Tweet
Hi, I bought a Rhino earlier this year and thought my experience might be useful for anyone who is looking at buying one. I've no experience of any other greenhouse so can't compare to those.
We bought the 10x8 premium and got a package which included 1ft and 2ft staging on one side, a 1ft shelf at the back, 5 blinds, finials and everything coloured in blue grass rather than aluminium.
We put it up ourselves (me and my dad, 75 and pretty good for his age).
The base is multiple surfaces, some a breeze block wall, some a bit of concrete, some paving slabs and some bricks, but thankfully it was all nice and level.
The instructions are good and you can follow them but it is important to read them all.
They send you a link for download and home printing but you do get an A3 copy with the greenhouse, so it's nice to have that bigger size to look at.
You also need to follow them because there are many times you are doing a task for a future step rather than for the present step. An example of this is inserting bolts into the glazing bars at a certain point in assembly as you won't be able to later on if you forget. The instructions here could be clearer as it says put in extra bolts for staging but you're not sure how many. Consequently, I have rogue bolts with nothing to do because we put in too many, but hey ho.
There are a couple of other niggles with the instructions but with those and some common sense we managed to put it up and it's pretty solid I think.
Key points:
1. The glazing paddle will help a lot as thumbs/fingers quickly get tired when putting in glazing beads.
2. A glass sucker is also handy to perform finite movement on the glass when putting in the glazing beads.
3. When making cuts to glazing beads when you need shorter pieces, don't take the cuts from the long beads, you need those. Not the end of the world but nicer to not have to make a join.
4. The finials are not worth £120 as per the individual price. They weigh about as much as a packet of seeds and are completely at odds with the build quality of the rest of the greenhouse. I would think twice about £20 for them. They look nice but they do feel about as solid as a Kinder Egg.
5. The reach pole (we paid £10) and guttering kit (you can buy for £35) are not worth it, you can buy these far cheaper elsewhere.
6. I put two louvres under the staging, which makes access more difficult, so worth considering.
7. Have an electric handheld screwdriver with M10 attachment to put it up, it's far easier, although sometimes you do need a spanner. I used a 3.6v for most of ours, which was perfect as it didn't over tighten like a non variable 18v driver might. The bolts are only aluminium after all.
8. We definitely needed two people and two sets of ladders.
9. Drilling paving slabs ruined 4 drill bits, £18 and a diamond tipped bit later, job done.
10. The blinds look good on first inspection, they don't slam back up if they come lose, they retract in a controlled manner. The lady at Rhino said they don't need to be covered in winter and they should be able to happily survive the weather. We shall see.
11. If you want only one water butt and to join the guttering, the water butt must go at the back. I drilled an unnecessary hole in the front for the guttering and am hoping my wife hasn't yet noticed. I shall of course be blaming Rhino.
All in all, so far I am very happy with it because it does feel well made, it is solid and, reassuringly, we didn't break any glass when putting it up.
It took us about 20 hours to complete, which may seem a long time but we'd never done it before, but I'd much rather have put it up ourselves and have the familiarity and satisfaction than pay the £330+ they quoted for it.
Haven't put in the heater yet and haven't done the water butt but other than that it is finished.
In summary, based on the 2 weeks of having it, I'm very happy with the Rhino!
Apparently I can't post attachments so am unable to show you but anyway, hope the post was useful in some way.
Neil.
We bought the 10x8 premium and got a package which included 1ft and 2ft staging on one side, a 1ft shelf at the back, 5 blinds, finials and everything coloured in blue grass rather than aluminium.
We put it up ourselves (me and my dad, 75 and pretty good for his age).
The base is multiple surfaces, some a breeze block wall, some a bit of concrete, some paving slabs and some bricks, but thankfully it was all nice and level.
The instructions are good and you can follow them but it is important to read them all.
They send you a link for download and home printing but you do get an A3 copy with the greenhouse, so it's nice to have that bigger size to look at.
You also need to follow them because there are many times you are doing a task for a future step rather than for the present step. An example of this is inserting bolts into the glazing bars at a certain point in assembly as you won't be able to later on if you forget. The instructions here could be clearer as it says put in extra bolts for staging but you're not sure how many. Consequently, I have rogue bolts with nothing to do because we put in too many, but hey ho.
There are a couple of other niggles with the instructions but with those and some common sense we managed to put it up and it's pretty solid I think.
Key points:
1. The glazing paddle will help a lot as thumbs/fingers quickly get tired when putting in glazing beads.
2. A glass sucker is also handy to perform finite movement on the glass when putting in the glazing beads.
3. When making cuts to glazing beads when you need shorter pieces, don't take the cuts from the long beads, you need those. Not the end of the world but nicer to not have to make a join.
4. The finials are not worth £120 as per the individual price. They weigh about as much as a packet of seeds and are completely at odds with the build quality of the rest of the greenhouse. I would think twice about £20 for them. They look nice but they do feel about as solid as a Kinder Egg.
5. The reach pole (we paid £10) and guttering kit (you can buy for £35) are not worth it, you can buy these far cheaper elsewhere.
6. I put two louvres under the staging, which makes access more difficult, so worth considering.
7. Have an electric handheld screwdriver with M10 attachment to put it up, it's far easier, although sometimes you do need a spanner. I used a 3.6v for most of ours, which was perfect as it didn't over tighten like a non variable 18v driver might. The bolts are only aluminium after all.
8. We definitely needed two people and two sets of ladders.
9. Drilling paving slabs ruined 4 drill bits, £18 and a diamond tipped bit later, job done.
10. The blinds look good on first inspection, they don't slam back up if they come lose, they retract in a controlled manner. The lady at Rhino said they don't need to be covered in winter and they should be able to happily survive the weather. We shall see.
11. If you want only one water butt and to join the guttering, the water butt must go at the back. I drilled an unnecessary hole in the front for the guttering and am hoping my wife hasn't yet noticed. I shall of course be blaming Rhino.
All in all, so far I am very happy with it because it does feel well made, it is solid and, reassuringly, we didn't break any glass when putting it up.
It took us about 20 hours to complete, which may seem a long time but we'd never done it before, but I'd much rather have put it up ourselves and have the familiarity and satisfaction than pay the £330+ they quoted for it.
Haven't put in the heater yet and haven't done the water butt but other than that it is finished.
In summary, based on the 2 weeks of having it, I'm very happy with the Rhino!
Apparently I can't post attachments so am unable to show you but anyway, hope the post was useful in some way.
Neil.
Comment