Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am writing this review more as an advice to someone who is actually buying the umbrella than as a review. Except for the two items noted below, I would give this umbrella a solid 5 star rating for where it is on the cost curve. I am using two of these for shade on my pool. As such, these umbrellas will be out continuously from June through September and then stored. I expect to get 2 seasons out of them and a 50/50 chance of getting three. Given my other options to keep my pool cool, this is a bit of a bargain. Further, the other umbrella I was considering was twice as expensive so given all that, 2-3 seasons works for me. Now for the two negatives. First, and the most significant, is that the umbrella is attached to the base using four bolts screwed into four nuts welded into the underside of the base. The bolts are good quality but the nuts are terrible. I’m not sure if the welding process weakens them or whether the manufacturer was saving $0.05 but out of the 8 nuts (2 umbrellas) three of them stripped. If they strip on the umbrella side, it is unlikely to be a big problem as the weight of the umbrella is entirely held up by the two on the other side. I didn’t give it much thought when I assembled the umbrella that one of them was stripped – I naively thought the other 3 would hold it. However, the first light wind collapsed the umbrella. I was able to beat the base back flat and went to the hardware store and double nutted the bolts and that seems to have fixed the problem. So my advice is that if you buy one of these, go the hardware store and buy four M8-1.25 nuts and double nut all of the bolts, even if they don’t strip. The second complaint is I bought two of these, both specified as “tan”; however they are two completely different colors. One is grey and one is more brown than tan. If you are only buying one, it probably isn’t a big deal but if you are buying two, be prepared that they may not match, by a lot.