11 foot Round Solar Cantilever Umbrella With 360º Rotation Vented Canopy An Umbrella Cover And 24 LED Lights It Also Includes The Base (Dark Brown Chocolate)

Ok, I've had this thing up for a couple of months now and have allowed it to weather rain and Southern California santanas (sustained very strong winds). First as to the base and the umbrella blowing over about which so many reviewers complain. The base is a plastic pan designed to be weighed down with wet sand. It also can be bolted down. Folks, it works. Sure it can still blow over. The umbrella is huge after all: eleven feet across. This is almost as big as my gazebo. We have to furl it when the wind comes up. Deal with it. On that subject, the system comes with a very nice cover that is not only functional but aesthetically pleasing. I put colorful potted plants on my base to camouflage its utilitarian look and to integrate it into the rest of my patio. This is why I like its plastic construction: no corrosion to worry about from watering. I was most concerned about the cranking system. I find it works smoothly and looks sturdy enough to me. Still I am very ginger with it. I don't trust it yet. I see no reason to furl the umbrella during the long Southern California summer. On the downside, the light system was d o a. Never worked. I plan to pull the umbrella back down to check out installation, so it could be mere operator error. I recommend the system, light or no light.

We have had this type of umbrella before. Our last one had a much heavier base of sand but it was destroyed in a windstorm while we were gone when we forgot to furl it before leaving. This umbrellas is fairly well made. To be sure you will have to bolt the base to your deck or patio, which we did and now it does not move. It is not as stiff as our last one which was far more expensive. It is possible to pay $2000.00 for one of these, so this one is a bargain. At this price point if you get five years or more out of it you will be doing well. The cover that comes with it is easy to put on and provides good protection for the umbrella. The biggest surprise is how nice the LED lights are. They provide a soft illumination which is just bright enough so that it does not overwhelm twilight but still bright enough to see your food. We find that two positions of the umbrella are good for protection from the sun all day, but the holes in the main shaft for that turning did not quite line up for where we wanted the umbrella pin to be. It was an easy fix, I just drilled a new hole for the pin and now we have our morning position and our afternoon position. The only negative for this nice umbrella is the dark color. Our last one was a light color which reflected the sun. This one absorbs more heat. An outdoor fan takes care of that problem when there is no breeze.

Don't bother wasting your money if you're looking for an umbrella that will last more than a year or two. We replaced our $100 Wal-Mart cheapy umbrella with this pricier version thinking that we would get a good quality product. WRONG! his umbrella was only used less than a dozen times and always stored retracted and with the cover on. However, ALL of the elastic tabs that hold the umbrella on broke. Every. last. one. I contacted the seller to resolve and they informed me that there is only a one year manufacturers warranty. They suggested that I contact a tent shop for repairs. I received an estimate of between $200-$300 to fix. I expected more from the brand. Very disappointed.

At first, we had high hopes that this would be an umbrella that would last a long time. That did not work out as we had expected. We purchased the umbrella in April of 2015. Just before the summer season. I read a lot about the umbrella in how to take care of it and how to keep it in good shape. At that time, the umbrella had good reviews.To keep the umbrella in good shape, we applied https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0096PRFC6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 fabric protectant that was rated the best from Amazon. The canvas umbrella was treated with the protectant as the directions on the bottle had indicated. The first year was good. The color of the umbrella did not change and it looked like the canvas material was doing well. The second season was about to start within another month. So, another treatment was again made to the canvas, again with the same spray protectant. At the end of the summer, needless to say, the canvas material had worn thin to the point it was actually deteriorating very badly. We keep the umbrella in an area that does not get too much wind, so we can’t blame it on the wind that destroyed the canvas top and we collapsed the umbrella every evening before going inside. Many days, the umbrella wasn’t used.It is unfortunate that this umbrella did not meet our expectations. We have decided to keep the frame, but to toss the canvas and the plastic base because the canvas was so thin, it is not worth patching. Here is an example, an attempt was made to repair the ripped canvas sections. When trying to apply the adhesive, the fabric would tear a little more. Each time a glue was applied and a canvas patch added, the umbrella material would rip a little more, making repairs impossible.For the umbrella base, the plastic base was filled with sand and soaked with water to level out the sand and to add additional weight to stabilize the umbrella. This was mentioned in the instructions. The plastic base form had warped and deformed to the point that the lid of the base would not fit properly over the base of the form that contained the sand and water. Fortunately, the stand has a 4 way pod that can be converted to support some other type of method of holding down the umbrella.As a final point of failure, the umbrella is lined with LEDs that run under the runners. One of the umbrella’s runners had lost its LED functionality. The entire runner’s LED lights do not work. Now I have to repair that string of LEDs lights on that particular runner. Hopefully, it is just a lose wire that can be reconnected.All in all, this is a pretty crappy umbrella selling for nearly $400 bucks. One would think that an umbrella costing that much would be of good quality, but for sure, that ain’t the fact with this umbrella. This is an umbrella that will surely disappoint the user/owner. It may not disappoint the owner today, or tomorrow, but sometime soon, it will rip, LEDs die out and the plastic will warp to the point that it is totally worthless in supporting the umbrella. The ones that gave this umbrella high reviews have not see the dark side yet, but they will.Our next move is to have a high quality canvas made and installed from a local repair shop. Being an engineer, I can probably fix the LED lights and using some concrete for the base; perhaps to make a block support to keep the umbrella in place.If you are looking for an unbiased review for this umbrella, this would be it. We wanted the umbrella to work for a few years. We did not expect the umbrella to fault in 2 years. See the pictures. They speak for themselves.