ALEKO 16 x 10 ft Sand Motorized Retractable Patio Awning

ALEKO Awning Installation: Bring a Friend, a Swear Jar, and Possibly NASA Before installing this awning, set up a swear jar. By the time you are finished, there should be enough money in it to host a 12-person barbecue—with beer. This project started with Wally and his buddy, both confident, reasonably intelligent men who believed they were simply installing an awning. That confidence lasted until the spring-loaded arms entered the conversation. Those things have so much tension that the entire installation quickly becomes a fighting for your life situation. Handle them incorrectly and they appear fully capable of tearing your head off and launching it into the neighbor's yard. Then we opened the directions. One section clearly tells you to install the arms in a certain orientation. The very next section basically says, “Unless the motor is on the left, in which case install them in the opposite direction.” Wait—what? Whose left? My left? The awning's left? The house's left? Are we standing outside looking in or inside looking out? At this point, the instructions stopped being directions and became a philosophical discussion about perspective. Wally's buddy eventually had enough and left. Wally then went to get the neighbor, who spent about an hour studying the manual. We could not tell whether he was researching the installation or proofreading the directions for ALEKO. He finally returned carrying what appeared to be a slide rule and a computer. That was the exact moment Wally's awning stopped being a home-improvement project and became a NASA mission. Measurements were taken. Calculations were performed. The motor location was confirmed. Several theories were debated. Somewhere along the way, somebody shouted, “Moo Mopo, Buckeroo!” Nobody knows what it meant, but morale improved briefly. Against all odds, the awning is now installed, it works properly, and it actually works very nicely. It looks good, provides plenty of shade, and operates smoothly. The final product gets five stars. The installation experience gets one swear jar, three confused adults, a slide rule, and clearance from Mission Control.

instructions were not clear and hard to understand. Pre assembly was wrong. Poles were bent