I Love My Manual Awning
I love the simplicity, versatility and practicality of my run-of-the-mill manual pull-down awning. I love that it comes out when I want it to and it retracts when I want it to with nothing more than ...
Forum Discussion
...I love how with threads like this, we get so many folks bashing a product they don't own and frequently know very little about except what they read on here, and singing praise and worship for the one they do own.
I say, until you've owned both products and have a good bit of personal experience with both (manual AND electric awnings)...Welll, your credibility in discussing how much better one is than the other is a bit questionable. If we use that 'filter' with this thread, I bet it will eliminate 90% of the posts on this thread praising the manual awnings.
I spent 10 years thinking narrow-mindedly like many, that manual awning was the only way to go, electric is worthless, blah blah blah. Then, when we moved up to a MH 2 years ago, manual was not a realistic option, the MH we really wanted only came with an electric awning. Soo, I was forced be a bit more open minded, and try an electric awning.
Toyed with the idea of continuing to be narrow minded, and just pull the electric awning off and spend a bunch of $$ to put on a manual one. Fortunately, I did not do something so foolish.
What I've learned after having owned both: Bottom line is its just like so many other choices with RV products. Each choice has its own set of pros and cons, and you just have to decide which 'pros' are more important to you, and which 'cons' you can live with.
Electric awnings win hands down, in terms of how quickly and easily they can be deployed or rolled up. Can't beat the push-button extract and retract.
In terms of the amount of shade and covered space provided, manual awnings frequently do better 'cause of the versatility they provide in allowing you to angle them down more.
I'm not convinced that either type has an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to reliability, either. Yes, electric motors and electrical connections can fail, but springs in manual awnng rollers can have short lives, also, and can be tough to replace.
Oh, rain build-up/dumping: There again, I'm not convinced either type has an advantage or disadvantage. With the electric models out now, rain dumping is done just as well if not better than the way its done with manual awnings.
No doubt an anchored down manual awning can withstand more abuse than an electric awning not anchored down, but personally I trust NEITHER of them to be up when the weather gets bad, anchored or not. Awning material on ANY awning has a tendency to RIP when a strong wind comes, no matter how well the arms are anchored down.
I know some swear they've anchored down their awnings and leave them up that way all the time and have for the last 50 years without a problem. However, I've seen too many ripped up awnings (with the arms still anchored down to the ground) to believe thats a good idea.
For us, regardless what type of awning it is, it goes up whenever we are not at the RV or at night when we go to sleep (or when/if bad weather is imminent). We did that when we had a manual awning as well as now with the electric one. Sooo, the manual awning's better strength when anchored down is meaningless to me, as I'm not going to do that, anyway. I prefer the 'RTAU' school of thought when it comes to dealing with bad weather or wind - RTAU meaning, 'roll the awning up'.
Oh, stuff you want to keep dry: Thats the beauty of most RVs - There is TONS of room underneath to slide things that you don't want to get wet. If rain is in the forecast, put your stuff you want to keep try underneath. Pretty simple. :)
Sooo, for us, since we prefer the 'RTAU' school of thought for the awning, the electric awning is preferable and much, much more convenient. Like already said, though, to each their own.
I say, until you've owned both products and have a good bit of personal experience with both (manual AND electric awnings)...Welll, your credibility in discussing how much better one is than the other is a bit questionable. If we use that 'filter' with this thread, I bet it will eliminate 90% of the posts on this thread praising the manual awnings.
I spent 10 years thinking narrow-mindedly like many, that manual awning was the only way to go, electric is worthless, blah blah blah. Then, when we moved up to a MH 2 years ago, manual was not a realistic option, the MH we really wanted only came with an electric awning. Soo, I was forced be a bit more open minded, and try an electric awning.
Toyed with the idea of continuing to be narrow minded, and just pull the electric awning off and spend a bunch of $$ to put on a manual one. Fortunately, I did not do something so foolish.
What I've learned after having owned both: Bottom line is its just like so many other choices with RV products. Each choice has its own set of pros and cons, and you just have to decide which 'pros' are more important to you, and which 'cons' you can live with.
Electric awnings win hands down, in terms of how quickly and easily they can be deployed or rolled up. Can't beat the push-button extract and retract.
In terms of the amount of shade and covered space provided, manual awnings frequently do better 'cause of the versatility they provide in allowing you to angle them down more.
I'm not convinced that either type has an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to reliability, either. Yes, electric motors and electrical connections can fail, but springs in manual awnng rollers can have short lives, also, and can be tough to replace.
Oh, rain build-up/dumping: There again, I'm not convinced either type has an advantage or disadvantage. With the electric models out now, rain dumping is done just as well if not better than the way its done with manual awnings.
No doubt an anchored down manual awning can withstand more abuse than an electric awning not anchored down, but personally I trust NEITHER of them to be up when the weather gets bad, anchored or not. Awning material on ANY awning has a tendency to RIP when a strong wind comes, no matter how well the arms are anchored down.
I know some swear they've anchored down their awnings and leave them up that way all the time and have for the last 50 years without a problem. However, I've seen too many ripped up awnings (with the arms still anchored down to the ground) to believe thats a good idea.
For us, regardless what type of awning it is, it goes up whenever we are not at the RV or at night when we go to sleep (or when/if bad weather is imminent). We did that when we had a manual awning as well as now with the electric one. Sooo, the manual awning's better strength when anchored down is meaningless to me, as I'm not going to do that, anyway. I prefer the 'RTAU' school of thought when it comes to dealing with bad weather or wind - RTAU meaning, 'roll the awning up'.
Oh, stuff you want to keep dry: Thats the beauty of most RVs - There is TONS of room underneath to slide things that you don't want to get wet. If rain is in the forecast, put your stuff you want to keep try underneath. Pretty simple. :)
Sooo, for us, since we prefer the 'RTAU' school of thought for the awning, the electric awning is preferable and much, much more convenient. Like already said, though, to each their own.
