HOW TO AVOID EZ-UP CANOPY COLLAPSE!

Have you ever seen what happens when an EZ-UP style canopy is caught in heavy rain? 

I've owned one for several years, which I set up at flea markets or when I'm camping for a decent amount of time in one place.  I discovered right away that the scissors style frame does not allow water to just run off like it would on my 18th century dining fly.  The frame traps the water and it pools there, and you have to reach up with a broom or something and raise the cover up so the water pours off.  I would watch the weather app and if rain were possible I would take the cover off.  Therefore it was only good for shade, not as any sort of rain protection.

I have camped next to several EZ-UP DISASTERS.  One of my neighbors' canopy got caught in wind and rain and mangled badly.  He put it back up in front of his tent but it was lopsided and a lot shorter than it had been.

Another year the folks camped next to me had their canopy in front of the door of their trailer.  It rained heavily during the night, the canopy collapsed and blocked their door, trapping them inside.  It took them quite a while to get out.

When I parked at the end of March for a long term camp due to COVID, I set my canopy up next to my van. 

And it was only a matter of time, and one night an unexpected heavy rain fell while I was sleeping.  I was sure I had taken pictures of my mangled canopy, but apparently not.  Trust me, it was not salvageable.  The frame was bent in places and broken in places.  It still held a pool of water large and heavy enough that I had to cut the fabric to let it out and be able to clean up the mess.

(If you want to see what all that was like, this other blogger had a similar experience and did take pictures.

I hauled the frame to the dump, rolled up the cover, and ordered a new canopy.  When it arrived, I put the new cover aside, and set up the new frame with the old cover.  I wanted to test my theory.  When I took the canopy down 6 months later I knew my theory worked.

Here's the deal: 

Since the scissors frame holds the water in, I figured that if I put holes in the fabric where the water would pool, that would let it out, keep it from pooling, and keep it from collapsing the frame.  I did not want to put holes in my brand new canopy top, and the old one already had a big slice where I had let the water out the day it collapsed.  So I sliced holes in the other three sides and waited for the next rain to see what would happen.

IT WORKED!!!  Rain came, rain hit the canopy, rain ran out through the holes instead of pooling. 

The canopy withstood quite a few heavy downpours over the summer.  The water goes through the holes, and hits the ground right near where it would have if it would have drained off the roof properly.  Buckets placed there keep me from having to haul dishwater.

So when I do open up the new canopy, I plan to put grommets in the places where I put the slits in the old ones, so the holes will be neat and finished looking.  I was worried that my slits might tear, but that's good tough fabric and they didn't tear at all.