What is the best outdoor umbrella for high winds?
Taking care of your investments should always be a top priority. Outdoor furniture and outdoor products are no different. At Shadowspec, we are often asked what is the best outdoor umbrella for high winds. This is, of course, a good question and as an outdoor enjoyer, you deserve an accurate, useful answer.
What is the Shadowspec Retreat Wall Mounted Umbrellas wind rating?
Wind ratings are one of the most complex rating systems you can find, anywhere. Can you evaluate the best outdoor umbrella for high winds? The simple answer is our umbrellas are rated at Beaufort 4-5. You know what that means right? How that applies to your situation and how you can use it to inform your decision-making process?
So, what is the best umbrella for wind – is there an accurate measure? Wind is not a constant force. In a wind tunnel, products are evaluated with constant wind speeds to evaluate the aero dynamic properties of objects. This is not a real-world test of wind but a pressure test. Think the flow of wind over a Formula One car as opposed to the car being pushed along by the wind.
What is wind speed for outdoor furniture?
We must be careful when judging wind speeds because in the real world, winds gust. You can go, in and instant from soft cool sea breezes whisking in the fresh salt air to a burst of wind that lasts a minute and back to dead air. Or you may find the day undulating with wind peaking and dropping in a smooth bell curve, a sailor’s nightmare.
We evaluate our umbrellas in the real world – installing them in real-use locations in locations close to home base to see how they perform. We encourage our testers to operate as they would on a normal day. Deploying and retracting them in patio environments where there are natural wind shadows from trees and buildings, sitting under the umbrellas to see how comfortable they can be before needing to retreat indoors.
Distilling this all down, we encourage you to use your Shadowspec Umbrella for as long as you and your guests are comfortable outside – the umbrella will stand up to winds if your comfortable outdoors. Once winds pick up to speeds of 40-60kmph you will have book pages fluttering and wine glasses falling over.
Outdoor comfort with Wall Mounted Umbrellas
If you are not comfortable, neither is your umbrella – time to retract it and store it away until next time. This will extend and improve the life of your umbrella.
The Shadowspec Retreat is provided with a protection cover. This will help extend the life of your umbrella and its canopy when not in use. The Retreat also has a clever tilt function that self-corrects in wind to save your umbrella from turning into a sail.
Remember, if you are comfortable outside under your Shadowspec Retreat, it will have ample wind protection. If the weather becomes too inclement for you it is time to pack up your coffee (or something stronger) and head on inside, just remember to lower your Retreat and covering it with the protection cover.
