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Lithuania, Vilnius
1 Level
494 Review
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Review on Stay Cool And Protected: Kitadin 6.5 X 10 FT Rectangular Patio Umbrella With Push Button Tilt, Crank Lift, And UV Protection by Krystal Marie

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Inexpensive, but poor construction and design

This review is for the 10' x 6' rectangular umbrellas.TLDR; Inexpensive but put in some effort to correct design flaws. The umbrellas could collapse with a strong gust of wind.First off, the designed support is poor: for an umbrella of this size, at least 8 support rails (4 long x 4 short) would help the canopy handle wind better. This product only has 6 (4 long and 2 short). Adding to the load on the long side of the shade, is that the designers put the pivot point for the support rail inwards, towards the center rail and not out closer to the center point. Why are these two points important? A good gust of wind is all you need to collapse the long support rails, right at the pivot point of the support arms. There is just too much force for the thin (14 gauge?) 1/2" tubes to handle.I returned one of the several that I purchased, after seeing the problem. These umbrellas are very inexpensive though so I decided to beef up the supports. I added 2' long x 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/16" thick aluminum rails (purchased at a local hardware store for $1 per foot) on each of the support rails, straddling the mounting point and secured with #6 x 1/2" self tapping screws. The next gust that blew in caused the shade fabric to fully flex while the support rails held strong.Second. The assembly line did not use a fixture in order to align the rectangular shades perpendicular to the main pivot bracket. Why is that important? If the rectangular shade is not perpendicular to the pivot point when the shade is tilted, then shade is not aligned with the ground, looking terrible and functioning poorly.Fix was to remove the three sheet metal screws that mount the top support (holds all the arms in place radially on the main support tube), twisted the support rail assembly so that one of the short shade support arms aligns parallel to the height adjust handle (approx. 15 degrees, but depending on what an individual umbrella required). Remounted the top in place with #6 x 1/2" self tapping screws. Now the umbrellas' tilt is nice and perpendicular to the ground.My guess is that someone is unloading a first run / bad batch, but if this is their best effort, its time to hire a real mechanical engineer to produce a quality product.Update: Added #2 photo showing how adding a little bungee cord love, allows the team to hold strong and fly straight in heavy winds.

img 1 attached to Stay Cool And Protected: Kitadin 6.5 X 10 FT Rectangular Patio Umbrella With Push Button Tilt, Crank Lift, And UV Protection review by Krystal Marie



Pros
  • Picnic table
Cons
  • Loved the look, but was bent up first gust of wind.