Draining the Farms for rinse & refill

[Happy]

I've never been able to drain my Farms as the instructions state. I've been using a siphon (which broke.)

I called AG customer service and they walked me through it, and I still can't get them to drain. (The pump seems fine.)
Can you help?

[fizzle1979]

If no one answers you before 02/03/19 I will do my drain then and let you know if I had any success.  I'm sure Nick knows how to do this...he seems to have a few farms.  

[Shawn]

Sorry Happy I can not help on this one.  I do not own any Farms.

[Happy]

Thanks, fizzle and Shawn.

AG was unable to help me, so I bought another siphon.
I really like this one. It's manually operated and takes out a lot of water with each stroke. It also has removable parts, so if roots clog it, I should be able to get them out.
It's significantly sped (speeded ?) up my rinse/refill for my Farms.

www.amazon.com/Underhill-High-Capacity-Premium-Removal-Suction/dp/B00AYQIYZI?ref_=bl_dp_s_web_3049299011&th=1

[Shawn]

It looks like a nice one. 

[kinik]

When you say siphon, I assume you’re referring to the hose that came with your Farm. Probably a silly question, but I don’t want to take anything for granted.

After selecting Drain Garden from your display screen, you should be prompted to press a “Pause your pump” button. Once you’ve pressed the button, remove the rubber port cover on your grow deck (right in the center), and insert your hose. It won’t insert very far and doesn’t feel super secure.

From here I’m going strictly off of memory, since I don’t want to drain my own farm right now...
You should see a screen with a “stop/start pump” button. You have to push this button to allow your pump to resume running so it will start draining through the hose.

When you’re done draining, hit the stop/start button again to stop your pump. Remove the hose, replace the port cover, and refill your tank. Afterwards, you should be able to exit out of the “Drain Garden” menu and return to normal pump function.

[fizzle1979]

I was thinking that was how it worked.  Thanks.  

[serri588]

kinik has the correct instructions. It is slow if the basin is even half full, so if I want to get through my bowls quicker I'll use both the built-in drain and a siphon.

[dskyzedisme]

Pick the left or right side of the garden, press "More Options" in the top right of the screen. In More Options there will be another "More Options" press this.  Pick Drain Garden.  Once you do this the control panel will display step by step instructions that are easy to follow.  When you get to the part of inserting the tube, MAKE SURE YOU PLUG THE TUBE INTO THE SIDE YOU ARE DRAINING OR YOU WILL HAVE A MESS.   Once you drain one side go through the same steps for the other side. It's really quite simple

Each side of the garden holds 2 gallons of water so if you don't have a single container that will hold 2 gallons, you'll need to hit the start/stop button on the control panel to pause the draining.  Once you have emptied the old water container, press the start/stop button again to resume draining.   It will take a good 5 or more minutes for each side to drain through the small tube and you will hear it sucking air when it is empty.

What I found while trying to drain mine, the rubber tube they provided came folded up several times and held together with a twist tie. When I removed the twist tie and unfolded the hose, at each fold in the hose, the two sides of the hose were stuck together and I had to pinch each fold to get it to open up so water could flow.

[supercazzola]

Jul 21, 2023 14:06:10 GMT -5 dskyzedisme said:

What I found while trying to drain mine, the rubber tube they provided came folded up several times and held together with a twist tie. When I removed the twist tie and unfolded the hose, at each fold in the hose, the two sides of the hose were stuck together and I had to pinch each fold to get it to open up so water could flow.

Yes, this is what happened to all three of my farms so I just use regular fish tank tubing. The drain process is so slow however