Experiment 001: homemade auto-waterer vs self-watering pots
·1 min read·Jason
I think I can build an auto-waterer that does as well as the self-watering pots you can buy. I also think a lot of things. So before I start, here’s how the test will run, written down where I can’t quietly change it later.
Status: this is the plan. Nothing has been measured yet.
The question
Does a homemade auto-waterer keep soil moisture as steady as commercial self-watering pots? And what does each one cost to build and run?
The homemade one is a capacitive soil-moisture probe, a small microcontroller board, a relay and a low-voltage pump.
The setup
- The same containers and the same growing medium, out of the same bag.
- The same spot under the same light, swapped on a schedule so neither side gets the better corner.
- A soil-moisture probe in every container, all logging to the same logger. Both systems get judged by the same instrument.
What I’ll measure
- Soil moisture over time, and how far each system drifts from its target.
- How often I have to step in by hand.
- Water used.
- Anything that fails: a jammed pump, a dry probe, an overflow.
What I won’t do
- Call a winner early.
- Change the rules halfway.
- Leave out a failure. If the store-bought pots win, the post will say so in the title.
One safety note
Everything on the homemade side runs at low voltage, from USB or a small adapter. Water and wall power don’t share a shelf.