Easy auto-watering system with water hub

The solution to watering your plants during vacations and travels is here.

All you need is a bottle full of water and this project.

This project is the result of many attempts and test prints to find the perfect dimensions to have a constant BUT not too abundant water flow. Please calibrate your TPU perfectly (I print the water pipes with 1.8mm^3/s max vol speed)

Cool features:
3 different water pipes with different flows: 

2L of waters last up to 24 hours leaving the soil well moist for days! *(see the UPDATE below)

3 different solutions to carry the water to the plants: choose the one that suits you!

2 different stabilizers for water bottles

• Step 1: There is a pause during the printing of “Weight.stl”, use it to insert some weights inside to increase the weight, or change the print settings to print it at 100% infill to have as much weight as possible and remove the pause;
• Step 2: Once all the parts are printed, insert the weight on one side of the tube and let it fall into the water bottle;
• Step 3: Place the bottle at ground level or higher (if the plant is in a pot, and you put the bottle lower, it won't work: it's physics);
• Step 4: Suck a small amount of water through the tube and, as soon as it starts to come out, insert the tube in the water spike and put it in the ground. If you haven't enough space for the water spike, you can download the “Filter.3mf”  or “Vase_clamp.3mf” print profile (the filter prevents soil from entering the tube, obstructing the flow of water);
• Optional: You can use the water spike as a water hub by downloading “Pipe_70cm.3mf” print profile or by printing another complete water pipe and cut it to your needs, and then connect those water pipes from the water spike to other plants! In the STLs you can also find  “high_flow_pipe_15” and “high_flow_pipe_20” to increase the flow that comes to the water spike/hub (remember to print them with the same settings of the standard water pipe: 4 walls, concentric top surface, and 5mm outer brim)

• Optional 2: If you need more stability for your water bottles, you can download the bottle stands, there's one that's round and fits 1,5L bottles, and a square one for 2L bottles.

  Done! Now the water flow will be continuous as long as the water level is higher than the ground level.

   

Here's some details:

• The water spike has a diameter of 3cm and a total height of 10cm five of which goes underground;
• The weight is 18mm wide and 23mm tall (remember that there's a pause in the print to put weights in it, otherwhise try to print it with 100% infill);
• The filter (to be use as an alternative to the water spike) is very small: only 15mm wide and 23mm tall, you can easily bury it in your smallest pots (if you print this, use my print profile, otherwise the filter will not be hollow);

• The water pipe is 140cm long and the short one is 70cm long with 1mm hole that is capable of making two liters of water last up to 24 hours depending how hot is the weather. The high flow water pipes holes are 1,5 and 2mm wide and provide a much faster flow.

   

  *UPDATE: I tested this project during my recent six days trip, leaving approx 4L of water for each vase: when I got home, I was really surprised at how well it worked: the plants had grown lush, and the soil was still nice and moist! 

  I believe the explanation is given by the fact that such a slow and constant flow of water makes the soil moist in a uniform and persistent way, so much so that it lasts well beyond the duration of the water in the bottles.

Happy holidays!