hello all, i have recently been looking at the website of a very expensive growshop that we all know based in the UK (begins with E) they have their own hydro system called "The Multipod System" i have read all about it and it seems to be an excellent system if it works. i was thinking of getting the 12 pod system with all the upgrades but it comes to over £1500 GBP, i want to know if anybody has used this system and if so does it do exactly what it says on the tin. what kind of results did you have?

all opinions/comments welcome

i need feedback from people who have grown in this multipod system and not the people who make it.

thanks in advance

monty

anybody ?

Dont look like it mate I can understand why though(£1500)with the cost of the thing especially when all it is is a plastic assembly which could be done DIY style for hundreds of pounds less.

Plus most folk have small grows and wouldnt be able to house summat as big as that

Owd

if you like big black pots and have a fair bit of money to spend then you might check out the .uk 420 grow shop

There are certainly cheaper multipod or multiflow systems about if that is what you are after do a bit of searching on the web and you will surely find some other systems are available.

bb

hi there one and all its been 5 years since i started growing ive learned a bit ive just bought a hydropod superpod system im just going to do my first grow with this system and would like to share what happens with everyone else up to now all ive done is set the system up.i will be putting some ladies in on sunday.its a 200ltr tank on that unit so ill be adding nutes to start with a small amount adding daily until i get to full strenghth which will take about 2 week i will post and get some pics going on here to help all and iff any one can help me aswell i would be gratefull

Hi Monty,

I have the 16 pod system. 2 grows with it so far, cost me £180 on Ebay. Works fine in veg with small rootball. Causes all sorts of probs further into grow. Roots will block feed pipes at the bottom causing longer flood times - needed to make sure all plants get equal nuts. This in turn means if youve got a runt with a small rootball, this will get flooded quicker and I promise you the overflow pipes are not up to it!

I line all the pots with a silk screen on the bottom to stop pipes blocking. Always check your flood timing and keep checking them all grow. Also as the clay balls rise it floods! I would definitely put in a few blocks of rockwall (broken up) just to give the roots something to hold on to. This is what I do - learnt after the 2nd grow! I suppose you could use Coir depending on how you're growing. Be very wary of this with cuts or seedlings, or they fall over and drown!

No way would I do 3 plants in each pod either. Really clean clayballs well or you see dirt build up on the waterline.

My current grow, which is at almost 12 weeks flowering Sunday, are on done on the 16 pod system.

If there is anything else I can help you with, dont hesitate to ask.

Peace!

all you need for hydro is bubblers bang em up ya self in no time ive tried ebb and flow pricey table did produce a good crop

bucket with airstone produced a much better crop

i sold the ebb and flow

peppi

the price of the system beggars belief
its a sad state of affairs when something so simple can be dressed up to
be the be all everything..promise the earth and deliver so little
for that money you could build a comparible system for a fraction of the costs
some of the control boards out there are £1200 plus yet by coincidence i will post one done myself for approx £300
avoid the hydro shops
build it yourself
love
arthur lee

Mysystem works fine and i dint pay a fraction of what the guys quote. The dude said in the shop he wouldmatch any other shop. I faked a call to another grow shop and actually rang my better informed friend and walked out with at least a 40% discount.

This shop gets slated but i found them really helpful, and the system does the trick.

I used one for a few crops, a 4 pod. The growth is amazing, never seen anything like it before or since. I didn't have any blockage problems even though roots had grown all the way from the pods along the return pipe to the reservoir! But they do take some looking after, there's always an hours worth or maintenance or prep to do nearly every night, and cleaning the thing between crops is a right arse ache. Another downside was that it all looked a bit "drugs laboratory" so I switched to growing in rockwool chips in sankey self watering pots watered by hand and get results nearly as good, same timeframe, but about 80% of the yield.

i just recently grew in a flood and drain pod system from the so called 'e'. it worked perfect and i liked it better than the other flood and drain systems i looked at. bit pricey though, must be lots of rich people living in guildford

