MASTERCANOPY 12x12 Durable Pop-Up Canopy Tent with Carry Bag - Instant Shelter for Outdoor Events, Beach, Camping & Backyard Parties (Blue)

I have an Intex 10ft. x 10ft. pool i got on Amazon last year and i spent days reading reviews here and on my local retail store sites about canopys. Paying attention to all of the negative reviews, i realized that most canopys failed due to wind damage. I read tons of negative reviews on multiple sites for multiple similar canopys like this including this model and i think only 1 person even mentioned they used canopy weights. They didn't say what kind or the weight of them, so i noticed there were multiple weights available when ordering them here. This 12x12 Canopy looked the sturdiest and fit my pool's outer diameter with an extra 2 feet all around, so i got it along with 2 of the 4-packs of the 10lb canopy weights (8 10lb. Weights). I included pictures of my weekend pool set up. I set it up on Thursday to let it warm up all day Friday and then take it down Sunday night. I've used the canopy and weights 2 weekends in a row so far. The Canopy can be set up by 1 person, but the first time i used it, i had to figure out how to properly open it. I just grabbed a corner and then pulled it gently and then moved to the next corner and just did that until i got it mostly expanded to the 12 feet. Raising the center piece will help extend once you extend it most of the way. Taking it down i noticed if i gently lifted from one corner to put most of the weight on the opposite corner, i could very easily collapse the frame towards the center. The 2nd weekend i extended the canopy frame the same way by gently lifting up and dragging the opposite end out. It was much easier to open that way and when i mean lift it up, just enough to get the 3 legs off the ground about half an inch or 1 inch. Once it's extended, i leave the center down still. I put the canopy cover on it gently, starting with one corner and attaching the corner post velcro. Then i gently move the canopy fabric and drape it inward and over the center part. then i work on another corner and attach just the corner part over the corner frame with velcro. Once i have all 4 corners loosely velcroed, i then raise the center and then turn and lock the wheel in the middle. If you are short, you may need a step stool. Then i go around and tighten the corner velcro on each of the 4 posts. Then I velcro the side lip parts. Then i to the top corner poles that go from the corner up towards the inner ceiling area. I then gently raise 1 leg at a time to slide a carpeted furniture dolly for the leg to rest on them. I got mine at Harbor Freight a while back, but they have them on Amazon as well. After putting all 4 legs on the dollys, i then move the canopy over the pool. It can be done with 1 person, but i'd recommend at least 2 people. You could walk the frame over where you need it without the dollys, but i highly recommend dollys. It will put less stress on the frame and the dollys only cost me about $8 each. Then I attach 2 10lb weights to the legs. Make sure to put the second weight at a rotated 90 degree angle so it securely locks with the leg. I also highly recommend the weights ( at least 2 10lb weights per leg, because about a 15+ to 20mph wind gust or sustained wind can lift it without them. I like to put the canopy just offset of the pool when i'm not out there so the pool can get full sun to warm up the water. Then i just slide the canopy over when i want to use the pool. I weigh the legs down at all times except when moving it over or away from the pool. Make sure to check all the posts to be sure they are straight and not at an angle after moving it or setting it up. Even just putting the weights on them might move them a tiny bit, so once the weights are on all the posts, gently straighten each leg if needed. While the leg height is adjustable, i left them at the lowest height for stability and privacy. There is plenty of room to get in and out of the pool at the lowest height. Just duck a little when walking under the side lips. The pool heats up with or without the pool cover, but seems to heat better with it off. I hope my experience with this helps others.Received product in less than a week. Perfect size for what I was trying to do, that is create shade in a screened in patio, "bird cage." This 8x8 fits perfectly. Wasn't really easy to put up, but I was working alone, and instructions say for two people, so I can't fault them for that. I was able to put the unit up by myself since I was on a tiled floor, so legs could move without sticking into anything. Now all I have to do is find sand for the weight bags that came with the unit to hold it in place, and I'll be all set.Just finished setting up, so I can't say much about durability, but the material feels very durable. The frame also seems well made, so I don't anticipate any issues. Vent in roof top should be nice to allow any built-up heat to exit from under canopy, great feature for Florida.** Summary **The canopy is easy to setup, and does a good job of keeping the sun and light rain off, but it won't protect you in a downpour. The roller-bag is of very poor quality and there's no way of contacting the manufacturer when the bag starts falling apart or if you have some other problem.** Intro **I bought this product after the one I bought at Walmart in 2006 finally gave up the ghost. I've owned this for about 5 months and used it only once. It has been stored in a cool, dry space well away from any animals and out of direct sunlight, except when in use.