AeroGrow comes through with a replacement base for the ULTRA

Autumn is nigh, and while that usually means harvest time, with indoor gardens it can mean planting time as well. So I'll be putting my obsession with air cleaning plants aside for a while and turn my attention back to Aerogardening.

Remember how I mentioned how I came from from traveling to find my Aerogarden ULTRA dead with a burning smell coming from it?, Well AeroGrow came through in a big way for me. Specifically, they sent me a brand new base. Now when I first heard they were sending a new base I figured maybe they'd send me some new circuit boards or something and it'd be up to me to figure out how to rip out the old one and replace it. But no, they sent an entire base, complete with the ULTRA control pad and all power cables. And they also threw in a new set of lights to boot.

I'm glad they're stepping up in this way, especially to make sure that the experience of "early adopters" is good (if you recall, I probably got one of the first 10 or so of these things off the assembly line). 

The most obvious difference between the old base of the ULTRA and the new one is that the new one has more screws on the bottom and generally looks a little less "cheap" and flimsy. 

While they were never 100% clear of what the defect in the old models is, it's probable that when users over-watered their gardens (a common occurrence given how hard it is to see the water line), the water would spill over right into the circuitry and cause a short circuit. The replacement cover they sent honestly didn't look too much different from the old cover (I think there were just extra edges molded in), but this new model looks like they did a bit more of a redesign. 

Installing the new base was a snap (literally). I needed to unhook the old grow light hook from the old, burned-out base...

And snap it into the new one.

And so begins another adventure in Aerogardening. And this time I'm going to be adventurous! Stay tuned.