No not cheap little valves that's for sure. The idea of letting the plant feed itself bottom up sounds good. No flushing either. Sounds weird, but looking forward to seeing how that works. What attracted me to it was the ability to leave it for other things without manual interaction on a daily basis, which I may not have time for. And when set right I could in theory leave it for a week or two to tend itself. Like that would ever happen, hahaha don't know about everyone else but "talking to the plants" everyday sooths the soul