Harbor Freight greenhouse

[villon]

I see that Harbor Freight has the small 6x8 greenhouse on sale for $250. Has anyone here had any personal experience with them? It looks mighty tempting, even to a cheap-skate like me. Chas

[Gary Woods]

Is this plastic covered or polycarbonate? The plastic cover will NOT survive a winter (and they don't sell a replacement). But, it's cheap and will do the job, sort of.

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

[David Hare-Scott]

It will not survive a winter where? Everywhere or at Queen Maude Land?

D

[Gary Woods]

Sorry; should have said "here" which is in my .sig. Upstate New York, U.S. But it didn't survive very thoroughly, so unless it's winter on Kaua'I...

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

[villon]

It's polycarb panels, but the door looks sort of junky. I keep telling myself I could build a better GH than that if I wasn't so lazy... still, it looks tempting. Plastic sheets seems like they'd have to be replaced too often. I see you are upstate NY AND a HAM. I'm on long island now but have spent many summers up in Ithaca/Watkins Glen. I haven't been on the air in a couple or three years but I used to hang out a bunch on 40 and 80 meters - mostly cw on 40... Chas (N2JIW)

[Pavel314]

My wife and I live near Baltimore, Maryland. We bought their 10X12 greenhouse kit, aluminum frame with polycarbonate panels, and found it to be very flimsy. Whenever the wind got over 30 mph, which happens frequently here, the pannels blew off. I bought a box of extra panel clips which helped a bit but we still lost panels in high winds. I finally glued them in with a caulking glue.

I tried firming up the structure by adding wood cross-beams but that didn't help much. The door was the weak point. In retrospect, I should have faced the door downwind to the prevailing flow, so I'll take some of the blame for the door blowing in.

After two winters of this, I tore it down and built a greenhouse out of pressure treated framing lumber. We used most of the panels from the kit for the walls of the new greenhouse and bought heavier stuff for the roof. The old door got recycled as the new door, but hinged instead of sliding and on the downwind side this time.

Paul

[Frank]

I'd be concerned that the cheap plastic panels out of China may not have the light stability of plastic formulated for outdoor use. Only stuff I buy from HF are things for occassional use. They are not known for selling quality products.