by britta
How to: WF Version 2.0 Standing AirLift Mini (SAM)
11:05 am in Getting Started, How-Tos by britta
These are UPDATED instructions that show you how to make a ‘mini’
1 hour build- The easiest, cheapest, smallest windowfarm. Gets you started on hydroponics ASAP! This version is designed to be easy to assemble for folks who want to try out a windowfarm but are not quite ready to build the structure needed for larger windowfarms. This system can grow three plants. The basic configuration includes three bottles that act as plant holders, a bottom reservoir to capture/hold water, and tubing to move water through the system. It also utilizes a small air pump that uses water displacement to elevate the water up to the top of the system, where it can then trickle down through each plant.
Check the comments below for updates and to read about other folks’ experiences before you build (remember this is an ongoing R&D process so don’t think of it as a product!!)
Please note that we ask anyone who downloads the how-to to register on the site and to come back and post as you build, not just when you’re finished. You give back to the project by participating on the site. Bring questions, ideas, results of your testing various processes. This is a mass collaboration on the R&D of these systems.
IMPORTANT REMINDER ABOUT ELECTRICAL SAFETY: Remember to include a drip loop (position the cord so it hangs down below the electrical plug).
Note: Starting in 2012, after a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, Windowfarms began selling One, Two, and Four-Column Windowfarms. The new Windowfarms are sustainably manufactured in the US, made of recyclable components, and are easy to setup — so you can quickly get setup and begin learning about growing food. If you would prefer to buy a Windowfarm, please visit The Windowfarms Store.
Below you can read all the comments and issues people have had with old versions along the way to improving these systems. However, if you are having troubles, you might just want to visit the Airlift Troubleshooting post for help and to see comments on the latest instructions.
I am beyond thrilled to see your version of the airlift! It’s gorgeous. Well done to Windowfarms and to windowfarmers everywhere.
-Jackson
is there a way to do it without an electric air pump?
I am interested in incorperating this into my aquaponic system.
I am also interested in incorperating this in our new home we will be building in Ga….
thanks
Jan
D.gruen-the airpump is what circulates the nutrient water constantly through the plants. Without the pump you will need to find another way to move the water up to the top. You can water them by hand of course but with hydroponics the plants need constant watering so you would need to water them every couple hours.
punctilious post. due one detail where I bicker with it. I am emailing you in detail.
Now I can’t find the PDFs. Where did they go?
http://our.windowfarms.org/category/how-tos/
Your blog is so informative ?keep up the good work!!!!
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case. WoW
Sure. That’s what it’s here for. Please just include a link back to the site so that your readers can find out more. B
Inflation needles! Such a simple solution… Here I am trying to get standard air line T fittings to work well for this application and getting functional, but poor results. This I must try!
I have some trouble with my airlift system.
It has not got enough strength to push the water up to the top.
I have used a simple air pump that is normally used for fish tanks but it seems that it either looses too much air through the system or the pump is not strong enough..
i tried using a smaller air tube but didn’t seem to solve the problem.
any ideas?
Hi! Thanks a lot for the instructions..they helped a lot..
one question: i m using a small air pump (one of those used in aquariums) like you say in the instructions but its not strong enough to displace the water to the height of the three bottles..
any ideas what i could be doing wrong?
Can you recommend good things to grow in this mini setup?? Thanks!
just got all the items together to build this. i couldn’t find poland springs water so i’m trying evian 1.5 ltrs. i also didn’t want to spend $10 on clay pellets, so i’m gonna try some regular cleaned gravel. anyone know any reason why this is a bad idea?
post results soon.
Weemis- Gravel is not a good idea. The reason for using a hydroponic medium like clay pellets is that it retains a certain amount of moisture in the little pockets within the clay pellets. With gravel, you have no water retention so your plants are kinda doomed. I highly recommend the clay pellets just because the hydroponic growers of the world have already figured out how to make them so they just plain work. When you are building a totally new system, I recommend limiting the number of new things you are trying until you start to get your plants going strong or discover a problem. However, clay pellets are not without their own problems. I have not had a problem with them, but Joanna found they were drying out too fast in her system.
First of all I just wanna say, this rules!
I read about this online about a week ago, and the next day I went out and bought everything I needed and came home and built it. I have it up and running and I just planted the seeds. I’m just waiting for a few weeks to see some action.
I have just a few questions though…
1.) If only the bottom of the bottles are covered and sun light still comes in through the top, how is photosynthesis prevented?
2.) Do I need just a few drops of water coming down constantly, or should it be at a higher pressure?
3.) (I’m new at gardening in general, so this might seem like an obvious question..) I might have put more seeds then necessary in the tree bark starter cubes…could this prevent the plant from growing, or should it be okay?
