Exaco BioStar 1500 Premium Cold Frame

I keep dwarf conifers and select alpines in pot culture and dabble in bonsai. I needed a solid overwintering shelter for my plants and decided to go commercial instead of building one. Another reviewer nicely addressed the home-built vs. commercial frames from a cost and effort perspective. The Juwel 1500 was clearly the best of the < $500 lot in my web search. It is well engineered and goes together in quick measure. Just remember to use the proper green corner brace in each corner during assembly: they are marked I (for H1 in the photos), II (for H2), III (for H3), and IIII (for H4) on the inner surface and that correlates to its proper corner. Stick to your assembly sequence and using the photos, note which panels you are using (A, B, etc.) to verify where each green corner brace is located and you'll be good to go.Here's how it works out, in assembly sequence order:Panels B and D are linked with III/H3Panels C and B are linked with IIII/H4Panels A and C are linked with II/H2Panels D and A are linked with I/H1It goes together quite quickly. A second person makes it easier but they are not mission critical if you're a hermit. The automatic window opener that comes with the frame is nicely made and easy to assemble, 3 steps and you're ready to drop the pane in place.There are solid green clips, 2 per pane, to keep the windows locked down in what is a very elegant simple solution.My frame is installed up against the north side of my rural New England house. I put hardware cloth underneath the frame and bent it up 3" all around the outside perimeter to keep mice and voles out. There are 4 anchors included with the frame kit consisting of a mount and a metal anchor rod. The mount snaps into the frame and the rod is driven though a hole in the mount.I first pack topsoil about 3” up the outsides. I use a cedar mulch inside and again deeply around the perimeter to about 6”. Don't use sawdust or wood chips in your frame as they attract pests including fungi, termites, and carpenter ants. Make sure that the area around your frame is well drained so that water doesn't pool in there in heavy rain. A good snow year makes for a well functioning cold frame and happy plants.Overall, a great unit. I just ordered a second one.----Additional Comment, November 2019:I now have a full year of experience with this frame and just installed a third Juwel 1500. They are the cornerstone of my winter treatment of my dwarf and miniature container conifers. Very rugged and reliable. The hardware cloth basement installed as described above is mouseproof. I am in Zone 5a and during an extended cold spell last winter with temperatures to -18degF, the interior never dropped below +16degF. Superb. If that happens again this winter, I will no longer install warming mats since they never reached trigger temperature (+15degF).

I was looking at an 8mm polycarbonate greenhouse anyway so it was a great chance to see the 8mm twin wall panels which will do a great job in heating that area for earlier growing or maintaining a mature plant over the winter.Some reviews indicated that the walls were thin/ flimsy for the 8mm panels but insulation properties are ideal for this cold frame. I'm using this cold frame in a raised bed and will plant peppers 3 weeks ahead of last frost date and look forward to its use throughout most of the year. When I installed in the bed, outside temp was 50 ish but inside was over 80 degrees F and need to vent or install the auto opener so you don't have to.Update 5/7/2017. Heavy wind and have cold frame in raised bed. Item didn't move at all. Had windows closed and locked. So far pepper plants are doing very well. Going to buy another one for the fall growing season. We had a 39 degree F. night and inside temp was still in upper 50's. Still happy with my purchase.Update 11/1/2017. Acquired some plans on-line to build my own cold frame out of 2" wood. Had to order a 6mm twin wall polycarbonate plastic top for the lid. I'm not the most skilled wood worker as the wood cold frame doesn't have to be perfect, just allow protection from the elements, but took a lot of time to build it. However, after comparing the costs and materials to build this the Exaco 1500 cold frame is not a bad deal. 8mm poly offers good heat retention and light transmission and comes with an auto vent opener. The size fits my 6' by 3' raised beds and I put bags of leaves on the north side of the cold frame for extra protection from the wind.Haven't had these in the garden yet over the winter so we'll see, I suspect an old winter blanket over the cold frame will help with protection.Update: Winter 2017-2018- I live in Zone 5 weather so below zero and a good amount of snow. I planted some cold hearty crops this fall, mizuna, claytonia and mache and everything survived the winter. With daylight hours increasing to 10 hours plus, I now have new growth. These cold frames supported 8 inches of snow and ice and showed no signs of stress.These cold frames are very well-made and yes you could make it cheaper. But I figure, I purchased for $279 ( 10 year warranty) and 8 mm protection- You could harvest all year round in the correct climate. I plan on building a greenhouse in the summer and will use these in the winter, unheated to grow cold winter crops all winter. These will be put away in my growing zone once last frost date comes hopefully!Attached are pictures of mizuna, clayonia and mache that survived a very cold winter in zone 5A. I planted some spinach in the furrow that was open and it's growing nicely even through temps are in the teens at night. Outstanding season extender. The possibilities are endless in a cold area in the winter. If you have a greenhouse or high tunnel, you could use these for double cover and really get cold weather protection.Update: Winter 2018-2019-had the cold frame in one of my raised beds since the fall. Ground inside never froze and spinach survived the winter. Temps In Upstate NY were well below zero and snow pack helped insulate the cold frame. Snow storms of 14" plus never impacted the structure with the weight even with snow and ice.