Hey i have been using the 4 pod system for about 2 years now,
I got the 4 pod starter kit at sumit like £450 Wow but it was my first time and wanted to get it right.
Well it has been great, i have had probs with the roots getting too big, but too big in 15 letert pots is gonna give a great yeald and if ness u can pull the bottom feed pipe out and clean it of roots iff u get a blackage..
I had to do that cus i nocited a plant was looking abit yellow so i put my finger in to the pebbles and there was no water comming up the bucket.. 4 weeks from the end and i thought my plants where a gonner . But i was told to do what i just said, and even though the water did not come right up the bucket, the root ball was so big it just sucked it up via capilary what evr its called heheheh,
The 4 buckets sit on top of the 45lt ress, I do 1 per pot now and can get atleast 5 per plant, i have had alot more when given a bit longer to grow, and that with a 600w hps above them.

But i have just brought a 8 multi pod system with the brain butts instead of just a ressie and a pump that used to flood for 1 min every 3 hours.

I have not set it up yet,(i have a post in enviroment asking about building work) its for a new room im doing so i would love to find out what folks think of it???
And how does the brain system work exacley?? the guy from the shop did explain but i find it easer to talk to someone who is just trying to help and not sell u a product!! cus they gonna big it up and not tell and bad points anyway.
I have the 2 Butts 1 big 1 smaller then 2 rows of 4 pods, (well thats how i want to set it up)

I will watch this post with interest.

peace and great growing to all

thanks for the replies lads.

its all well and good saying "do it yourself for a fraction of the price" but some of us are totally rubbish at DIY like myself

what type of yields were you getting from this system people

cheers

monty

tmontana my very first grow was a 2 pod system under a 400w son t plus using ionics throughout (simple), it returned about twelve quality ounces from two plants. (pukka skunk). i was well impressed as i'm the same as you, crap with DIY

There are sometimes second hand ones in the free-ads paper Loot. There's a hydro section.

Heres a good tip for stopping roots getting into your pipes on your Eso pods.Cut a piece of your wifes stockings and fully wrap it over the grommet,then push it into your pipe and you will get the finest screen mesh strong enough to keep the roots out.

Hey can anyone explain how this new muilti pod system works??? well the brain pot side of it??
It looks like there r 2 barrels, 1bigger than the other,
And i guess u fill the biggest of the 2 barrels!!! I see there is a timer on the smallest of the butts,
How does it work???
The system on a ressie just pumps water up the pipes and in to the buckets every 3 hours for a min or more depending on how big the system is, then drain back in to ressie when pump stops.
I just cannot see how this system will work?? How does the system no how many buckets to fill and with how much water???
Looks like a really good bit of kit, im just trying to understand how it works/runs over the course of 24 hours.
Any advise welcome.

hi there it runs through a series of relay switches and float valves which turn on via the timer thats how there made

hi there

you have 2 barrels 1 big 1 that holds the water
the smaller 1 has the timer/brain on the top
both barrels have a pump in them
when you set the timer up the the pump in the big barrel fills the smaller barrel up
which floods the pods
inside the small barrel is a float when it gets to the top the float turns the pump off in
the big barrel and turns the pump on in the smal barrel and pumps the water back into the big barrel
and all the pods drain
3 hours later to does it all again

hope you got all that

ive got one and it is working fine

Similar kits are available on ebay for a fraction of the cost...whether you feel safe buying hydro equipment via ebay is another matter.

Thanks for the reply bullcross, but i still dont understand how the system knows how much water goes in to each pod?? And how long does it take to do 1 full flood/drain cycle??
I might give u a shout on the pm if thats ok cus im would like to no how u running your system and what kind of results u getting.

