Aluminet in the off season

[Jmeid]

In early august every year, as I struggle to find an aluminet vendor that will ship before the burn, I tell myself “next year, I’m going to start looking for this in Janrury so shipping time isn’t a factor”

Well it’s February…

Looking for vendor recommendations. I’d prefer precut with the edges stitched and riveted, but open to buying bulk for the right price

[some seeing eye]

I have used Gothic Art Greenhouses supply. Originally they were the only importer and they are used to burners. I have bought and sold on Craigs in my burner town, and some burner towns have a separate buy-sell commerce peer-peer social media group.

I have seen people just unroll the 7' unbound over conduit geodomes, with a few tywraps along the way.

[HandJamMasterC]

I bought a 14' x 20' piece with edge binding and grommets from Be Cool Solutions on Amazon. Worked just fine in 2022's wind storms.

[FIGJAM]

Just rescued a 20x45 edged aluminet shade tarp.

Nowhere anywhere have I read that aluminet can shed micro-silver glitter with age.

It does, and now my driveway looks like a pound of this stuff is everywhere.

Moop much??

[some seeing eye]

Hello Mr Figjam, our famous inventor.

Can you post a photo of a closeup of the failed Aluminet shedding, and a closeup of the Aluminet fabric web? Do you know the history of sun in hours on that Aluminet? I'm a geek, and actually was on a study of deterioration of plastic. Plastic are long molecules. UV exposure from the sun breaks the molecules then the plastic fails mechanically, including shedding. Aluminet is Mylar coated in aluminum and a stretchy woven webbing. Inquiring minds would like to know what broke.

[FIGJAM]

I no longer pay for a site I can post pics from, but this is the stuff.

https://growerssolution.com/products/70 ... SVEALw_wcB

My driveway looks like it was coated with diamond dust

This is Az. and some browsing found that aluminet can shed after a few years and has a lifespan of about 4 years.

[some seeing eye]

Do you have close up photos of the shedded Aluminet? You could attach photos to ePlaya for free. The manufacturer should have hours of full sun to failure. Aluminet was developed for agricultural shading, so they would know the hour lifetime.

[FIGJAM]

I'm wondering if this is a cheap knockoff, but the price doesn't reflect that.

Tried to post pics, but error message says the file is to large.

[some seeing eye]

That happens. When I have that, I import the photo into the built-in free photo app for Windows or Apple, then export it using JPEG JPG medium. Then I upload the exported version with the smaller file size.

[trilobyte]

Figjam... what I've discovered over the last couple decades is that there are two classes of aluminet. Real or proper aluminet doesn't do that at all, as we remember from the early days as long as the edges are stitched it should last ages.

Because real/proper aluminet is costly, over the last decade and a half there has been a huge rise in stuff that calls itself aluminet, but it more accurately some kind of aluminum-sprayed or coated plastic substance. Because it's a plastic product, the intense UV of places like Nevada and Arizona will cause the chemical structure to break down, and they are also prone to shedding as the aluminum coating comes off the substrate.

Now that we're living in southern Nevada I have a bunch of shade structures over sections of our garden, and I've been learning about this the hard way. I'd venture to say that the vast majority of what's available on Amazon or other big online sellers is the lesser stuff. It still costs a lot compared to a tarp (because it is more expensive to produce), but it's a lot less and a lot more readily available than the proper stuff. Some of the online greenhouse supply places also carry that stuff, because in addition to selling to commercial greenhouses they do a pretty brisk business selling to backyard home gardeners. Because of this rise of the mass market stuff, I have been finding that it's nearly impossible to find pre-made pieces of the real and proper aluminet. For best results, hit up a greenhouse supply store and order a custom-made piece. That will give you options to determine the percent of shade coverage, dimensions, and how many grommets per foot. In the off season the lead time is typically 2-3 weeks, and then lead times get longer or the product simply becomes available as you go from spring into summer. While it is more expensive and has a longer lead time, it will also last considerably longer.

We have pieces of the big stuff we've been using for more than a decade that have never shed, and pieces of the mass market stuff that started getting dodgy in a little less than a year of southern Nevada sunshine. For what it's worth, I have not seen any kind of "number of hours of full sun to failure" rating on either product packaging or product listings of the lesser stuff. There may be a few scrupulous junk makers out there, but I suspect the majority don't include that kind of info on the packaging.

[Token]

Uploading photos trick if using a mobile phone:

Take photo.

Open photo in the phone’s photo app.

Screen capture the view of the photo.

Upload the screen capture which will be much smaller in size.

The OG Aluminet came out of Israel, where every drop of water counts in agriculture.

The company that invented it had many name changes and has landed on

https://ginegar.com/default/about-us

They do have a US office in Santa Maria, CA.

Their website is less than helpful in listing distributors in the US.

[trilobyte]

I do believe multiple companies manufacture the good stuff. In years past (for me, starting 2004ish), those sellers mostly did custom orders with long lead times, but also offered pre-cut and pre-stitched pieces of selected sizes, probably a way for them to simultaneously use ends of rolls or off-cuts and a draw for backyard gardeners. But once the much cheaper and lower grade stuff started showing up on Amazon and other web sites, I think they stopped trying to compete with it and started adding it to their assortments themselves.

Now that we're living in it, I can attest that it's not just a matter of making every drop of water count, but it's reflecting away the UV light. My partner's a pretty avid and skilled gardener, but some plants simply can not take more than x hours of full sun. And even the ones that can take full day full sun start to cry uncle when our UV index is 11+. Temperatures, for us, are a whole other hilarious gardening story. I'm used to having to bring a few things inside in winter, but here we have to bring a few things inside in summer