Awnings
WARNING
I have a Dorema Air awning. And oh boy had it been an expensive nightmare. It had 4 legs and 6 cross members. Over 4 years I have had to replace the Iinner tubes at least 12 times. I think the last tubes cost me about £50 plus each.
That in itself is an expensive nightmare but fancy being on site when they burst and you don’t have access to a new tube. You spend the rest of the holiday with a partially deflated awning that looks a disgrace. I’ve tried carrying spares which helps but now I carry white plumbing pipes and tape 2 together to form an arch. I should not have to do this
. In fairness the staff at Dorema Castleford have always been good with me and not always charged me but the problem remains. Think long and hard before use buy any air awning.
just to clarify I’ve had the awning 4 years but only been caravaning 150 days in that period of time. So not excessively used. And I’ve not over inflated them. I even let air out if I think it’s going to be a sunny day.
im going to buy another awning for my elf did rambler 19/4 and would welcome any advise.
dave
Comments
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I think may you have been unlucky with your choice of brand but I don't think it may apply to all air awnings? People have posted about air failures before but not to the extent that you appear to be having.
We have a porch air awning by Suncamp and a much larger one by Kampa and had both for a good few years. So far (touch wood) no leaks or burst inner tubes. We love them and certainly wouldn't go back to a pole awning.
I would suggest you speak to people on site with different makes and air/non air and get their views. People on site are usually happy to help and give advice.
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I appreciate your reply. Many thanks. And I agree you only get what you pay for. I thought I’d bought something at the top end of the range. If I recall it was about £900 retail for a 3/4 awning. It’s fairly heavy duty material. 2 tubes burst within 4 days of this vacation and the weather has not been very hot in Angelsey. I’d like another air awning but I don’t have the confidence to buy one.
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Many thanks
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I cannot understand why Dorema have not replaced the awning. It is obviously not fit for purpose. As such any warranty period is over-ridden and goods should be repaired or replaced without cost.
Colin
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We have a Kampa Air 260 and its been a great little awning ,no problems and hope it continues that way :-)
Brian & Jo
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The Kampa is an interesting one. We had a Pop Air Pro for our Eriba, one of the first that came out in 2017. It was an unmitigated disaster in that it was not designed to fit and pulled out of the awning rail. One dealer had sold 10 and needed to buy back in 8 of them. Several dealers have since dropped Kampa Eriba awnings as the experience was so bad. Lowdhams of Nottingham gave us a full return on ours after Kampa had attempted a fix that did not work. Skip forward to version two and Lowdhams provided one of these at an excellent price. Good on them. Version 2 is now a good awning.
Colin
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We’ve had a few different awnings over the years for our Eriba Troll and we did look at the first Kampa Pop Air Pro but quickly dismissed it based on design, features and reviews.
Bought a Clairval Twin Air last year and it’s all that an air awning should be, and fits the Eriba perfectly. Not cheap at around £1200 or so but can be anything from fully open to fully enclosed and anything in between. Tubes seem robust and so far, wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.
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We have both Kampa and Sunncamp air awnings - indeed I've had a Kampa air awning for years and never had a problem with burst tubes. I always inflate them with an electric pump set at 2 or 3 psi below the recommended pressure. We did have a slight problem with a leaking valve on our very first Kampa and Kampa sent out a new, replacement awning by overnight courier to our campsite. Excellent service!
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As David knows, we also have the Thule. These days we rarely use the full awning and are content with the canopy. We te d to try and travel light these days (in comparison with earlier years), so the canopy is sufficient to keep things dry enough.
David
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We also have a Thule omnistore on our caravan, and find it so easy to use,(problem cleaning it) and find it quite adequate for our needs and even more so now for OHs buggy. several people have asked about it
Ps yesterday there was a bang on site near us ,which was an air awning tube
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