Burke Sun Shelter

We bought 2 of these last year for our wedding, and will be buying a back up this week, as our wedding is coming up. I am extremely disappointed with the reviews for this tent- it seems most negative reviewers are setting it up in the wind, or incorrectly. For example, one person complains of having two legs on, and the tent bending while attaching a third. If they followed the directions, they would know you attach HALF of ALL the legs first, then the remainder. If you are setting it up in windy conditions, have somebody support it! ANY tent is a sail until you tie it down. Regardless, I set this tent up alone, for the first time in the rain, and it worked great. KNOW WHAT THIS TENT IS- a temporary sun shelter at less than half the cost of more expensive options. It is vulnerable to even moderate winds, so it is absolutely necessary to tie this tent town. Once tied however it is reliably stable. Its first week straight our tent was subjected to rain storm after rain storm (little wind though) and it held. We have used one tent as a deck shelter all summer, and it has held against wind and rain, though you need to appropriately support it for the wind. On its own, it will not stand up well to winds stronger than 30 km (though, we just returned from the wedding site, where this tent still stood and two others had collapsed, so it is better than many alternatives). Yes, the metal is cheap, and the fabric is cheap, but we bought a cheap tent, so that should have been obvious. Follow the directions, tie it down, and be mindful of the wind, and you have a very cost effective solution that wont break the bank should anything go wrong.

As soon as we opened the box and unpacked the parts we could see that this was probably not going to work out. Then, during the assembly, our suspicions were confirmed. It is a poorly designed, wobbly, piece of junk. We put it together to the point of tying it down to secure it and realized that the whole thing was going to blow over at the first small breeze. So we disassembled the whole thing, put it back in the box and got rid of it. Don't waste your time or money on this piece of junk.

Do not buy. This unit will not last in any wind conditions. I had the unit up for one week and all the plastic joints cracked. I inquired about replacing the joints from SUNJOY Industries but it is too costly for shipping and parts. Shipping to Canada is $45. There will be a 30 minute wait to get through to speak to someone at SUNJOY. Poor Q*A. CAnadian Tire should not continue to sell these units.

We had a little bit of rain and wind, and it destroyed it!!!

and now I wish I hadn't. My husband came home with this shelter when the one I had originally chosen was out of stock. I looked up the reviews and immediately instructed him to return it the next day as I didn't want the hassle of setting it up, then having to box it back up if it was a piece of junk. Unfortunately that was exactly what happened. Out of desperation for some shade in a freak hot-spell in northern BC I reluctantly decided to put it up. At first, I seriously questioned all of the negative reviews, as setup was a breeze and it looked like it would be relatively easy to get it up on my own. That was until I got to the step where you put the legs on the "durable" steel frame. HA! I don't know how on earth they thought the flimsy steel they used to be at all durable! Once I had the third leg on, a small breeze came through and the two assembled legs shifted and buckled, bending at the top and snapping the plastic connectors. Right then I understood what a previous reviewer had mentioned about it being comparable to setting it up with play-doh & straws. I do not believe this shelter would survive a big gust of wind whatsoever. I would not waste the $99.99 on it nor would I at the sale price of $79.99. I am very disappointed I didn't go with my gut and listen to the reviews.