** Test Scenario **We were having a bunch of friends over for a party. We scheduled it weeks in advance and, of course, that night turned out to have a series of heavy thunderstorms rolling through. I setup my new MASTERCANOPY pop-up canopy on the patio in the hope that we could still spend a little time outside. The canopy remained up for an entire week, enduring multiple thunderstorms and periods of moderate winds.** Setup **Fair warning: I never read the instructions. Setup was fairly easy because I had owned a canopy before. The canopy cover was easy to get onto the corners and the velcro held it in place fairly well. It did take a bit of effort to get the top corner latches to lock in place – the pieces that slide up and lock in place when the frame is fully expanded – however I did that after putting the canopy cover on and I'm not sure if that's what the instructions say you should do.Height adjustment was very simple. The red levers are much easier to press than the little metal nubs my old canopy had. I do wonder what the longevity of those levers will be, though, as they're plastic and going to be used every time the canopy is.The canopy has several wrap-around velcro pieces that you want to make sure to use if there is going to be any wind. You don't want to trust the basic corner velcro to keep the canopy cover on.Canopy PerformanceUnder sunshine, this works exactly as you would expect. It's a nice shade and the vents at the top help to ensure heat isn't being trapped inside. In a light rain, it creates a fairly dry space that people can congregate in.This canopy will not protect you – or your stuff – from a heavy downpour. Water will periodically drop from the cover in various spaces and, if there's wind, it will blow in through the vents at the top. Additionally, with wind, you _must_ tie this down. It's made of aluminum and plastic; it doesn't weigh much at all.** Wheeled Bag **This gets its own section because of the way the product images prominently feature it, combined with just how disappointing it is. The bag is crap. One of the pictures shows a rip that happened the very first day I tried to pick it up with that handle. Whatever the material is, it's definitely not designed to stand up to even a little strain. Even if it were, the stitching is absolute crap. The other picture shows just one area where it's falling apart and even the instructions are coming undone. I'm also not sure what they mean by "upgraded" on the wheels; they're only an upgrade from not having wheels at all.Not only is the workmanship bad, but the design itself sucks. The zipper goes around the outside tracing 3 of the 4 sides of a square. It works just fine for getting the product out, but getting it back in is a real pain because you have to slide everything through the opening. My previous canopy had the zipper run along the length of the bag, which meant you could lay everything inside and zip it in nice and easy.I would contact the manufacturer but there's absolutely no way to do that. The only website I can find for them is Amazon's MASTERCANOPY store.** Accessories **Stakes are your basic l-shaped metal wire. They'll do ok but you need to replace them if you expect to use them frequently or need to be able use them in hard packed ground.Tie-down rope is simple woven stuff. I'd bet they are good to around 50lbs, and they'll probably not survive frequent inclement weather. There was an attempt to dye them so that they're a little more visible to people, but if you're concerned about people walking around you should probably put some high-vis tape on them. The rope was quite sufficient to anchor the canopy to my patio through winds with gusts into the 20mph range. I wouldn't expect them to survive much more than that, though.Sandbags are woven nylon, and not very large. Functional and nice to have in a pinch. I'm guessing you can only get about 5-10lbs of sand/dirt in them, but they could also be put underneath something heavy like a large rock.** Final Verdict **I give this product 3/5 stars. The canopy is everything I expected it to be and most of the accessories are fine. I docked it 1 star for a bad bag, and 1 star for the complete lack of contact details for the manufacturer.Update Nov. 8, 2021: After a respite, the emails are back, still trying to bribe me to remove my review. I'm so fed up with this that I've dropped my rating from two stars down to one. I've notified Amazon again, and drawn their attention to their use of the Amazon icon in an attempt to look official.Added June 27, 2021: I continue to be harassed by emails attempting to bribe me to delete my review. Sometimes they imply they're from Amazon Customer Service, and sometimes outright state they are. I don't know who else would be able to connect the order number with my email, so, if applicable: MASTERCANOPY, I will not be deleting what I feel to be a fair review of your product. I will not be bribed. And I'm forwarding your emails to Amazon security. Please stop sending them.Added May 26, 2021: Today I received an email claiming to be from Amazon Customer Service asking me to delete my negative review of this product in exchange for a $20 Amazon gift card. Either this was flat out spam, and clicking on the included link to my review would have caused me all sorts of grief, or the company is trying to remove legitimate negative reviews of their products. The latter would certainly help explain