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I have read reviews that say jardin and growlab are the best tents but they are expensive. Has anyone found anything on ebay that is priced cheaper but still good quality. alot of the tents on ebay are crap so i do not want to here about anything like that, I just want to know if anyone has bought and used a brand from ebay that is close to quality of a jardin tent,and if there are no such tents then should I spend the extra and buy the jardin.
do not buy lighthouse total crapQuote:
Originally Posted by biggin1212
Surely we could get more guidance than this. I am sure there are quite a few who love the info on initial startup. I am completely clueless and like you would welcome the wealth of knowledge out there. How exciting to be legal.
i'm currently doing my first grow in a homemade growbox, but i am also looking into getting a grow tent for my next grow!!! Some good advice would be great for a n00bie like me
I just started growing (first time grower) in a grow tent and all im saying is make sure you've got a decent exhaust fan and plenty of incoming cool air cause that thing will get hot. I like the tent though. Only paid like 177.00 shipped on Amazon and it seems to be holding up well. I like the fact that it has tons of vents and is easy to move if you need to change locationsQuote:
Originally Posted by RobotSmoking
I got mine on Amazon.com I have no idea what brand it was but I love it . Plenty of velcro closures on the vent openings and heavy duty zippers it was $189 USD for a 48x96x78 they have some cheaper and they have some more expencive.
secret jardin, 1mx1mx2m, £49-ebay. they have kits too but some times cheaper to buy seperate. good advice on good exhaust fan.
If you really want the quality you have to buy Budbox! There from the UK and they are not so expensive. The other tents will be like shit after using them for awhile. Secret jardin is not bad but mine was after using for a year not I such a good condition anymore. Sips where broken and the light was coming true. I bought myself a Budbox and this one is still after a year like new! Also the company gives a warranty from 1 year!
biggin,
First in your original post you are about half right and that puts you ahead of the crowd. I'll explain my answer now. Like most folks you are doing a little due diligence or as some call it research but also like most folks you are being led by the companies marketing efforts of which from a business sense both Jardin and Growlab are smart companies and better at marketing than most of their peers. We do live a consumer marketing driven world. Jardin and Growlab make great tents and I'd say there in the top 5 but not #1 in my opinion nor the cheapest either. There is really so much more to learn. What's the most important thing about a tent which is after all nothing more than a portable room used within a room and any room is no better than it's foundation or support system it's built upon. This reminds me of when I used to whitewater paddle and spent weekends camping in the mountains especially in spring or fall when an ice storm may come through. Do you want a tent that will support all the equipment you would really like to put in it without it falling down? Yes, I remember one spring our state paddling club's Easter weekend we were at Mt Mitchell State Park - highest mountain east of the Mississippi and an ice storm came through during the night. My tent had no problems but the majority of the other paddler's tents didn't make it through the night. I've seen this happen many times camping and the same can be true in grow tents. The foundation is what everything else a tent manufacturers claim is based upon. But which claims are true and which aren't?
With that to me Gorilla is #1 but it's also the most expensive - Gorilla uses stronger poles than either Jardin or Growlab. Argomax from HTG Supply is priced a little lower than Jardin and Growlab but it's poles are like Gorilla's. In regards to TonyL - Europe and Canada too have some darn fine products out there and actually if one digs deep enough in their research they may actually find out some of those European or Canadian companies are selling in the US through some of the other distributors of products like HTG Supply or maybe Grener's. Grener's really has done an excellent job in posting videos for their tents they sell which includes Jardin, Gorilla, and Growlab and a few more.
After the foundation piece let me pass along something Grener's guy mentions in some of it's videos but not necessarily in all of the tent review videos but should be in each one. "No tent is 100% light proof either from the inside or outside but can be made so with a little silver duct tape; some are just really better than others at the basics. " So even when it comes to foundations (say this as so many tents really have all the exact same other stuff in vent openings, floors, mylar inside, oxford tent cloth outside that 90% of them are the same density exactly) even foundations can be shored up pretty simply. I'll get to how to shore it up in a moment.