Easy to assemble. They work as expected. I was skeptical about the middle cover opening automatically if it was warm enough inside but sure enough they work perfectly. I have just gotten started with some cold crops, will see how they function through the New England winter.

I bought this in the early spring of this year. It's not cheap, which is why I give it 4 instead of 5 stars. The components are very light, but sturdy and well designed. It has already withstood quite a bit of windy weather, which is frequent here. Assembly is easy except the automatic opener requires drilling some holes in the plastic, which I haven't undertaken yet . It's big enough to harden off all the tender starts for my 500 square foot garden. In summer I removed the top and planted melons in it. Now I'm growing a few rows of lettuce and spinach for the winter time. Only drawback is that it needs two people to move it because it flexes easily due to the light components. However this is a small matter - takes maybe two minutes to move it. It suits my needs for a small garden cold frame perfectly.

Using pictures to put it together has not produced a solid cold frame. It is not something that I would recommend. I would recommend you making your own out of materials from the hardware store. I would return to the item if it were easy to return items. I have a high degree of skills. Lots of items have been purchased and constructed. This is a nightmare. Also, the ground needs to be level. I have a green ( 8x12) house that my husband and I constructed from a kit.

The materials are well-designed and are manufactured with precision. Everything fits together as it should. The paper instructions include very clear photos. If you lay the parts out and examine them before you begin, the process is relatively easy and there are very few "parts". The 4 panels are held together with an unusual, but very effective, "clip" system. There are no screws for the base unit!. The whole frame (consisting of 4 panels) is held together with 8 bolts and wing nuts. There are some screws in the package, but they are for attaching the opener hardware.To assemble the panels, you take a front or back panel and attach it to a side panel by means of a corner brace that slides easily over the end of each panel. One of the 4 green caps goes into place at the top of the brace. Once you slide the panels into place, the two bolts are inserted from the outside through the brace and are held in place by the wing nut. The bolt at the top must also go through the bottom of the green cap. This sounds a little complicated, but it really isn't if you look at the photo (and you should look, because the green caps are not all the same). The green cap ensures that each piece is exactly where it should be. This is important, because the 3 lids fit tightly in place. The centre lid opens and closes on its own with impressive precision and the parts are designed to achieve this result. It's all very clever, but the unit must be square.The opening arm is of excellent quality, but the instructions are poor. There are some sharp edges on the hardware that could damage the lid. If, like me, you haven't used one of these before, it seems a little perplexing. Fortunately, the photos are good. The opener assembly fits with the hardware as shown. It attaches to the underside of the centre lid, by means of the screws. Once the lid is in place and is closed, you can reach in from an open side to attach the arm to the inside of the front panel (which is very easy, because it only requires that the arm be squeezed and released in the bracket that was attached on the inside of the front panel with the screws).Elapsed time for the first unit: about 60 minutes. Subsequent units take about 30 minutes.Mistakes: I took the plastic film off the panels when unpacking. That makes it harder to get the correct side panel into place. One person assembly is a challenge because there are several parts that must be held together for the first corner. Pressing the back against a wall on a level surface (out of the wind) helps a great deal. The included clips and anchoring pins don't promise to hold the unit in place in loose soil and are of no value on a hard surface. I placed each unit on a 2 by 8 base as shown in the photos. That raises the frame and creates more interior space, while anchoring the frame. It has performed well in high winds and cold temperatures.The unit is relatively expensive, but is worth the investment if you want protection from the elements and critters.

Was going to buy a greenhouse, but I did it this way used the cold box up top and charcoal panels at the bottom. Super easy to assemble just follow the instructions no tools needed which is a plus metal is up to par for the price no way of stripping anything snug tight does the job when full assembled very sturdy but attached with screws best cold box on Amazon or anything I have seen here in Germany.

Schließt und öffnet automatisch je nach Temperatur im Beet. Super praktisch und eine deutliche frühere Erntezeit von Salat und Kohlrabi.

Zum GLÜCK war mein Nachbar da,zum GLÜCK ist mein Nachbar eine ruhige Seele. ZWEI STUNDEN gebraucht zum zusammen bauen. So unnötige komplizierte "Bauweise ". Wir waren so genervt ,sauer das wir nicht noch eine dritte Person dazu holen konnten, alle bis ca. 18 Uhr 30 arbeiten. Wenn man es IRGENDWANN und IRGENDWIE zusammen gebaut bekommen hat ist es okay.

Qualität ist super die Aufbauanleitung leider NICHT!!!!!