And last, 4.) Would using a homemade liquid compost (like blending egg shells, coffee grinds, and fruit and vegetable scraps with water) be just as efficient, or should I stick with a store brand nutrient base…?
Thank for the instructions on building this, it is a really cool idea and it is awesome to teach people how to be able to do urban and indoor gardening!
Man, I was really excited to get this going in our home, but WOW….what a hassle of a project so far. Anyone have any ideas why the pump would not push the water up the system. I can’t seem to get the water higher than just over a foot above it’s intake. I’ve already invested 10x the amount of time driving around returning the 3w pump, the 4w pump…trying other different materials that would allow me to see the whole process….it’s just not moving the water. Any thoughts?? My wife is going to leave me if she hears any more of this EZ “readymade” project. HELP
This is such a crucial resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing websites that realise the value of providing a supreme resource for free. I truly enjoyed reading your post. Thanks!
So I’m ready to give this a go- but I’m thinking that maybe I can try altering/simplify the system so that I don’t need to use a pump-airlift…Just an extra bottle at the top to feed the nutrient water? how much water should go through this system in a 12 or 24 hour time frame? Anyone have any suggestions
to the admin’s of the site – seems like a wonderful idea, thank you. i’m excited to start, but it seems like a lot of users are having problems with the pumps. for those having problems, has a solution been found? it would be useful to have actual part numbers as well (primarily for the pump).
thanks so much.
I started off wanting to build the more complicated Window Farm but it was becoming too expensive and bulky – so I’ve decided to work with the airlift system so I could learn and later expand. I am currently stuck on the air pump – I’m not getting enough power either. I am currently working with the Elite 801 air pump. This pump has only one air outlet so I have just one tube and air needle going into the air lift tube and it’s just not doing the trick. Do I need to try a different air pump or is there a way to work with the one I have?
Hey Britta – I just tried to download the updated PDF (twice), but the resulting download is six blank pages… not sure if it is a problem with the PDF you’re hosting or a version issue on my end, but FYI.
Hey Britta,
I am waiting for the new upload. You said it was suppose to be yesterday, but the file doesn’t seem to be updated. Do you know when it will be?
Hi, all,
I see a lot of questions here in the comments about pumps not being powerful enough to lift the water to the top of the system, but I see no answers/responses. Can someone please help us out? I just put my system together using all of the recommended parts, but the water is not getting to the top of my system either. In fact, it’s barely making it up to the first plant. I’m using the Petco pump for a 13-106 gallon aquarium. I suspect that air is leaking out where the air pump needles have punctured the air lift tube, but I don’t know how to correct this. A guy in a garden store near me recommended a wey… anyone know how to use one of those instead of the air pump needles? Thanks for your assistance.
Hi Annbird and all. This is Britta writing as Maya (we are working through glitches on multiple fronts at the moment. Please go easy on us!).
I have created a new thread on airlift troubleshooting here, but here’s what it says.
First, if you have not done so already, notice that the post up top is updated and there is a new version of the how-to with more friendly advice on how to build a fool-proof airlift.
1) Please download the new instructions.
2) Visit the new airlift troubleshooting post here.
No one said a collective R&D process was going to be painless! However, I do convey my deepest condolences and empathy to the rest of you who are also on the front lines of failed experiments. Deep breath. We will all get through this together.
Also, It is so much easier to SEE what should be adjusted. IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH YOUR SYSTEM, PLEASE CREATE A NEW POST AND UPLOAD PICTURES OF THE PARTS YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, TAG IT AIRLIFT TROUBLESHOOTING, & THEN JUST LINK TO THE POST HERE.
Fantastic!! I’ve got some seedling starting to pop for my garden, so instead of thinning the extras I’ll build this little thing.
I’m going to link here from my blog.
why was an air pump used instead of a submersible ‘fountain’ pump? A submersible pump would make the installation easier, would remove the apparent problems with inadequate ‘lift’ and would be roughly the same cost.
Going to try it this weekend/week, that said, you might be better off relying on a Ground Fault Interrupt socket rather then just a dry loop to avoid short circuiting and electrocuting yourself.
This is the type of socket they normally install in the bathroom…. Might be safer over all and it’s pretty much a standard for aquariums if you get into it =0
Additionally as I posted before on some of the other threads, is there any benefit in using a air pump water elevator versus an actual water pump considering both can be bought for the same price, but one is specifically designed to do what the other is being hacked into doing.
The only reason I can think of for using the air pump is for aeration? But If aeration is that important of a factor, you can easily create that by causing some sprinkling to occur in the first chamber, and the constantly download drip/flow should aerate sufficiently for the bottom two chambers as well should it not? Wouldn’t that cause alot less problems for everyone having problems with the airlift, while simplifying the mechanics of this project even more, while reducing even more cost, and even opening up some of the equipment to be reused if you decide to scale up?
