Hi,

Please can you provide some information on the IWS, but only if you have one or are good friends with someone who has one. (Everyone in the shops keep saying, "Yeah they are really good, heard good reports") - Yet i dont see any reviews on here.... where the actual growers are!

This kit is a bit pricey but the best way to go is Ebb & Flood after much talk, and to fit in the space nicely would require 4 x other E&F Kits and it would cost as much as a 24 pot system and not be as fancy!

So, the space is about 1.8m x 1.8m = 3.6m2, this is purely space for the pots themselves, and is the flowering room, theres other space for everything else, and a bit of space for a mother / cloning / vegging area! When i used to do soil growing, i done 9 plants per square meter, so probably the 24 pot system would be best.

The questions that i get when looking at the system are:

• If you have used one what yield did you get and what was your setup like in terms of space, light, and number of pots
• If you bought say, a 24 pot version, can you just use... 20 pots?
• What kind of plant spacing have you been using, ie how many pots do you find optimal for your area?? Is it a case of cram em in as close a possible, or give them room to breath? This system looks like it might work best growing monsters

Any advice would be great, positive or negative. Pictures would be awsome.

(P.S. I know there is a huge markup on the system and the parts could all be bought seperately and be almost as good for the half the price, but its not for me.)


Thanks for reading!

This is what I'm going to be using in my room which is still under build.

I was going to use 12 pots which is what I bought but I'm settling for 6 and growing trees.

I've got the kit and it looks great quality ( although as you say it is overpriced, saying that those brain buckets are a nightmare to home build)


you need minimum of 100mm between the bases of the pots which are square for pipework.

I've tested it and it works as it says on the box, I'll be firing it up next weekend on a clone grow.

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=129006

Snadge, your room is the sh it!


So you are going down the route of 3.4 sq/m, with 1200w and 6 pots. That sounds a bit generous to me??

I was thinking:

3.6 sq / m, 3 x 600w Lumatek Digital, and either 12 or 24 pots.

I think i may be imagining that the pots are smaller than they really are.

What do you think?

You'll be suprised at the space the pots and their bases take up, I'll set my room up shortly with the bases and pots and take a picture so you can judge.

here you go gaz_0001

The way I look at it is that you have 10l pots, you may as well use the full growing capacity of that so you need space around each plant.


Click to view attachment


the other 6 pots could be used to start a home made veg area, packed together with a reservoir placed under the pots ( without stands ).

The other advantage of buying the 12 pot system is the larger reservoir, more than double the size of the 6 pot system = less filling and more stable.

Wow, they do take up some good space. Cheers for that, huge help!

no problem mate.

im thinkin about this system for my next grow.

im runnin a top feed run to waste at the mo, was thinkin about gettin the iws drip system and runnin to waste, good idea?

if thats a none starter goin for the std set up.

is it a good system, whats the noise lvl like?

would it be poss to get 9 in a 1,2m3 home box?

only if you dont use the sloping square base stands,these are 400mm2 and the hoses sit below these

I bought the IWS 6 pot upgrade kit and built the rest myself according to their online manual.
I just needed to get a big resevoir, 2 pumps, 1 digital timer ( instead of that ott timer they supply with the full kt)and the brain bucket was pretty simple to built as well, just needed 2 floats and a circuit board - overall i saved £300+ plus by doing it this way and it is identical!!

I am growing 6 churches ( currently flowering ) under a 600hps bucket bases are spaced around 30cm from one another but this system is very flexible so you can space them out more as your plants grow.
If you go down the route I did make sure your res. is big enought to accomodate expansion.

I think this is a great system!!!

IWS is a pump~n~dump? And they have the hubris to call it the Intelligent Watering System?

Build your own. It's far less expensive and far more satisfying. I built a flood/drain system for peanuts using drainage pipe elbows and what nots. I think I had something like $65 in a 6-station system. Engineering it and building it were a source of satisfaction for me because I am the only person in my house who is typically not allowed to use their own power tools.

You can do this!

You don't need to pump and dump, you can feed it back to your resevoir

Sorry, I was using American slang. We sometimes call flood and drain systems pump and dumps and that is incorrect as pump and dumps are feed-to-waste systems.

I'll try and clean this up. I hope this won't be an issue between us. Yanno? Wouldn't want to have to avoid you in the local grocer over this.

iws best around . strain in them would be w/russian finish at 2 and halt foot , trim them and you should be very happy with the weight at the end. no plenty of people who r on them and love it. every one to there own. best of luck.

where did you get the circuit board?

REUK - do a search on google. Threy are a renuwable energy company which sells stuff and offers some great advice!! they make up boards for all ur requirments. the board needed for this system is under sump systems or water systems. was no more than £15 inc delivery.

cheers mate.

I've just spent about £3000 on a IWS dripper system, for a friend that wanted a user friendly system, I have set up many many grow rooms small and large, I've made my own hydro and aero systems in the past and bought ready to build systems like this and this is the only large system I have ever bought that did what it said on the tin with no tweaking, and it took less than a day to set up and test. Yes it is quite expensive ( the brains unit is a stupid amount of money for a pump a float switch and a bucket with holes in, we still call it the idiot unit) if you want a small set up, say less than 10 sites I would say make one your self much cheaper. but if you want a big set up I can recommend IWS either the flood and drain or the dripper system. The way it works is smooth, lovely drainage, and looks the part, very clever and yet simple. One last point, if you are growing sea of green, or not growing big plants (full size) don't go for this as the pots are massive for hydroponics, or divide the pots into two with something and put two plants in a pot and train the plants.

i bought a multiflow same deal as the iws grew lots of different ways and this is the easiest and best yielding by far !

What sort of floor area does the 48 site system require? I'm torn between this or finding out more about the aeroflo 96 site. Only thing is I've not played with aeroponics yet and a 96 site might be a bit ambitious.