If your question isn’t answered below, or if your Cave Box isn’t behaving as you expect, please feel free to email me on the address in the Contact section.

Can I use the Cave Box with mushroom growing kits? Absolutely! With the Cave Box you won’t need to spray the kits, just open the bag, put it in the box, choose the Pin preset, then in a few days or weeks when you see tiny mushrooms forming set the Cave Box preset to the kind of mushrooms you’re growing (Or the Fruit setting will work well for most species) then enjoy your delicious and incredibly fresh homegrown mushrooms.

Can I vent the output of my growing chamber to my greenhouse/hydroponics tent? You absolutely could, this would feed your plants with the CO2 produced by your mushroom. If you do this please send me a photo.

My dog ate my Cave Box! If you want a replacement part send me an email and I’ll try and get one to you.

Why is no water vapour coming out? When the humidifier is working correctly you should hear a slight hissing noise when vapour is expelled. Make sure that the controller is on and the setpoint is above the current humidity measurement. Ensure that the wick (the white tube in the jar) is submerged. Remove the jar and gently ensure that the wick is pushed as far in as it will go. Check the small white plug on the far left of the front panel is securely in place and the thin red and black wires are not damaged.

My Cave Box is making a high pitched screeching squeaking noise. It does this if the cotton wick (the white cylinder) isn’t all the way in, unscrew the jar and gently push it into the hole as far as it will go.

How do I increase the humidity inside my growing chamber  If you are using the Cave Box with a particularly big enclosure, or a particularly porous one it may not be able to achieve the humidity you ask it to, for example I use a four man tent to grow mushrooms in, it has quite a lot of ventilation and is also quite big so a single Cave Box can only get it to 83% relative humidity, which is fine for fruiting so I don’t worry about it too much. You can increase the humidity using a sponge in a bowl of water inside the enclosure, and leave it near the outlet of the Cave Box so the fan blows air across it, the combination of the moving air from the fan and the high surface area of the sponge will increase evaporation and increase the humidity in your chamber.

Can I use my Cave Box in my bedroom? I’d advice against it as mushrooms can produce quite a lot of spores which aren’t great to breath in constantly.

Why is the Cave Box glowing red? This indicates that the water has run out or the Cave Box has detected it’s not working correctly. Look at the screen for further troubleshooting information.

Why does the RH reading say Error? There is a problem with the humidity sensor, which is the white rectangle poking out of the hole on the cave box.. First switch off the device and switch it on again. If it persists make sure that the sensor is plugged in properly. Then undo the plugs and put it back in. The plastic grill on the sensor should face downward so spores can’t land on it. Gently pull the socket out of the housing and ensure that the pin on the sensor marked with a + goes to the red wire and the one with a – is connected to the black wire. If it still doesn’t work send me an email.

Fan Error The Cave Box can detect if the fan is spinning and triggers an error if it isn’t, first make sure that the fan is plugged in, look at the picture here (ADD LINK) for the correct socket. If that isn’t the issue gently remove the filter that is covering the fan, it should just pull off but you may have to wiggle it. Make sure that nothing is physically obstructing the fan. If the fan is very dirty you should clean it or replace it, send me an email and I’ll send you one or advise you which one to get.

RH Too Low If the Cave Box can’t reach the requested humidity after a few hours it will tell you, this may be because you’ve run out of water, the enclosure is too big, or the mister isn’t working. First ensure that the jar is full and the wick is saturated. If you haven’t run out of water then follow the steps in Why is no water vapour coming out? to verify that the mister is working. If this is the first time using the Cave Box in a particularly large enclosure then it may be simply too big for the Cave Box to produce enough water vapour. See How do I increase the humidity inside my growing chamber.

Why are my mushrooms all spindly or skinny or weird looking? Why are the caps of my mushrooms pinning ect These kinds of things often mean the CO2 is too high, Increase the number of fresh air exchanges per hour, if this isn’t enough (say if you’ve got it set so high the fan is on constantly) then add more ventilation to your growing chamber, add another hole for air to leave through and tape a scrap of fabric over to keep in the spores and keep out the flies. If this still doesn’t work maybe you’ll have to reduce the number of mushrooms growing in your setup, or perhaps add a pot plant in there? (I haven’t tested this last idea.)

My wick smells dank. If the wick starts to smell funny I put it in a bowl and pour boiling water over it, cleaning it and removing any musty smell, this doesn’t seem to damage the wick. 

Do spores affect the Cave Box? The fan blows fresh, clean air over the ultrasonic mister disk, minimising the amount of spores landing on it. This works pretty well, however one time lots of oyster mushrooms fruited at once in a small space, and I didn’t pick them quickly enough so they got really big and produced loads of spores (younger, smaller mushrooms produce less spores, and are also considered to be better to eat, so I try to pick mine before they get too big). There was so many spores the air looked misty, and the fan and the mister head where coated with them. I dismantled the Cave Box, gently cleaned off the spores from the fan and the mister head with some isopropyl alcohol, and put the Cave Box back together and after cleaning it was back to normal operation. If spores do gum up your ultrasonic mister, fan or humidity sensor past the point of cleaning they can be easily replaced with components that are fairly cheap and available on Amazon. Send me an email and I’ll advise you on what you should buy.

What is the Warranty on the Cave Box? For one year after purchase of the Cave Box I will replace defective parts and make sure your Cave Box keeps growing you mushrooms. After the warranty period I will still help you fix things, but I may charge for replacement parts and shipping. However I will try to be reasonable and just cover my costs and time.

This Limited Warranty covers any defects in material or workmanship under normal use during the Warranty Period. I will either repair or replace the Product at no charge, using new or refurbished replacement parts. The warranty period is one year from the date of purchase. This Limited Warranty does not cover any problem that is caused by conditions, malfunctions or damage not resulting from defects in material or workmanship.

I have an idea for a great new feature for the Cave Box. Send me an email and maybe I’ll add it. I can tweak the software if you want something specific as well, for example if you want it to send out information over USB in a particular format for a data logger I can probably send you a Cave Box with that modification.

What’s the maximum size of growing chamber that the Cave Box can work with? I have grown many mushrooms in a four person camping tent, the maximum humidity that can be reached by a single Cave Box with it is about 83%. The largest plastic tub I have used is 150 liters and the Cave Box is able to easily get it to 95% relative humidity in there, though you should remember that I am based in the UK where the ambient humidity is quite high. If you live in a dessert or somewhere with very dry air you may find that you have to make do with a smaller enclosure or follow the steps outlined in How do I increase the humidity inside my growing chamber.