Miracle-Gro Twelve Indoor Growing System with LED Grow Light - Hydroponic Side Table Planter for Leafy Greens, Herbs & Flowers - Perfect for Year-Round Indoor Gardening, Kitchen Herb Garden & Home Decor

Got this as a Xmas present back in 2019. Looks stylish and fit perfectly in an alcove we have in the kitchen (see photo). Had mostly excellent harvests of lettuces, kales, chards and herbs (got my seeds from Botanical Interests). My 3-star rating is mostly due to the two pump failures. First one happened at the 6 month mark (replaced under warranty). Second one failed this month (lasted almost 2 years). Coincidently both pumps failed after a refresh cycle (fill with new water, turn unit on, "pump stalled" error message in app). Wrote to the manufacturer; they replied pumps no longer in stock. Now what?Regarding the app issues, I didn't rely on it much. The only thing I missed were the feeding reminders (a post-it note on the unit took care of that). The unit will flash when water is low and the lighting schedule can be set manually (turn on the unit at the time you want the light to go on and it will go off 10 hrs later).If I decide to junk this unit frankly I'll miss it. Family said the greens always tasted better than the grocery ones and I'll miss having fresh herbs in the middle of winter.Ought this for an indoor winter herb garden and was initially impressed.Overall, this is a great idea and it looks good. Overall looks and ease of assembly are fine, but other aspects of execution leave a lot to be desired.So let’s unpack the negatives1) Pump Noise Less than week in place and the pump is too noisy. This is a minor design flaw that they could easily correct. The pump needs to be mounted on some kind of elastomer pad to reduce noise -or- they could hang the pump so that it doesn’t make so much noise.2) Water Noise- the pumping arrangement inside the base results in a lot of noisy dripping. Again a simple design flaw that could be easily fixed with a string from the pot into the water3) Glitchy App and Website- the app is non-stop updates, won’t remember its own password, and the links to the website are glitchy or inconsistent. Again- all easy to fixOk Miracle Grow, this is a great idea but a near miss. Please fix these relatively minor issues and you’ll have a winner. I await your reply.Once the plants are in, this unit is functional and beautiful. An attractive showcase. Could not get my eyes of it each time I pass by.Not only it is pretty, it is also a very good growing system. I was surprised that it could give me at least 1 large serving of salad/week.It can hold only 4 plants, not many comparing to other hydroponic systems, but that did not bother me. In other hydroponic systems, one can start with large number of plants, then must reduce the number once the plants grow large any way.UPDATE : June 6 2021 There was an App update a few weeks ago. Some how they have made it worse and it no longer connects. AVOID THIS PRODUCT LIKE THE PLAGUE. BUYER BEWARE.I own two of these. The first one I received on Christmas and the second I recently purchased. I saw some people complain it's loud but I disagree. Yes you can hear it. It sounds like a trickling water feature and I find that enjoyable. Light? Yeah it's bright but my living room is naturally dark and I appreciate the white light the unit provides. The main reason for the wanting one was fresh herbs. Yes you can buy them at the store but sometimes the places are out of what you want, other times you forget you wanted them. Plus if you like to use them in your meals you can spend $40.00 a month. I no longer do that.Pros:Easy to assembleFunctions as a tableHelps light dark roomsRelaxing soundsFresh herbsPlenty of space between plantsCons It's a bit of a pain in the butt to change out the reservoir once the plants get bigger. You lift out the middle section. (comes with screws to secure this piece but I didn't use them) and attach a hose to the pump and pump out the nutrient solution. Getting that piece out with the plants in the way can be a bit tedious.THE APP It's a lame duck. They have not put features in it for some reason and it is the bare essentials to get by. It is the equivalent to a car door that opens and closes but you cannot roll down the window or lock the door.You can choose when the lights on but you cannot set a duration. You want 12 hours of lights on? DENIED! It's not possible without clicking a button every hour. Do you want 18 hours of light? Once again you are completely out of luck. You get 14 and 14 is your only choice.The app tracks when to feed the plants. Want to feed them early because you are leaving town for a few days? Guess what? Denied! You can change it out but there is no way to tell the app you just changed it and now your days are out of sync.It also let's you enter the types of plant you have in it which is nice but once they are in that's it. You cannot edit a thing about them. This means you cannot move plants between units without upsetting the day counter and if you do swap them then your day counter is completely inaccurate.In closing the app totally sucks and is the Achilles heel of the product. They know we need these features yet they haven't provided an update.Buy it because it looks nice , works well and is reasonably priced but be aware that the tech side of it is severely lacking. I've rambled enough. Enjoy the pictures and eat well!Update: the light keeps coming on even after turning it off three times in a row. Too expensive for something to fail after just 3 months old. So now I just turn it on and off myself the beads keep the roots very moist, so even for a couple of days the machine can be left off (should you have to leave your plants to go out of town)The light would stay on and will come on by itself, even after I turn it off, it fried some of my plants!Lettuce loves this thing, planted some basil from the store, after cleaning the roots off dirt and have now four plants three of which I am giving away.I also have placed sunlight deprived plants on the floor around it and they love it.The growing medium it comes with sucks, I bought some beads from the hydroponic store which work a million times better and the roots are easier to remove.Bought organic non GMO sweet mini peppers and planted the seeds and and they are growing.I would buy another one for $100, the other $100 makes it overpriced.