Good point about the warranties! Hmmm, my GH roof is almost always covered with an endless supply of desert dust. I can hose it off, but it will be covered again in no time (in spring, anyway.) I have had a lurking concern that IF there is a panel deterioration problem, it may be heat related. I read a post on another forum last year from a Tucson GH owner who'd purchased two 6x8 kits to use the poly panels in his own homebuilt wood-framed GH. He posted that after a few years the roof panels were brittle and breaking. I know he doesn't use his GH in the summer at all, and I figured his roof panels must have been subjected to extreme temps (if it's 110° outside, imagine what it may be inside an uncooled GH in Tucson, especially the air right under the roof panels...140°? 150°?) I hoped my plan to use the GH year round might help me to escape the same fate (I'm hoping I can keep the temps in mine under 100°, although most of my plants will tolerate that.) Still, I note that the three mentions of this problem so far (the Tucson person, yours, and Jamesy40's) have all happened in southern states. If heat is a problem, mine will likely fail sooner than some...so I'm keeping an eye on this trend! I guess it could be an opportunity to upgrade the roof to 6mm at least, eh? :-) Sheri

I can give you some help, although it's been so many years since I built mine, some of the small details aren't clear to me anymore. I'm looking at the newest version of the Harbor Freight manual, and the part 81 white plastic bushings are mentioned on page 17, in step number 5. Apparently the bushings were to be inserted over the part 78 Double Brace Bolts (part 78), before you used those bolts to finally attach the side diagonal struts (part 80.) Maybe you can locate the side diagonal struts on your greenhouse (part 80) and look at the bolts holding it in place, to see if it really matters if there's a bushing to space something a bit apart, on the long bolt part 78 bolt. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to back track, at this point, and maybe it's not all that important.

hex2006, If you have very limited sunshine it will be difficult to obtain much heat transfer into water. The thermal conductivity of concrete is some 3 times greater than water. I'd imagine in an area without much sun that is a consideration. If the sunshine where spogarden lives is that limited, any benefit from passive solar will be difficult to achieve. At the end of a sunny day the black masonry wall (in my greenhouse) is quite hot, much warmer than the water barrels. However, within 3 hours it is cold, much colder than the water. My masonry wall is well insulated, by the way. I read somewhere that only 4" of an 8" thick masonry wall picks up significant BTU's. I'm not sure how correct that is, though. I have a thermometer for measuring air temps in the greenhouse but nothing to accurately measure the masonry wall or water temperature. I researched phase change materials a bit and they still sound good in theory. I couldn't find either a good, affordable source or much information on this method, however. Mark

