Sup blades, I just moved into a bigger house and I'm ready to move into the big leagues Ok, maybe not THE big leagues, lol, but something bigger than a grow box. I'm looking to buy a 4' x 4' or 5' x 5' tent for my spare bedroom. I don't have much experience with tents, so I want to make sure I get something that doesn't suck. I've been doing some research and, from what I've read, the secret jardin and grow lab tents are the top-quality brands. I came across a tent called the 'gorilla grow tent' in high times mag that won grow tent of the year. Looks like it was unveiled just recently at the max yield expo so I haven't been able to find much info on them in the way of user reviews. It looks to be taller and thicker than any tent out there. Good features, but I don't want to pull the trigger on a tent until I know I'm buying something legit. Has anyone had any experience with them or can you recommend a high quality tent? Gorilla Grow Tent - 5' x 5' - Fullbloom Hydroponics
Don't have a huge experience with tents, but I CAN tell you that you shouldn't worry about what tent won tent of the year in High Times. That magazine gives awards and such to people who pay them sponsorship money. I would go read some reviews that don;t come from such a hugely popular magazine
I would assume you've looked into it already, but if you have a little bit of free time building your own tent would save a ton of bucks. Go to Home Depot, but some PVC and fittings, some PVC cutters and some good tape. Go online and but some black and white poly (panda film) and a tent zipper, and wah lah. Your very own grow tent exactly the size you want it for under $100. Then you can spend the rest of your money on a 600w HPS and a vortex exhaust system. If you must purchase one though, just google reviews for the tent your looking at. If possible get one with a metal frame (or the sturdiest tent you can find).
Metal frame should be a must IMO, unless you can mount the heavier items to a stud in your ceiling. Building a room instead of using a tent isn't a shit idea at all. I had the extra time, ability and tools to build it but the simplicity that a tent offered was unbeatable for me. I may be lazier then you OP though.
Thanks for the info, I hadn't really considered building my own tent. I'll have to search for some DIY guides to see what's involved. I'm pretty handy but my time is limited. I definitely want to go with a metal frame, be it a DIY project or a pre-fab tent. I don't want to risk a fire from a collapsed tent. Better safe than sorry IMO. What would be the best home-made solution for a metal frame? I suppose I could just get some metal pipes and have them cut / threaded at my local hardware store.
I thought it was kind of funny how a brand new company could get tent of the year if they just debuted. The sponsorship thing makes sense. There tent does seem to be of really high quality, I'm kind of tempted to get one and see if it's legit or not. I need to find out what the return policy is on this thing.
In my seven years of gardening indoors, assembling my Gorilla Grow tent has been the biggest and most frustrating waste of time. The instructions are printed in incredibly small type on an 11"x17" piece of paper. There are typos that make me think no one proofread the instructions. The instructions are generic; one set of instructions are used for the 4'x4' as well as for the 12'x12' and the 10'x20'. Because of this, the specific issues that arise from assembling a large tent are completely bypassed. They even misidentify which ceiling support pole goes where. It makes me think the people writing the instructions have never assembled one of the tents. One nice point is that the main walls contain velcro straps to hold up the wall while zipping it together. Except the velcro straps are reversed on two whole walls, so that you have to twist the straps to get them to work. Not exactly terrible, but how on earth could a fundamental problem like this get past any type of quality control measures? On the topic of zipping up the main wall, the zippers on the upper half of my main wall are incorrectly placed (I have two female zippers on one side, and two male zippers on the other side), meaning the main wall is incapable of being zipped up. The solution I have found is to force the zipper shut in reverse, but it only temporary because the forced section of the zipper keeps popping open. Even where the zippers are correctly matched up, it is poorly designed. To open a main door, you have to unconnect one zipper, and then backtrack another. Every time I open my main doors, I am going to be wasting time. The extension panels are great in theory, except my 2' extension is not long enough to close properly. I'm told a new one is coming, but again, how can something this fundamental go wrong?