation system drain to waste for coco. i just need a couple pumps and timers and i think i have most everything else. But the CoM soil water only has been pretty easy and out performing the coco so not sure what my end game with be for system. i just know hand watering will not be it not be part of it..
If you think of it tag me in your next grow i would love to follow one from the start.
It's late and i'mhopefully that makes sense i've proofread it a couple times but that doesn't mean anything
As to your timer decision, make sure that you get one programmable down to seconds. This is important because you need the fine adjustability to manage your level of runoff. I ended up with the Nearpow unit recommended by Cocoforcannabis.com, and second their recommendation. It works perfectly once you get the programming sorted.
You also need valves on each pot so you can adjust to what individual plants drink. FWIW, I find the ball valve designs a bitch to use for fine adjustments in flow, and went for clamps that squeeze the input hose. I looked at the ones like the ones used in laboratory work, but the reviews were so mixed that I made my own. To make mine I just split some ~3/4" aluminum pipe and drilled and threaded the pieces so that they would squeeze together with screws on either side of the hose. The clamps squeeze with the round outside surface of the pipe against the hose. Since the threads on the screws are fine and it is easy to turn a measured portion of a full turn, very fine adjustment is easy and reliable. The DIY ones use two screws rather than one, but they are stronger than the lab ones and I don't find having to use two screws that much extra hassle.
Good luck with it, and I'm glad to hear that the autovalves are behaving properly. I'll bet that the problem was mis-alignment of those grooves.
The problem is, I think, that the centerline of the seat holding the silicone is never in perfect alignment with the center of the sharp ridge that the silicone sits against. Because of this, if the silicone is removed once the groove develops, it is pretty much impossible to get it re-registered with the valve seat. The silicone would not only have to be fully seated, it would have to be in the precise rotational orientation that it was originally, and that ain't gonna hoppen, at least not easily, and not unless deliberately achieved by marking the position and placing the silicone back in its exact original orientation. Of course this also means keeping all the silicones in their original valves, another PITA if you are cleaning several of them at a time. Bottom line for me is fresh ungrooved silicones to start, and new ones any time they are replaced. New silicones might be the cheapest part of any grow.
