DTOM420
Smoke Cannabis Live with Friends on AFN
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2018
- Messages
- 773
- Reputation
- 0
- Reaction score
- 1,594
- Points
- 0
- Currently Smoking
- Mac & Cheese, Primal Punch, Arise
This is a review of the UnitFarm 5’x5’x7’ (150cm x 150cm x 210cm) grow tent. Cost was around $225 on sale. Shipping was very quick and originated in California. Here’s a link to the tent on the manufacturer’s website: https://www.unitfarm.com/grow-tent/grow-tent-5x5x7-for-sale Best of all, UnitFarm is a AFN sponsor! Ok, here we go....
I was in the market for a medium size grow tent and after a lot of research I decided I wanted to try a higher-end tent. I heard all the horror stories and complaints about zippers so I really looked hard at Gorilla tents. I even went into the big city to check one out in person. They’re certainly impressive and I was about to order one when I found the Unit Farm site. After looking at the specs, I was having a much harder time hitting the “buy” button on a Gorilla. After a couple of email questions to UnitFarm and very quick replies, I decided to take a leap of faith and save more than 1/2 the price buy buying the Unit Farm.
The tent arrived along with ALL the components for my new setup and I spent an afternoon putting it all together and building the 600w (true draw) HLG LED light that would go inside. The tent is pretty heavy with the 1650D material (most grow tents are only 600D!) that, to my eyes and my touch, is identical to the Gorilla Tent. Including the diamond Mylar pattern reflective interior. The same can be said for the zippers - they’re nice heavy quality zippers. I wish they were YKK zippers but I don’t know if anyone uses them on grow tents. I make a big part of my living with tents and packs so zippers are an important part of my life. For that reason, I put some zipper lubricant on all the zippers before I even assembled the tent. I promise that doing this will reduce zipper failure by 75-95%! The tent unzips down the front center with one zipper and there are a series of Velcro patches as well. Then, there are too and bottom zippers for both the left and the right sides - all the same heavy duty zippers. I was immediately impressed with the stitching quality and the overall build quality. It. There are vent ports (10” and 8”) all over the place and 2 small (3”) double sleeved ports for electrical lines; along with 2 viewing windows and 2 screened windows on the bottom of the sides. The frame is all metal and the 22mm poles fit snuggly together to form a really solid frame. I didn’t hang my 185# body from the frame, but I loaded a lot of it onto the roof supports and it left little doubt that supporting that big light, the 8” HyperFan Stealy insulated fan and the 8”x24” Phresh carbon filter. The one little down side of these stout poles is that I snapped the plastic mounting bracket off my Secret Jardin Monkey fan, trying to pop it on. That’s what I get for forcing it! Lol! Turns out the pole diameter is too big for those fan brackets. The Unit Farm tent also includes a nice deep floor liner with waterproofed corners to make sure you don’t have an accident if some water spills. I tested the liner by filling it 2.5-3” deep with water and it held the water for an hour, which is as long as I let it sit. Finally....I love the height of this tent! I’ll take all the room I can get in a grow tent. It’s super nice to have all that head room and so many tents top out at 6.5’ and even 6’, which just seems short to me.
The double sleeved exhaust ports were so perfectly sized I almost couldn’t get the duct work through them but that’s perfect - I didn’t even really need to cinch the sleeves down! The zippers worked very smoothly and the flap system along each zipper really made the tent light-tight. I even checked it with all the outer room lights off (total darkness) and there wasn’t enough light leaking for a gnat to find the bathroom! Honestly, I couldn’t have been happier with a Gorilla tent at that moment. The real test would be how it all held up. The test of time.
Fast forward 3 months to today. I wanted to give it some time before I gave a verdict on whether this was a wise purchase or not. Let me put it this way: I’m currently looking at setting up a separate “veg” tent and I’m going to get another Unit Farm tent, if I can find one in stock in the size I want! How’s that for a 2 thumbs up? The zippers have held up great so far. That said, I try to be gentle with zippers anyway; and I’ve cleaned and lubed them with McNetts zipper cleaner and lube each month as a preventative measure. Aside from a few scuff marks from dirty shoes, I can’t find a single sign of wear yet.