Peace and good growing to all

hi
as the small barrel fills up so do the pods
there are pipes on the floor to each pod
so the small barrel fills up the water goes into the pipes
and into the pods
so the pods and the barrel fill up at the same time
there is a float in the barrel when it gets to the fill level it stops the pump in the big barrel
and turns the pump on it the small barrel
this drains the small barrel and the pods drain into the small barrel
and into the the big one

hope you got the



as for results cant help u there
as this is my first time growing anything

but so far so good

3 weeks in veg 2ft tall all looking good to me

pm if you want

Thanks for the reply m8, im understanding how it works now(i think )
1 last thing but how hing does the water come up the buckets??can that be changed in anyway or is it set by that flote valve thing u said about???
Good luck with this crop, would be nice to see how u did,
Thanks again

Don't bother mate..

I have two friends who have the above kit...one is running 20pods and another mate is running 24

Both churn out Ok crops, nothing too special considering the cost.....Pods far to close together to get big yielding plants.....Tall yes big yielding No..

Comparing to other systems..

But one of them is having trouble at the moment with the main barrel overflowing when the water returns from the Pods into the brain and back into the barrell..

Went to speak to the Said shop, expensive rip off shop should I point out..Everything is Double price compared to everywhere else...Which EVERYONE should realise is RIPPING YOU OFF..

They all make out as if they use the system , but no-one in the shop could even answer the question let alone help solve the reason why it was dumping water on the floor......Just stood there looking at each other blankly..



Basically if you fiddle knock or adjust by accident the float valves then expect problems....B....

Lucky he was in , or upto 200 odd litres would have found its way through the sealing, probably bringing the bedroom into the lounge....

Not good..

So good luck with yours,

hi

yeah the pods are a bit close but just make the pipes longer with hosepipe simple

dont use the 24 pods use less pods and space them out more for bigger plants

the water level is set by the float the small drum and the pods fill to the same level

about 2" from the top of the pods

so far ive had no probs touch wood

and plants are growing fine i think

I've got a 16 pod hydropod system with an air stone in the bottom of each pod, best system Ive ever used to be fair, i must be lucky as i've never had a clogged pipe yet, washing the clay after each crop is a bummer, and the price is crazy for what they are, but they do deliver huge amounts of bud, so if you get one, i think if you put in the time and effort, you'll make your investment back just in bud

Make sure you wash the clay pebbles well before use, and also tell them rich people based in guildford, that you want the the 4 hole button gromits for the over flow pipes aswell as the bottom feed pipes, and not just to fool you off with rubber gromits, skankers haha

¿Could you please elaborate further on this?

4 hole bottons that slide into the 19mm drain pipes, stops root clogging the pipes. I have them in my system...

¿Where can you buy those, and could you possibly post a pic?

¿Would putting some tights material over the grommet work just as well, as was suggested further up the thread?

click my signature, cant do you a pic of the buttons...

The systems come with these as standard now and because there in the second bucket and about 1 inch of the bottom there is no fear of them clogging....

The first systems had nothing, then they used folded gromits to sort of fill the holes, now they have shirt buttons in the pipe and it finally works....

I want some gromits....

Mrm

there basically shirt buttons MrM...

- Right - I get you now.

Thanx.

¿So you're saying that the later 'detachable hydropods' (with the barrel res) already come with the improved system?


e2a: ¿How did you integrate the airstones/pumps into the buckets and also how did you get them synchronised with the flow times?

I have no idea if the Multipod system has them.. my one is the Detachable hydropod and has a res underneath...

the multi pod has the barrels and brains bits...i consider that more to go wrong so prefer the detacha pod i have..

E2A- I placed a 5 inch airstone in the bottom of each bucket and hooked it up to a 6 outlet pump thats on the same timer as the flood timer......every time it switches on to flood the buckets the airstones kick in and go of when it stops flooding....so they get 5 mins of bubbling water and 3 mins of draining water...definately working i can tell thee..

¿How did you integrate the airstones/pumps into the buckets and also how did you get them synchronised with the flow times?

