Right, the top-feed/watering is definitely going to give different behavior to how nutes are spread in medium. For me the passive nature without any pumps was a huge plus. I've not tried blumats yet, seems like they're a bit tricky to get dialed in it sounds plus there's a risk of flooding with them that I was looking to specifically avoid.
My next variant to try would be drain-to-waste otherwise as that's on my personal short-list of techniques to give a fair shake.
I just hand water every few days because it gives me at least something to do and an excuse to look at my plants every few days. I try not get any run off in any case, since the goal is to keep nutrients inside the soil that your bacteria and protozoans have unlocked, not to wash their hard work away. Again though, it depends on growing method. I'm no-till, which means I have to watch my inputs including the water I use. Rainwater, distilled, or RO is best because the mineral content can build up over many cycles in no-till. I haven't tried blumats yet, but I know folks who have great luck with them. But I wouldn't trust them alone while I leave on a 3 week holiday. My insurance company is only so tolerant of my misdeeds. Lol
Drain-to-waste is something I did back in the 1990s for a bit, and honestly I felt bad about it. I was dumping nutes down the drain, which not only was a "waste", but also municipal water treatment does not remove those nutrients. Those nutrients end up in waterways, which causes eutrophication and death to my favorite fishing spots. And I like fishing and would rather not want to contribute to killing my fishing enjoyment.