Now, is there room for improvement? Absolutely. Are these tents perfect? Of course not. But they are darn close, in my opinion. About the only suggestion I have for Unit Farm is the addition of access ports on the sides. At times it’s great to be able to open the sides completely with the existing zippers: but for a quick watering or to rotate a plant 90° or tie down an errant branch, it’s unnecessary wear and tear on the zippers and a pain in the rear. Whether it was zippered or velcroed access ports, having the ability to quickly open part of the two sides (enough to water and manipulate plants along that side) would make quick tasks like watering MUCH easier! On a smaller tent, more can be done from the front but on a 5’ deep (or deeper) tent, reaching in is just not feasible. Like the Gorilla tents, these Unit Farm grow tents have a zippered port on the rear but I have found this useless. I think most growers will have the rear (or one side) up against a wall. This adds rigidity to the tent and saves space. So, I can’t access that panel anyway. I can’t imagine a couple of Velcro panels on the sides, extending the full length of the side, would increase manufacturing costs that much; and it would set a new bar in the works of grow tents! I’d gladly pay the additional few dollars of manufacturing cost for a tent that had that access!
YKK zippers would be a nice addition but these zippers do seem to be reasonably good quality.
Another thing I have on my “wish list” is an additional horizontal pole that would clamp on to the sides and rear to stiffen the tent and open up additional opportunities for hanging fans, monitoring equipment and other things inside the tent. These would need to have clamp fasteners on the ends so that they could be positioned at whatever height the grower wanted. Again, this is something I would gladly pay extra for; and it would be a great “add on” item that could be offered separately.
All in all, I’ll give the Unit Farm 5x5 tent 4.5 stars out of 5 stars! The only reason I don’t give it a full 5 stars is the lack of side access panels. 5 stars is only for products I don’t believe can be improved. In terms of value, though, I’ll give it 5 stars! IMO, I can not find ANY reason to spend 2X the money on a Gorilla tent when these are available. Save the extra money and use it to upgrade your lighting or to get a Pulse monitor instead of paying for the Gorilla name! They are not all that much more than many much cheaper tents and are seriously worth a look for all but the most budget restricted growers. ‘Buy once, cry once!’ In the long run, these tents will save money over a cheap tent that needs to be replaced every grow cycle or two.
I’ll update this review periodically if/when something breaks or wears out; to help give folks a sense of their long term durability. So far though, I have every indication that it’ll last a good long time!
Here are a few pics:
I hope this review helps some people looking for a high quality tent to invest in without breaking the bank. Thanks UnitFarm!!
If you have any questions or I forgot to address some aspect of this tent, please let me know.
@Unit Farm
I was in the market for a medium size grow tent and after a lot of research I decided I wanted to try a higher-end tent. I heard all the horror stories and complaints about zippers so I really looked hard at Gorilla tents. I even went into the big city to check one out in person. They’re certainly impressive and I was about to order one when I found the Unit Farm site. After looking at the specs, I was having a much harder time hitting the “buy” button on a Gorilla. After a couple of email questions to UnitFarm and very quick replies, I decided to take a leap of faith and save more than 1/2 the price buy buying the Unit Farm.
The tent arrived along with ALL the components for my new setup and I spent an afternoon putting it all together and building the 600w (true draw) HLG LED light that would go inside. The tent is pretty heavy with the 1650D material (most grow tents are only 600D!) that, to my eyes and my touch, is identical to the Gorilla Tent. Including the diamond Mylar pattern reflective interior. The same can be said for the zippers - they’re nice heavy quality zippers. I wish they were YKK zippers but I don’t know if anyone uses them on grow tents. I make a big part of my living with tents and packs so zippers are an important part of my life. For that reason, I put some zipper lubricant on all the zippers before I even assembled the tent. I promise that doing this will reduce zipper failure by 75-95%! The tent unzips down the front center with one zipper and there are a series of Velcro patches as well. Then, there are too and bottom zippers for both the left and the right sides - all the same heavy duty zippers. I was immediately impressed with the stitching quality and the overall build quality. It. There are vent ports (10” and 8”) all over the place and 2 small (3”) double sleeved ports for electrical lines; along with 2 viewing windows and 2 screened windows on the bottom of the sides. The frame is all metal and the 22mm poles fit snuggly together to form a really solid frame. I didn’t hang my 185# body from the frame, but I loaded a lot of it onto the roof supports and it left little doubt that supporting that big light, the 8” HyperFan Stealy insulated fan and the 8”x24” Phresh carbon filter. The one little down side of these stout poles is that I snapped the plastic mounting bracket off my Secret Jardin Monkey fan, trying to pop it on. That’s what I get for forcing it! Lol! Turns out the pole diameter is too big for those fan brackets. The Unit Farm tent also includes a nice deep floor liner with waterproofed corners to make sure you don’t have an accident if some water spills. I tested the liner by filling it 2.5-3” deep with water and it held the water for an hour, which is as long as I let it sit. Finally....I love the height of this tent! I’ll take all the room I can get in a grow tent. It’s super nice to have all that head room and so many tents top out at 6.5’ and even 6’, which just seems short to me.