I tried to unmuddle these folks, mainly because a warranty is only as good as the company offering it. They have at least five different websites (after that, I stopped looking.) Kinda confusing to have so many different sites, some with different phone numbers, but they are obviously working on building an internet presence with websites and blogs (mostly non-helpful copy written for internet search engine benefits, nothing wrong with that.) My guess is the EarthCare greenhouses have to be at least partially manufactured outside of the US because of the low cost, which still makes me wonder about the panel quality (based on my experience with the Harbor Freight Chinese-made panels.) Here is what I've turned up, in case it helps other folks too. This website has the following: "EarthCare Greenhouses is a family owned wholesale and retail company based out of Youngsville, Louisiana, United States. The company is owned by (family names.) Currently, the company employs 4 full time employees and 3 part time employees, most are from the United States, but there are employees living in the Philippines and Romania. Their product line is carried exclusively by EarthCare, within the United States of America. The greenhouses are extremely unique and are built with many features not found in traditional greenhouses, found in the United States. Before the year 2011, EarthCare products were only available and sold at retail pricing, but in January of 2011 the company began accepting wholesale applications for verified U.S. businesses." On www.ourcrazydeals.com" they list a wide range of greenhouses. This site's About Us page says: "Our Crazy Deals is a part of the family owned company Segura Trading LLC, the company was founded, in 2000, with a mission to provide high quality products and services to our customers. We sell a full line of Outdoor Hobby Greenhouses of every brand, style, and price range, also a wide selection of Compost Gardening Equipment, Hydroponics Growing Systems, (etc etc.) The majority of the products we sell are stored in our main warehouse, in pictures below, located in Youngsville, LA United States. Orders usually ship out within 1-2 business days and can be expected to be received in 1-2 weeks of purchase." From www.bestgardengifts.com": "The EarthCare brand is our custom line of greenhouses and green products that are manufactured in Louisiana or China. You will not be able to find this brand on non-affiliated websites. We handle all warranties in house." On www.minigreenhousekits.com they list a range of greenhouses for sale. This site does have a sorta quirky "Who Are We" statement: "Mini Greenhouse Kits is a family owned wholesale and retail manufacturing and distribution company, that strives to bring environmentally friendly products, to consumers at the lowest possible prices. Our goal is to promote the maximum amount of green living influence possible, within the United States of America. Throughout, the history of the company, we have documented, displayed, and researched the natural effects that simple everyday pro-active activities can accumulate, which has resulted in a number of truly remarkable statistics and data. Companies, like us, are far and few between, and the last line of defense, against natural disaster on a global scale." From USA Greenhouses for Sale Store: "The U.S.A. Greenhouses for Sale Store was founded on January 1st, 2011 by Segura Trading LLC. Segura Trading is a family owned company, founded in 2000, that manufacturers and distributes professional greenhouse gardening tools and supplies in the United States, at both a wholesale and retail level." From www.earthcaregreenhouses.com: EarthCareGreenhouses.com is owned and operated by Segura Trading LLC, a family owned company established in 2004. The company is based out of Lafayette, LA with our headquarters in Youngsville, LA. We are the sole manufacturer of the EarthCare lines, which includes every product for sale on this website." This is the website I emailed yesterday, asking for info about their UV coating, and they haven't answered me yet. Since this website deals only with the Earthcare greenhouses you're interested in, this is the one I'd call. The Twitter Page for Segura Trading: "Lafayette, Louisiana; Segura Trading is a family owned company that manufacturers gardening equipment and sell on Amazon, Ebay, Buy.com, and many more places around the web." The Facebook page for OurCrazyDeals.com: "Since 2002, Our Crazy Deals has been providing gardeners across the United States with the best gardening tools and accessories, and at the best price. The company has 2 warehouses in which products are stored and shipped out everyday." ourcrazydeals is also a huge eBay seller, with overall feedback that's quite good (that's encouraging!) I found one comment about a Grow N Up greenhouse from a recent buyer: "Instruction were only pictures, no descriptions, made construction very vague." Personally, I'd call, and have a detailed conversation about the Grow N Up greenhouse. I'd ask specifically about the panel warranty (the biggest appeal, to me.) If they are the manufacturer, they could tell you how long it's been for sale, and if they have had to replace panels under the warranty. You could ask how the panels are installed on the greenhouse frame (a known weakness of the Harbor Freight kit, although easily remedied.) Do the panels attach with clips? Insert into grooves in the frame? Do the panels have a UV coating on one side, clearly marked so that side faces out for installation? (If they say no to this, beware, since Harbor Freight ducks this question too, and this was my first clue that the panel quality was gonna be a problem.) If I had to buy another greenhouse I'd probably buy a Harbor Freight, since it's a known quantity. I like the PDF file on their website to the entire construction manual, so you can really see exactly how the thing goes together, before you buy it. But, the Grow N Up might be a good value too, if you're willing to take a chance on a greenhouse that doesn't seem to have an active community of owners posting about it on the internet (at this time.) Maybe you can have a good exchange with them. This GardenWeb thread from last month mentioned the name EarthCare in the title, but didn't seem to turn up any EarthCare owners: Any experience with Earthcare greenhouse? If you do order the Grow N Up, I hope you'll post back with your experiences.