Tribest Fresh Life Sprouter FL-3000 - Automatic Seed Sprouter for Sprouting Seeds, Greens, and Microgreens | Indoor Gardening, Healthy Eating, and Organic Farming

This is my second automatic sprouter from Tribest. I have the 2000 and the 3000. I feel like the people who gave the sprouter a bad review were not caring for it properly. You are supposed to change the water on the sprouts daily. You won't get that buildup or sludge that some folks are talking about. Personally, I don't know how you would want to even eat the sprouts that have been sprayed with water that came from the pumps that looked like that. I don't change the water 100% daily, but I do the first two days because #1 I do not rinse the seeds before I put them in the sprouter and they will be dirty, and #2 because the water is dirty and sometimes sudsy, I change it to make sure it is clean. I've sprouted a lot of different seeds and have had great results with both sprouters. As far as the pump is concerned, mine cut out on me too, but I unscrewed the bottom and took a look at it. Everything is plug in. The cord, the pump, etc. I unplugged and plugged it back. I think it become dislodged because of all the handling and sometimes twisting I do to clean the pump. Anyway, I put it back in and voila, it worked and has been working fine. I feel like I have to speak up for this wonderful piece of equipment from Tribest because I have a number of their products (dehydrator, juicer, sprouters) and love them all. They are quality and long lasting. If you purchase the automatic sprouter what you have to understand is that it is a closed automatic sprinkler system. That means that the water is recycled. It also means that as the water filters through the seeds there will be debris and dust from the seeds themselves. The recycled water is going to be dirty at some point so it is necessary to make water changes. It's easy to think that you fill the tank once and it's all set, but that is not the way it works. If you do that then you will create sludge, slime and mold. If you don't want to do the work, then don't buy the product. There are other ways to sprout as have been mentioned, but I love this concept and have been doing this for several years. BTW I also have 2 tiers on my 2000 and 2 tiers on my 3000. I sprout a lot. If you are into sprouting in a big way, this will be an asset. If you just do it once in a while stick to the jars or bags or bins. Just don't forget to water your seeds at least twice a day!i like itThis is hands down the worst product I have ever bought that I didn't return. If there was a zero star option I still wouldn't want to rate it that high and would campaign for a minus1option. First let me say I am a huge fan of the Freshlife sprouter. I have had 2 of the 2000 model for 10 years and both got a ton of use, as sprouts are a big part of my diet. SO, when it was time to replace them, the 3000 was the obvious choice becuase I figured it would be an upgrade. Wrong, wrong wrong......The biggest difference I saw between the 2000 and 3000 is that the submergable pump is accessible through a little trap door at the bottom of the reservoir barrel on the 3000. (Don't know why they thought we needed this) The 2000's pump is inaccessible without taking a screwdriver to the bottom. Sounds good right? Wrong, wrong, wrong...The trap door doesn't lie flush because the pump is not housed in the space evenly. The door can't close all the way, meaning that once you add water and turn it on, the pump pushes the straw that brings water to the seed barrel, off the hole in the pump. So if you are really nimble with your proprioceptors, you can kind of feel for the hole in the upper barrel to align with the straw, while you have the top barrel on the bottom barrel. Awkward!!!!. When you finally align the two (blindly), after several attempts at wiggling the barrel around, you plug it in and turn it on and voila....nothing. The straw gets blasted off with the gush of water.. Frustrating. So then I thought I would just take the trap door off altogether and put the straw right onto the pump. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The straw doesnt fit the hole in the pump. It's designed only to fit the hole on top of the trap door. Now you have water everywhere. On your counter, on your floor. Frustrating.So, then I got the bright idea that I would get the straw from my 2000 to see if that works. Yes!! It works! The straw fits kinda sorta into the hole of the pump, and if you can squint your eyes betewen the two barrels you can try to align the hole in the seed bucket up with it, However, it will have a very wobbly fit and look really tippy, but it will spray the seeds. But you will lose the ability to control the volume of water pumped, as the little adjustable part is not usable directly on the pump. Also, the big problem with this method is, when the roots grow down, you cannot see the hole to line it up with the straw anymore, so it takes about 5 minutes of jury rigging to get that wobbly fit, and...you guessed it...water everywhere.If you have spare parts from your 2000, and are too lazy to send this 3000 back, you can make it work although not perfectly and not without dreading the emptying process every night and not without a lot of swearing. Sorry I ever bought the thing....I would have returned it, but I put the packaging out in the trash room, and that is the day my husband decided to go to the dump 2 days early, so the box was gone before I figured out this was a nightmare.If you are looking for a great sprouter, this is NOT it!! But the 2000 is!!!The ultimate question will be how well the 3000's pump holds up, since that is the reason my 2000 became unusable. The pump itself - brand new - is significantly more powerful than the 2000. But - and - like the 2000, the spinning emitter "wings", even on the lowest setting, tend to push all of the seeds in the tray to the outer rim. Ultimately a poor design but done since smaller emitter holes would plug up easier? It also would have been nice if the emitter wings could easily be taken apart of cleaning. All that said, the biggest thing I do not like about the 3000 model over the old 2000, is that the water reservoir is NOT translucent. With the 2000, you could just visually see if the water needed to be replaced - with the 3000, you have to remove the (wet and leaking seed tray unit) to check the water. Really stupid design decision and a step backwards. And while it is nice that the pump is more easily accessible, it would have been nice to have something more "pond pump" generic so replacing the unique Korean pump would not cost 1/3 the cost of the whole unit.12/14/20 Not hard to assemble. I washed all parts and followed instructions included with the unit to put it all together. Just finished with the set up today and have put some mung beans in to sprout as a first crop. Happily, it fits nicely under some of the cabinets in my kitchen.The power cord, which is detachable, is long enough to be useful. While the unit is running it is very quiet. Pretty much the only sound I hear during the 5 minute irrigation cycle is a very pleasant trickling sound. If I encounter any problems I will update this review.I've used the sprouter twice and love the results. The instructions could be better, but I figured it out and have enjoyed plenty of fresh sprouts.This is my second machine and it has died within 2 years. This new machine is better built, more powerful, improved design over the original, but still died within 2 years. The first machine needed parts ordered from USA. Shipping is expensive. My new model needs a new impeller, but i probably have to buy a new motor. Then the leaks will start. I went down this road with my first machine. Not happening. I'm done with Freshlife.Better than the older model. A Lot more power. This is my second unit. The first one the motor quit after about two years. If you are into sprouting this is a very simple easy (lazy) way to go. Buy the best quality seeds so you don't have to rinse the duds away. It's quiet enough to leave on the counter. Measure first though if you want to slide under your cupboards because it just barely fits under standard cupboard height and if you gave a custom countertop it might not fit.The sprouts grow faster than in a jar and it's pretty easy to set up. As always cleaning is a bit of a chore. If you change the water more often you won't get the buildup on the grooves. I use reverse osmosis water and put a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in the first tub full. It does use a Lot of water thou. If you are trying to be water conscience this is not a great option unless you do what I do and recycle the water by putting it on your house plants.there is nothing that can produce sprouts like this machine .. lots and lots in just three days....you change the water once a day and the automatic sprayer on the top does the rest..sprouting in jars is os and the sprout bag is good too but this machine is the ultimate for serious sprouters the cadalliac of sproutersExcellent system but sprouts do not grow as well as the pictures show. Very easy way to grow a large amount of sprouts at home.It was shipped with a missing part and apparently you can’t order it from Canada.