| | |  | Single Gear / Wheatgrass Juicers | Home » » Tribest FreshLife Sprouter - Automatic Wheatgrass & Sprouter System | | | | | | | Description: | | Automatic Wheatgrass and Sprout Sprouter - Tribest FreshLife Features & Specifications Automatic Sprouter - Tribest Fresh Life (FreshLife) Wheatgrass Growing System The FreshLife is easy to use, easy to clean and only costs pennies a day to run! Using organic seeds ensures that you are growing fresh batches of chemical and pesticide free harvests each and everytime. It is not JUST a wheatgrass growing machine! Grow all types of sprouts and enjoy them without having to hassle with the growing process. This unit gives a constant supply of fresh oxygen and water to your sprouts making it painless to grow those nutrient enriched sprouts everyone so desperately needs but doesn't want to grow! Approximate Growing Times: Alfalfa 5-6 days Broccoli 5-6 days Corn 5-6 days Mungbeans 4-5 days Radish Seeds 5-6 days Sesame 5-6 days Soybeans 4-5 days Sunflower 5-6 days Wheat 4-5 days Other Seeds 4-7 days Features: Easy to use, clean and sprout Quiet Safe and sanitary Costs next to nothing to grow Automatic sprinkling system that sprays water ad supplies air onto the seeds - no need to water your sprouts 2-3 times a day. Producing fresh, nutritious and tender sprouts. Additional barrels available so you can grow additional sprouts all the time (The expansion kit includes an extra barrel, top and bottom seed trays, the water tube assembly, and three stainless steel clips for support) Just add water and seeds! No soil required! Specifications: | | | Features: | |
• Automatic sprinkling system to produce fresh, nutritious and tender sprouts
• Grow sprouts and wheatgrass - All year long
• FreshLife Sprouter is easy to use, and costs only pennies a day to run.
• One level makes approx 1 pound of finished sprouts
• Manufacturers Limited 1 Year Warranty
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 13.58 inches | | Product Width:
| 11.22 inches | | Product Height:
| 11.22 inches | | Product Weight:
| 8.0 pounds | | Package Length:
| 11.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 11.9 inches | | Package Height:
| 11.8 inches | | Package Weight:
| 8.45 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 8 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 8 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
 A waste of plastic: AVOIDJun 12, 2011
By Ron Jamis
"RCJ"
There are several things that I found annoying about this contraption. I'm cleaning house today and making closet space but I swore that I'd take time to alert interested folks about this silly device which I used faithlfully for about six months before I just put it away in disgust. I suggest that you read my summary just below and the "bottom line" at the end if you're in a hurry and just want the big pic in a hurry.
The summary goes like this: 1. Customer service is non-existent. 2. After a while, the tubes and water pump and other parts in the unit get gunked up with a nasty growth. 3. The unit takes longer to grow sprouts than the old fashioned way. 4. The unit begins to squeak and howl after a few months of use. 5. You have to carefully wash the unit each day (at least one time but preferably two times) in order to keep the slime and growth under control. 6. It takes up a lot of space.
Here's the long story:
First, it cycles on and off approximately every six minutes all day long. I'll explain why this matters in a minute. Secondly, the spinner at the top of the water supply tube touches the lid due to the pressure of water pushing up the tube to supply the water-dispersing spinner. If not for the lid being in place the spinner would just be pushed off the tube on which is rests. So, hopefully, you get the idea of how this is designed. It's not a bad design excpept that that a plastic spinner rubbing against another plastic part will begin to make noise after a period of time and use.
After you use this thing for a few months (or perhaps less) and the spinner begins to wear a little, there will be a significant friction noise as the spinner gently presses upward and rubs against the underside of the lid as it is spinning when the unit is cycled to "on". This is not a defect. It's designed to work this way. However, the squeaking sound is very annoying. That's when you will learn that it's turning on and off at six minute cycles. The noise is fairly loud too. I tested it with a professional sound pressure level meter at about 15 feet away and the sound measures 65db which is about as loud as a conversation between two people. For the record, the room ambient SPL was about 35 db as a beginning point. But this review is not only about obnoxious sounds becasue the noise can be eliminated by applying a drop of olive oil to the contact point on the top of the spinner device.
The olive oil will lubricate the two contact points and that fixes the cycle-on screeching sound...for a while anyway... but you will have to repeat the lube job a couple of times each day unless you enjoy the music. I mean what could be more pleasing than the screeching, squeaking sounds of your device noisily growing sprouts in the kitchen!
After a while, you will learn that the unit does not push nearly as much water up the tube which is essential for the water-dispersing spinner to be adequately supplied with water in order to irrigate your sprouts. You will see that some of the holes in the spinner are clogged and the spinner turns more slowly. What happens is that algae and other micro organisms are growing inside the concealed pump and the spinner device and the plastic tubes that channel the water from the pump to the spinner which is positioned about 10 inches above the concealed pump. Yukkk! When you see this dark green and black gunk you'll want to throw this thing out immediately but I contrived a cleaning tool with a very small gauge copper wire and a small amount of cloth hooked to the end and I pulled it through the tubes. I soaked the spinner which was partially clogged with this growth in hydrogen peroxide. I made a pint solution of the same 3% food grade H202 and let the pump run this detoxifying liquid until the gunk stopped coming out. All this takes more than an hour if you have the "tools" at hand. I suppose you could sub bleach for the H2O2.
Now, here's the main gripe: I swear that this thing takes two to three times longer to grow sprouts than the old fashioned method of just soaking them one or two times per day on growing trays or in a jar. So what's the benefit? You have to change the water and clean the bowl and lid each day. The water in the bowl gets really nasty for the first two or three days so replacing it twice per day is optimum. It holds about two quarts of water and you'll use two gallons or more cleaning it at least one time per day. If you forget and fail to clean the water you'll smell it pretty soon. It stinks like a dirty fish aquarium.