If aeration is absolutely required, one could make a small venturi for *REALLY* cheap…. and that would I imagine provide all the aeration you would need I imagine =)
All theoretical of course =(
a basic question: i’m in the process of building my 3 plant airlift system (waiting for parts to arrive in the mail). it occurred to me tonight that once the thing is built and i plant my plants i won’t know what to do next. is the idea to always have water in the reservoir so water is always trickling down? is the air pump supposed to stay on all the time? when and how much of the nutrients do i use? thanks very much. -sam
Most nutrients say on the bottle the ratio for mixing them and yes you do always want water in the reservoir so it is trickling down. You can put the air pump on a simple light timer ($5 at your hardware store) so that they only turn on every half hour or so. Be sure to read the airlift troubleshooting post. And read some of the seed starting posts too. Use the Categories dropdown bar on the our.windowfarms.org homepage. I recommend starting extra seeds in peat pellets or composted tree bar (e.g root riot brand) starter plugs outside of the windowfarm and then only putting the best seedlings into your system. Good luck- Britta
thanks! i’ll post images and write about them when it gets going. great project!
It looks like may of you are having problems with pumping water. Having experience in Hydroponic systems, I recommend going to Lowe’s or Home Depot. They have pumps that can be submerged in water, and will take care of your pumping problems. I recall the smallest one I purchased had the capacity to pump out 20 gallons of water in my re-circulating hydro set-up, and I believe the cost was around 30.00. Now this was a grander scale as we used heavy duty hard totes to hold up to 20 gallons of water going into the hydro trays. So if you want to garden on a larger scale it would work also. We only used fish air pumps to keep the water circulating so the nutrients did not go bad.
I see comments on watering every half hour. Now if this is designed as a drip system, it would work. Dripping constantly keeps the grow medium moist. I think that if I were to try out this set-up I would use grow-dan. It keeps moisture but you can not over water your plants either. Over watering causes root- rot and your plants will die. Hydroponics are very touchy, and they only way to learn is hands on. Loosing a few plants along the way is to be expected.Keeping logs on everything you do daily will give you an idea of what is working, and what is not. Oh, and please never use anything like miracle grow for your food supply. Stick with organic sources so your food is not tainted.
I don’t live in a big city. I am actually in Upstate NY and the warm weather here is fleeting. A few months of warm weather and then we are back to snow! A system like this that can be used all year around is really quite brilliant for “anyone” who would want the satisfaction of being able to grow their own produce all year round. It is really very inventive. And I like the angle of how the system can be geared towards apartment living or those who reside in small spaces. Thanks for sharing and inviting others to be a part of the innovation.
Actually amy, in this particular design we are trying to eliminate the need for a water pump and all the complications of running water pumps. WE are using an air pump to pump water– thats why it is called an air lift system. Water pumps are much more expensive and cannot run dry. We have another how-to called the reservoir system that uses a water pump to pump up high and feed may more pumps, but that is a bit difficult for beginners. Folks, if you are having trouble getting your airlift working, see the airlift troubleshooting post. I mention in the first comment on this thread. You just need to reduce the friction in the tube and get the tube as straight as possible. It has worked for hundreds of people now. You can do it!
submersible pumps cannot run dry. A water pump in this system would be a gullywasher and would suck the water out of the reservoir too quickly and eventually burn itself out from running dry. Even if you put it on a timer, it is difficult to get the interval short enough so that it does not suck all the water out. We’ve tried it many times and after almost a year of lots of people experimenting, we all decided to abnadon water pumps and go with the airlift technique.
Water pumps also consume much more energy. if you are interested in using a water pump, see the reservoir system how-to. It is built for a water pump.
Hi, I am from the children’s museum in the Philippines and as part of our environmental advocacy, we would like to teach underprivileged children in the inner cities about the need to grow their own vegetables. I am very interested in this one. May I ask how much is a set for this three plant system? thanks
finally! i found a workable hydrophonics project.
have been trying to find and source for something which is simple for home use. thanks and great work guys!
hi, i am looking forward to giving the 3-plan system a try and i appreciate the instructions posted here. however, the current PDF file is very low resolution and is very hard to read especially when printed. the following file is better (even if larger size) and it would be great if it was linked on this site. it would be better yet if the text was black not gray, which would make it much easier to read when printed.
thanks.
the “good” (large size) version of 3-plant instruction:
http://www.windowfarms.org/howto/3plantairlifthowto1_27_10.pdf
Hello, I just learned about WindowFarms today and I was eager to get started to I tried to download this guide but the pages are barely readable. Could you please upload a higher quality PDF file?
thanks