the high rating this product gets, which in my opinion it definitely doesn't deserve.Master Canopy, 8x8 footI needed a canopy with upright legs that was smaller than the usual 10x10. On paper, this one fit the bill. This week I finally had sunshine plus a friend to help me, and we set it up.I spent years doing farmers' markets and other outdoor events, so I have plenty of experience putting canopies up and down. As soon as we started setting this one up on my deck, we ran into trouble. The legs are so flimsy that unless you were holding on to them, the extended piece would angle off--think of how knock-kneed a newborn colt is, and you'll get the idea. While taking it down and returning it to the bag, I noticed that the paint was already worn off the bottoms of the legs. It rains a lot where I am, so hello rust!I'm returning it because of the legs, but there are some good things I noticed about it:-The bag seems reasonably rugged, with enough room for the canopy inside if you fold it well. Lots of handholds, and it was easy to wheel.-The canopy itself was white on the outside and silver on the inside. I didn't test it against the rain, but it seemed like it would be pretty good against both sun and shade.-It has large, easy to use rocker switches for extending the leg--a HUGE improvement over those miserable little metal rounded buttons you have to push in on so many canopies.-It came with bags you could fill with sand and attach to the legs, as well as cords and as the cheap style of tent pegs. These things are mission critical. We always weighted our canopy legs, and more than once saw someone who'd ignored our advice, only to find their canopy taking flight when the wind picked up. Even the best quality legs and frame can be ruined by that.-The set up instructions are sewn right onto the storage bag, which is brilliant. No paper instructions to lose.I can't recommend this canopy, but if you do buy it, I'd recommend this:-Have at least one other person helping with setup and takedown. One for each leg would be best.-Weight the legs. Weight the legs. Weight the legs!-It might lose it's advertised waterproofing over time. For our farmers' market canopies, we sprayed them with waterproofing every few seasons.-Tip for quick drying a wet canopy: move the legs together until it's smaller but still stable and bring the whole thing indoors where there's no wind. Drop dry towels into the low points of the canopy where the water will gather. Swap for dry towels as needed. It's not instant-dry, but you never want to put one of these things away wet, and this was the fastest way we found.Purchased to cover hot tub and fitness equipment. I reviewed gazebos for weeks and it was between this one and ABC Canopies. I t was easy to erect but I was disappointed at the quality of the canopy, there was a tear in it and the stitching around the gel to was dodgy. I also feel that the lack of master canopy logo on the canopy is very dubious. I believe staunchly that when you purchase something off a website that it should look exactly as you have seen it, for all I know this could be just some cheap canopy put in a master canopy bag. The canopy does not have the logo on as advertised. I’m arranging to return this which in itself is a pain with all the printing of return labels to be done and no printer!Fantastic gazebo. Held up well in awful May weather. Not as easy to put up as thought it would be... think that last bit of trying to put up a picnic table brolly... but after nearly busting a blood vessel each corner clicked into place. Watch the height... had a few near misses already as taller friends have bumped their eyes off the lower parts. But ultimately its great value for money and does what it needs to do UPDATE: used a few times and didnt survive the first windy/rainy day... one side has snapped.. still can use but a bit disappointed it couldnt stand scottish weatherI wanted something I could erect quickly and easily should rain be forecast on the morning of a birthday party.I read many reviews and decided to go for this item,.Its worth having a practice - then it is lieterally 5 mins to position and erect.Torrential rain is almost totally repelled (a very small few drips - but really the strength of the rain was biblical).It has been left up over a few nights and no problem. The sand bags are just enough to keep the thing in place along with the guide ropes /leg pins very stable.I would certainly buy again - it has already been borrowed by neighbour, who have similarly been very impressed.The only snag is finding side panels to match the colour. After sampling the beige ones (they were almost yellow) , we went for 3 white which keep most of the wind off too.I have not used in harsh winter conditions but I am pretty confident it will provide enough shelter and will be toasty with an electric centre heater or similar.I bought this "gazebo" in the middle of last summer. This "gazebo" looks the part but the canopy is very brittle and rips easily. I'd say it's about 90% duck tape after one summers use. And don't forget, that was last summer. Not this current heatwave. Not only that but the guy rope loops ripped on the third use making them not only useless but dangerous on windier days and is certainly not reliably sturdy. The frame is decent enough but as the canopy and guy loops are so useless you are essentially paying for a metal frame and not a gazebo. The canopy is shower resistant up to the point it starts ripping. Avoid like the plague.