Interesting that you don't light having two flaps. I see that as a feature but realize that it's a cost driver, too. Gorilla Tent is now selling tents with one big door and there's a signficant cost savings.
One comment on tent doors in general - make sure to use lube. Snag a bottle of silicone spray and use it on the zipper tracks. It could add a lot of years to the tent.
A few of thoughts about the two flap design vs the all in one.
I've had my Gorilla tent for seven years, one grow in 2017 and then started using it again in 2021. It's 2' x 4' x 8'. The extra height comes from an optional height extender. For the past three grows, I've grown "a shrubbery" by using a veg light + lots of LST so my plant is 30" x 20" x 18" tall. That's not using the extra height but when I grew autos, I needed that height because they got to 50"+ in height.
Growing in SoCal, I need a humidifier and I park it in the right front of the tent. With the Gorilla tent, I unzip the center zipper and then the left side at the bottom and so I can lift up the bottom part of the left flap, refill Hugh, and then zip up again.
I go through the same procedure to check water levels in my res (my res if 40" wide by 20" deep) - open the right side, drop in my sensor, take the reading, and zip the tent back up.
Another issue - I take light readings at multiple points across the canopy and, seeing that the reflection from the front of the tent can add 100µmol to the light reading, I unzip the main zipper and then put the sensor (it's on a wand) into the tent. With the flaps closed, I'm able to take readings anywhere in the tent and they accurate.
Similarly, when I want to just look in the tent, I loosen the top zipper that runs across the tent and then unzip the front zipper a few feet and stick my head in the tent.
I did watch Shane's video on his "tests" and, pretty much, blew it off because he completely missed the advantages of the Gorilla tent, as I've discussed above.
What I like about having two doors is that I can do my "daily chores" with minimal disturbance of the environment in the tent. I've put a lot of time and $$ into creating "tent weather" that is very, very stable. The flexibility offered by having multiple doors allows me to tailor my processes to minimize changes in VPD.
I don't recall Shane addressing this flexibility and then discussing how the extra features were cost drivers. That's what I would expect in a fair review or even in a good review.
Another point — how the reflectivity tests were conducted. Yes, the Gorilla tent had lower reflectivity and we saw Shane move his sensor around the tent floor. If growing cannabis involved getting the highest PPFD on a tent floor, I'd take into account the test that Shane performed. In contrast, since I'm growing plants in my tent and the distance between my tent and the top of the tent is about 14", I'm not convinced that Shanes' test is of any value to someone growing cannabis.
I've been around for quite a few years and, one thing that I've come to appreciate is that "every" product we buy is designed to hit a price point. Also, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The market, especially with the advent of the internet which is a superb vehicle for consumer information and products that are mis-priced will either not sell or the price will adjust. In the case of the standard Gorilla tent, it's more expensive than other products because prospective buyers believe the they will get increased value for the increased price. Gorilla has been selling a "premium" price product for many years, a clear indication that they're offering a product that has value to buyers.
In response to market forces, they're introducing tents that have only one door and, lo and behold, those tents are cheaper than their standard line. One change is that the front door has only one zipper and they also do not offer the height extenders that are in their standard line. Those changes production cost and allows them to increase sales into that part of the cannabis tent market.
Shanes video came out before Gorilla launched their new line but, overall, the review he did was, as I see it, poor. He glossed over the features in the Gorilla tent that are unique to the Gorilla line and his test on reflectivity was done under conditions that have little relationship to real world conditions.
As always, caveat emptor.
Just my tuppence.