¿Also, what pump(s) and stones did you use?

the airstones are like giant polo mints, they have 5mm piping running from them to a splitter which then runs to a out let of the 6 way pump....

the piping is just run up through the bucket in the pebbles and seems to work an treat, when it floods it looks like soapy water is bubbling away in the pebbles with all the popping of the bubbles amongst the stones...

the pump is a haliea one, not sure on its output but its reasonably quiet and good for the job IMO...

go to the growroom photo's forum and the thread i did on the first page... you can see a pic of the system before i put plants in it and the pipes...

Hi OEN,

How tall do you grow your plants in this system before you flower them mate

This is my first run with it, and flowered them at 10 - 12 inch, there atleast 24inch now so thats about an inch a day growth so far....

Hi ive used both types of system, both a 49 pod Multipod system, which they call there superpod system. It's the one with the two big blue 220 ltr tanks and a blue brain unit, which has the systems flood and drain timer on it, and Ive also used there 16 pod Detachapod system like you have where the pods sit ontop of the res. I now have a 16 pod basic hydropod system. I think the detachapod system is a bit of a con to be fair now Ive just bought my hydropod system, because Im still to be convinced that the pods are detachable as they say with out you destroying the systems pipe work and gromits each time you move a pod.

They both come with Detachable pods, both the Multipod and the Detacha pod. The Multipod system I found is by far the easy of the two systems to work with, as your two 220 ltrs water/nute tanks are alot more easy to fill up, to drain and well to just check your ph and cf levels really, also with a bigger system, your ph and cf stays more stable due to the bigger volume of water used. Also because the pods sit directly on the floor with a Multipod system, you have more grow height for plants to work with. One thing that I do find funny is that the rich people in guildford who sellthese systems call it the "detachapod" Well have you ever tried to move a fully grown plant in this system, talk about hard work, and I found out that every time I did try to remove a pod, no matter how careful I was, it would just always make my pipe work/gromits leak, do you have this problem yourself!

Know what you mean about the moving issue, but thats becasue they have gromited the 2 buckets together at the top overflow pipes...although the advantage i feel is no chance of the roots blocking the pipes in the lower bucket...

i looked at the multipod and decided againts it due to the large amount of water, timers, brain's, valves etc etc, heard storys of valves sticking, brains not being brainy and places flooding which i dont fancy ever mopping up so the hydropod system was chosen, 2 pumps on the same grasslin timer cant go wrong as i have flooded it for 30mins and the over flow pipes coped fine so no chance of flooding...

Your right there OeN ,

I flicked my timer once to on by accident and it must have been flooding for a least four hours,

And still i didn't flood the whole house .

Peace & Light

Mrm

Thats the 1st thing I tested out on my 16 pod hydropod system, could the overflow pipes do the job right, they worked great to be fair, I've left my system running for hours at a time just to make sure it works 100% before I got under way, it works like a big nft system if your pump ever stay on. As mines up stairs I had to make sure that every thing worked proper even if my pump did stay on, glad it does. Ive read a few people saying that on the bigger systems, some of the multipod systems where over filling and leaking water every where, but I cant see how this could happen unless you knocked a pipe, or try to move the inner pods, because when I had the system, the float that stops the flooding process, is inside the brain on a metal rod, so I just cant see how you would break that, its in the brain aswell, you dont need to open the brains lid kinda thingy, so cant see how it would break, and as soon as that float reaches its max flood height inside the brain, it turns the 2 x MJ 1000 pumps in the 220 ltr tanks off and starts your draining process, as in it turns the 2 x MJ 1000 pumps inside the brain on, and starts sucking water from the brain into the 220 ltr tanks and drains for like 15 mins. Also the brains max float level is around 1 to 2" lower then the top of the pods it feeds, well these pods also have detahable pods inside them right, giving you say another 2" of height in each pod, so your pods sit around 3 - 4" higher than the brains max flood level, so the only way I could see this system flooding water over the top of your pods onto the floor would be say if the brain was place lower down, 5 " or more on the floor than the pods it feeds, but man, if you got a leak with 440 ltrs of water, and you had your system up stairs, God that amount of water leaking would be a nightmare, youd 100% have to build a strong base out of pond lining, thats what we did, but we never had a problem with the systems day to day running, it worked perfect, until I tried to move the pods around, and then it went bad, nightmare