If you write or call customer service to ask if the unit is supposed to cycle on as often as it does you might not get an answer. I never got a response to my questions so I assumed that the on, off, on off, cycle is set to six minutes. Again, you'll learn how often the thing cycles on and off when it begins to squeak. While this was going on I kept wondering why does it need to water the sprouts ten times per hour. At first I assumed it was warming the water. But my kitchen ambient temp got wamer each month as winter turned to spring and then to summer and I finally realized that it's a timer...not a temperature sensor that makes it cycle on and off. Customer service never gave me a response to my emails so I suppose they all work this way and my unit is not defective.
Bottom line: it makes nice sprouts albeit with an extra ordinary amount of unnecessary comotion and fanfare and noise and labor and use of water. It takes up a lot of space compared to a jar or a Sprouter Master. So, what's the benefit? None that I can see because you certainly do not just plug this contraption in to your house current, fill it with water and sprinkle some sprouts on the tray and forget it until the sprouts are all grown and ready to eat. And when you finish growing the sprouts you have the clean up hassle. If you're still intent on owning one of these things then go for it but just know that it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to fully clean the roots from the growing tray....provided that you have a small stiff nail brush or similar handy.
This contraption is an answer to a problem that did not exist. In fact it creates more work and mess than any other growing system and the end result is not superior. AVOID.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Tribest Freshlife Automatic SprouterJun 29, 2011
By Roscoe Hammerbanks
This sprouter is one of the most disappointing products my wife and I have ever purchased. The health benefits of eating fresh sprouts are undeniable and so we purchased a freshlife sprouter a couple of years ago. It worked well for awhile but became increasingly noisy and the water flow to the sprinkler became erratic, requiring contant fiddling with the input tube. I carefully disassembled the motor a couple of times, cleaning the impeller and achieved temporary improvement but it finally became too frustrating.
We did get good crops of sprouts and did not want to give that up so we decided to purchase another sprouter hoping that it would perform better than its predecessor. Perhaps the first one was an isolated instance of a "lemon." As it turned out, the first one was the better of the two. The new one has not gone even a month without causing problems. It's noisy, the water flow is erratic and the timing circuit has given up completely.
We will now explore other options for sprouts; if insanity is truly trying the same thing over and over again hoping for different results, we will opt for mental health. My advice to others: Don't buy this product!
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
inconsistent and cheaply madeFeb 10, 2011
By Lily
At first it worked well, and the idea is good, saving all the bother of manual rinsing. But after using it a few times over a period of two months, the motor began to make noises and gave off a burnt smell. I opened the housing for the motor thinking it might be possible there were seeds in the "pump". There was no access to the pump so I gave that up and was then unable to put it back together without cracking the base. It's very brittle cheap plastic, there's no access to the motor, so if it burns out, it burns out. And since I'm staying for some time in Mexico, there is nowhere to service it. Waste of money.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 If only it worked consistently...Jan 26, 2011
By Soffy
"Sof"
I've owned this sprouter for over a week now. It has been as great as the 5-star reviewer mentioned, except for one small yet important detail. There are times when the sprouter doesn't seem to circulate water for hours or even days at a time. If it wasn't for this, I'd give it 5 stars! The day after I received the sprouter I put in four different types of seeds: one large-seed blend, one small-seed blend, one broccoli, and one wheatgrass. The sprouter worked beautifully for two days in a row, while I stuck to changing the water once every night. I knew the water was being circulated properly because they would be all wet in the morning before I left for work and also there would be lots of bubbles on the water container below by the time I would come home from work in the evenings. That told me not only that the sprouter was working, but also that most seeds were alive and well and releasing either enzymes and/or enzimatic inhibitors. Stuff was happening! Also, the water takes in that same aweful yet deliciously rich smell that sprouting seeds can release. Uf!
On the third day, however, the seeds were not wet enough in the morning and the water was completely clean and lacking any bubbles or seedy smell that night. I changed the water again and rechecked that I had put all the parts where they needed to be, plus I made sure the electric outlet was working (ever hit the 'Test' button by mistake on your outlets before?). On the fourth day, the sprouter began working again as expected and eventually I ended up with very decent greens and sprouts (I knew half my seeds were a few years old so I was experimenting and most of them did come out fine).
I then began a new batch on Sunday afternoon. The seeds were still dry on Monday morning and even that night. Today Tuesday, the sprouter finally began circulating water again. I have yet to figure out what I could be doing wrong, since I'm fairly certain I'm following the same steps and putting the parts together in the same way every night. The instructions mention that changes in water temperature are what trigger the circulator to start several times per hour. I'm not convinced that's the problem here, but I will continue to check that as well. I'm really hoping I will figure out what it is I'm missing because I am really enjoying and loving using this sprouter WHEN IT DOES WORK.
As a side note, even when the sprouter has not circulated water, it is still a WHOLE LOT EASIER to simply pour water over the seeds for rinsing while letting all the water drain to the compartment underneath than it was to rinse with the previous jar sprouting method I used before. When sprouting in four different jars, this would take me too much time in the morning while trying to do it half asleep and in a hurry to leave for work. It also made my hands horribly cold in the process (I use a filter that's attached to my faucet which does not like hot water.)
6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
technically not worth itJul 08, 2010
By LaLa-Kazoow
"LaLa-Kazoow"
the general premiss of operation claimed by this manufacture is good - the material of this product is poor; made of brittle plastic... prevents the sprinkler rotation to perform consistently, the body and other parts can not survive minor falls or pressure without being permanently damaged - replacements are costly - not worth the price
See all 8 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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