Now for ebay. Here again, putting things together some of distributors are on ebay and they sell their brand and other brands without brand ID in their postings on ebay. And they can sell on ebay for less than they do on their own websites sometimes for the exact same item or SKU# in their inventory system. You can also figure out who they are on ebay and then contact them via their webpage contact information. Put simple call em direct ask if they'd sell over the phone direct to you now at the ebay price. Some American distributors buy from Canadian or European distributors and some European distributors do it in reverse. Now, there all made in China and even the Chinese manufacturers frankly at times will sell on ebay after a manufacturer has surplus finished product or a squared set of parts to build anything you can build in reality). About 8 years ago a Chinese auto manufacturer subcontracted to build GM products actually decided to reverse engineer a BMW and brand it with a Chinese brand name and BMW had to stop them immediately in the world court.
How to shore up a grow tent cheaply. Add some frame members using PVC piping and connections pieces. There are quite a few PVC piping suppliers out there for the PVC non-plumbing business. People build tables, chairs, swing sets, fishing rod holders, wall racks, and more but think about this one - PVC piping is the cheap man's greenhouse frame and foundation #1 choice. Little PVC and some clear plastic and you got a greenhouse! I can do chin ups using a 1 1/2" sized 3 foot long piece set up in a door jam. Chairs and swing sets can support well over 250 lbs using 2" PVC. Now the greater the weight the short the length for smaller sized PVC used but PVC comes in some really big sizes like 4" or 6" or 8" for sewer pipes. For $20 or $25 you can glue together a good PVC frame support unit for inside of a tent in about 15 minutes.
Another words I bought a Chinese manufactured grow tent on ebay after calling HTG Supply (it's not their own Argomax brand mentioned above) but one HTG bought as surplus from Grow Tent Outlet a distributor in Amsterdam that's kind of like Overstock for grow tents niche market in Europe...It was $115 and I used a little duct tape to make it 100% light proof and did the PVC support member.
But then again, I'm the guy who built his own CFL light system that produces 51,200 lumen for less than $40. Also after doing a little more research I took a calculated risk and bought a T5 8 Bulb System from a California distributor who's on ebay since I'm on the east coast figuring it's a 50/50 chance of damage during shipment but it's insured. That means after having one bulb broke of the 8 installed as they all ship the light fixtures with the bulbs installed and since it's insured and shipped as a complete package and priced accordingly both by the distributor and ditto UPS/FedEx for the freight and insurance cost purposes they ship a replacement one. I originally told them all I needed was another bulb as I had taken the unit apart to remove all the broken little pieces of glass from the broken bulb inside the unit and put it back together (I never had to deal with the wiring to do this). FedEx and UPS sometimes they'll call and pick up the broken item sometimes they don't it all depends on whether your addressed has made a lot of claims or not in their system. Bottom line I now have 2 T5 8 Bulb units that cost me $140 for the both of them! I have also run a few businesses out of my house and UPS and FedEx deliver and pick up all the time. Actually, I was for years the UPS drivers second largest drop off location of his route after the local Home Depot type business in our area.
And that Canadian tent company after I contacted them following the parts manufacturing process trail in this world wide free market distribution consumer driven process world had their US Sales Rep from Michigan call me to see if I wanted to buy some tents to sell. When talking to the company I mentioned I understood the world and how it works and might be willing to pick up a few and flip them myself...
Freddy, amazing post, amazing in that after reading, went out to my 5x10 and the t5 panels had proven to much for the plastic corners. One had given way, but all on top had cracks, quessing temp, vibration, weight or all three.
One day and some pvc, looks better than new
Luv the posts, argh, arghhhhhh,,,,,, I'm gonna plumb, I'm gonna.....©™⌛☀☺♎♈♉♋☝☀☁☀☁☑⌛ he he.
growlabs hands down...definitely worth the extra bucks