Check this out, this should make you all giggle, when I had the Multipod system, 50 pod system, I tried to move the pods to get nice even growth, as in this is the the entire point of the pods being detachable, any way I end up with leaks leaks leaks from the pods gromits, so I phone them rich guys up in guildford and told them about the problem with there system. The salesman went in bullsh_t mode and try to worm and wiggle his way out of it by giving me a cock and bull story haha, the guy I spoke to goes I'll give you a little tip from a pro! ((haha joker or what)), he goes put a pond lining down first (((now you tell me i thought , tut tut))) just incase you get any leaks - haha I said one good one salesman!, just incase I get leaks, Ive got loads of leaks, because your top of the line hydro system system that cost me the best part off £1500 is not a detachable system you plonker, and if it was then it shouldnt be leaking any way should it you dope - haha, I said why you talking about leaks mate, the phone went dead, then the sounds off, err err err err right well what it is is that some of the pros even flood there pond lining to create more humidity any way, so dont dont worry about a few little leaks - I just laughed at him down the phone, i said increase humidity while budding, SOUNDS WRONG THAT haha, are you mad I said, I said but nice try for the bull sh_t, I'll fix the problem myself, and so ended up fixing there system by my own methods, but tell you one thing, customer service skills are needed by these guys, and maybe a change in there prices, because the ideas they have are great, just not finish very well

You could build that 50 pod system for £500 max - thats the end of my rant on the so called superpod

Does any body bother flooding there babys at night with these systems! I dont because I think this could help to bring on bud rot, all that water in the air for 12 hours with no heat can only b e a bad thing. When I had the 50 multipod system, during lights off, we had humidity readings of like 70% some times, we had 2 x 200mm accoustic fans and filters on full blast so the fans were doing there job, i think at night as the system floods, it pushes to much stale air/moisture into the air, that hangs around for 12 hours until your lights come

Hello,

Haha detchable by arse ...

I don't flood at lights off at all, I did try it but the pumps woke me up...

Peace & Light

Mrm

i dont flood at lights off humiderty goes too high

Hi Mr Mullen

Cream of the crop grower I see, you sound like a man that knows his system.

How often do you feed your babys dude, i know you said you dont feed them at night

Im feeding my for 4 mins, every 3 hours. I've heard people get great results feeding them every two hours lights on

what have you found works best for you in this system dude

Have you done a grow diary on here that I can view a link would be nice,

cheers and all the best.......

Mine is the same as yours, 4 mins every 3hrs, not sure i will bother trying other times as they seem to love it....click the red hottie hydro signature to see mine current / first attempt with the system....

My friend has a normal timer and floods his for 15mins every 4hrs, again his results seem fine....he does'nt feed at night neither...

I've used a 4 pod system for years with pretty good results. But the customer service is shit-exactly as described in this thread- cocky salesmen who think they know everything.

So when I decided to expand I just built my own to the same design. I used bigger buckets (20l) to see if that gave any advantage. A 2 Pod stand alone system cost me £50 and about an hour of time to make, and of that £30 was the pump!

Currently got the new pods running alongside the old ones fine.

Choosing a hydro system is like taking a wife, be careful what you wish for.

They all yield well, if you're up for good yields. None are perfect but if I get 1.16gpw (published results btw) is that the system for you? Fuck No! It has to suit YOU! You can read up on what gave me the 1.16 but means nothing, it's what suited me, not you. I can follow your great success but it belongs to you, not me and I won't get your results if I don't care too much for your style of growing.

Go for yield and you'll go short. go for what is YOUR grow and you'll get plenty.

Well i have just finished my first grow with this system plus the airstone MOD and im well happy with the results, only downside to this system is the cleaning of it...utter nightmare, but i will have that because the system performed so well and was a piece of piss to manage and maintain...

BUT, and its a biggie, If you want one of these systems then simply build it yourself and save a fortune..