The double sleeved exhaust ports were so perfectly sized I almost couldn’t get the duct work through them but that’s perfect - I didn’t even really need to cinch the sleeves down! The zippers worked very smoothly and the flap system along each zipper really made the tent light-tight. I even checked it with all the outer room lights off (total darkness) and there wasn’t enough light leaking for a gnat to find the bathroom! Honestly, I couldn’t have been happier with a Gorilla tent at that moment. The real test would be how it all held up. The test of time.
Fast forward 3 months to today. I wanted to give it some time before I gave a verdict on whether this was a wise purchase or not. Let me put it this way: I’m currently looking at setting up a separate “veg” tent and I’m going to get another Unit Farm tent, if I can find one in stock in the size I want! How’s that for a 2 thumbs up? The zippers have held up great so far. That said, I try to be gentle with zippers anyway; and I’ve cleaned and lubed them with McNetts zipper cleaner and lube each month as a preventative measure. Aside from a few scuff marks from dirty shoes, I can’t find a single sign of wear yet.
Now, is there room for improvement? Absolutely. Are these tents perfect? Of course not. But they are darn close, in my opinion. About the only suggestion I have for Unit Farm is the addition of access ports on the sides. At times it’s great to be able to open the sides completely with the existing zippers: but for a quick watering or to rotate a plant 90° or tie down an errant branch, it’s unnecessary wear and tear on the zippers and a pain in the rear. Whether it was zippered or velcroed access ports, having the ability to quickly open part of the two sides (enough to water and manipulate plants along that side) would make quick tasks like watering MUCH easier! On a smaller tent, more can be done from the front but on a 5’ deep (or deeper) tent, reaching in is just not feasible. Like the Gorilla tents, these Unit Farm grow tents have a zippered port on the rear but I have found this useless. I think most growers will have the rear (or one side) up against a wall. This adds rigidity to the tent and saves space. So, I can’t access that panel anyway. I can’t imagine a couple of Velcro panels on the sides, extending the full length of the side, would increase manufacturing costs that much; and it would set a new bar in the works of grow tents! I’d gladly pay the additional few dollars of manufacturing cost for a tent that had that access!
YKK zippers would be a nice addition but these zippers do seem to be reasonably good quality.
Another thing I have on my “wish list” is an additional horizontal pole that would clamp on to the sides and rear to stiffen the tent and open up additional opportunities for hanging fans, monitoring equipment and other things inside the tent. These would need to have clamp fasteners on the ends so that they could be positioned at whatever height the grower wanted. Again, this is something I would gladly pay extra for; and it would be a great “add on” item that could be offered separately.
All in all, I’ll give the Unit Farm 5x5 tent 4.5 stars out of 5 stars! The only reason I don’t give it a full 5 stars is the lack of side access panels. 5 stars is only for products I don’t believe can be improved. In terms of value, though, I’ll give it 5 stars! IMO, I can not find ANY reason to spend 2X the money on a Gorilla tent when these are available. Save the extra money and use it to upgrade your lighting or to get a Pulse monitor instead of paying for the Gorilla name! They are not all that much more than many much cheaper tents and are seriously worth a look for all but the most budget restricted growers. ‘Buy once, cry once!’ In the long run, these tents will save money over a cheap tent that needs to be replaced every grow cycle or two.
I’ll update this review periodically if/when something breaks or wears out; to help give folks a sense of their long term durability. So far though, I have every indication that it’ll last a good long time!
Here are a few pics:
I hope this review helps some people looking for a high quality tent to invest in without breaking the bank. Thanks UnitFarm!!
If you have any questions or I forgot to address some aspect of this tent, please let me know.
@Unit Farm
Last edited:
ykk are indeed the standard of zippers.but 2 minor quibbles v twice the price makes it hard to argue against this tent.
