Best Awnings

Catastrophic failure in winds under 30km/hr with legs down and pegged. Darche DO NOT honour warranty or manufacture fault, answer was it should be… Read more

packed away in weather???? Dangerous, unsafe and very poor customer service. Buyer beware, faulty and unsafe

23zero Raven 2500 – The awning is top notch . Good quality and looks great I have had many cheap inferior brands over last couple of years . I wish I had of just got… Read more

this gear to start with . I will be using this 365 days a year so only time will tell .. I will definitely be getting another one for other side of my camper van in the very near future

Cheap price and quality – My $217 awing actually cost me a little over $250 (14mm masonry bit plus additional fasteners and other bolts) and instead of giving me shade in the… Read more

backyard, it’s sitting around the side of the house where my “I’ll do something with one day” projects live.

After reading multiple mixed reviews I went and bought a manual 4x3m Instahut Retractable Arm Awning. Out of the box it appeared quite flimsy, but I got excited at how easy it was to assemble given the instructions are pictures with precious few meaningful words. The only assembly problem I had was that the screws they supplied to attach the end brackets to the roller were considerably longer than the pre drilled and threaded holes allowed. Everything after assembly was disappointing. To mount it to my brisk wall I used the instructed 14mm masonry bit, but that was too big for the supplied dyna (style) bolts, and they pulled out of the wall as soon as weight was applied. After a trip or 2 to Bunnings I secured the awning to the wall only to find the retractable arms sagging ridiculously low when fully retracted, and a drop of about 60cm at 2.5m extension. I tried to adjust the sag in the arms but the instructions offered no adjustment guidance and nothing I tried seemed to work, so I gave up, took it off the wall and put in my projects pile.

To be fair, I was expecting the awning to drop as it expanded. But 60cm over 2.5 meter is much more than I’d expected. The instructions do identify this drop, but it’s a bit too late after you’ve bought it. I’m 6’2 and I mounted mine at 2.5m high (as high as I could) and was hitting my head on the retractable arms.

I was also a little naive to think it would come with quality fasteners, and good or even complete instructions.

You want the know if cheap price = cheap quality? My experience for the Instahut Retractable Arm Awning is YES it is cheap in all regards. It’s built to a price and it definitely shows. If you want a quality this is not for you.

Some tips if you do buy this: 1) DO NOT mount any lower than 3m or your tall friends will be uncomfortable (and maybe in pain). 2) Throw away the crappy supplied anchor bolts and get something quality from the start. 3) Parts are not always labelled correctly or clearly, but the instructions do show clear pictures. 4) When the right bolt doesn’t fit in the right hole, don’t force it. Buying the bolt that does fit is a lot easier than having to retap the hole. 5) Take the time to thread all nuts and bolts before actual assembly. The parts have treads painted over. The lock nuts on the front of the retractable arms are particularly tight. 6) It picks up the breeze remarkably well and has quite a bit of vertical movement in the arms. Refer to point 1, if you have tall friends they WILL get hit in the head if you mount it too low and it WILL hurt.

The whole experience with this awning was fantastic. At the store, we were assisted by Aiden (I hope that is how his name is spelled). He was… Read more

incredibly helpful. We picked up the awning and took it home to install the next day. The instructions were clear and the installation was so much easier than we anticipated. The awning is super easy to use.. but being short, I had to get a taller step ladder.