Wenzel Smartshade Canopy - White, 10 ft

The Wenzel tent has some good points. It is affordable. It is lightweight. It is very easy to set up; one person can do it easily. Take-down is super-easy. The down-side is that this tent doesn't have very good UV protection, sunlight glares through the white walls, I have been sunburned through the tent and need to wear sunglasses while inside due to a great amount of glare. I purchased Wenzel sidewalls and they had mold spots when first taken out of the package! Experienced my first rainy market this past weekend and was disappointed to find many points of leakage through the seams in the canopy. I am now looking for a replacement tent. I wouldn't recommend this tent.

I waited a couple of months before writing this review, because I wanted to see how this canopy held up after nearly weekly usage. I am a vendor of jams and jellies at special outdoor events and farmers markets, and this year I had to buy my own shelter/canopy. I've been using it now at least once, and sometimes twice, a week for nearly 3 months. After reading numerous reviews and comparison shopping, I went with this Wenzel Smartshade.I have managed to set it up on my own (I'm a very short woman), but it's very difficult and time-consuming to do so by myself on pavement. Much easier on grass, where there is some resistance to keep the legs in place. It sets up very quickly with 2 or more people, though, and I find that if my husband's not with me, there's always at least one kind soul around who'll lend me a hand to stretch out the frame. The best part is the button/latch release system - makes breakdown (and even raising the canopy's height) very quick and easy. No fumbling for the dumb little button releases and no pinched fingers! So far, I've used lightly filled sandbags to stabilize the legs and just tied the tops of the sandbags to the legs with a bow, and have had no problems with wind. The canopy part has more velcro attachments to the frame (along the center struts, not just the outer edges), which not only makes it more secure, but also keeps it from accumulating a lot of water when it rains. That's a problem with some of the other pop-up shelters I've had experience with.I leave the canopy on the frame and fully attached when breaking it down and it fits into that nice roller bag, very neatly. There is a trick to that, though, because of the solid bottom of the roller bag where the wheels are: After fully collapsing and folding the shelter up, turn it upside down or lay it down on its side and fit the feet solidly into the bottom of the bag so they are snug against the solid bottom. Then it's fairly easy to zip up the bag, making sure that you tuck in any fabric that might be sticking out. Turn the whole thing vertical, right side up, when you get it zipped about halfway and maybe jiggle it a bit. Takes longer to describe it than to do it. :-)The bag is a nice touch and is one of the features that convinced me to buy this one. It's sturdy material, rolls very easily, and has 2 handles - one at the top and one at the center, that makes it very easy to pick it up and throw in the car. It fits very neatly into the back seat of my Prius, with room to spare. In fact, unless I'm taking very large quantities of product with me, I rarely need anything larger than my Prius for the whole kit and kaboodle. I would have liked it to be a little more sun-reflective, but I've had no problems with leaking during rainy spells. We even managed to set it up in the rain with no problems and everything stayed nice and dry underneath. For the money, I think I got myself a winner.

Let me start by saying that this canopy stood up to a really bad thunderstorm.We bought it to use at farmers' markets and at art shows to provide us with some shade since we are standing out in the open for hours at a time. It has worked great for that purpose. We are very thankful for the extra shade that it supplies.It is very easy to transport as it does not weigh all that much, and it is easy to setup. It is a bit harder to set up on grass than on pavement as the legs get caught in the grass, but with two people it is no problem (it would be difficult with just one, though).Even though it is light, it still feels very sturdy even after many weeks of frequent use.Now, for the thunderstorm story. We set up at an art show on a nice sunny day. Then, in what seemed like an instant, the whole show was hit by a huge storm. It left the whole show flooded. However, during that time, we were kept most safe under our canopy. It did have an occasional drip on the inside of the tent, but for the amount of rain that was coming down, I don't blame it.It we were to set up for an art show again, we would use the screw-in anchors (instead of the ones that are supplied with the canopy which are hammered in) to keep this securely anchored to the ground. Surprisingly, the storm did not upend our tent, but I would still like the extra security from the beefier anchor system.Needless to say, we would buy this exact same canopy again without reservation. If you are looking for a good white canopy, get this one!

We used this for the first time at an event last weekend. It was light and bright and didn't detract from my booth decor. While the tent next to us was a dark blue and appeared to provide them more shade, it almost appeared dark in their booth and it didn't really feel any cooler under their tent than ours. I'm just including that since many suggested a darker tent for the outdoors - which would be great for tailgating, etc.. But if you're a Vendor, you want a light, bright area where people can see your goodies! The Wenzel name isn't on all sides (I was wondering that before I bought it) and we faced the blank side toward the Customers. I like that it came with a case with rollers. While it's a little heavy, moving it around was easy because of the rollers and double handles (one on each end). Putting it away was a piece of cake! I was worried that we would never be able to fold the canopy back down to fit in the case but we didn't have a problem.I wish this came with instructions :( Thankfully, enough Reviewers took the time to write thoughtful instructions for those of us who have never popped up a 'pop up' tent (so I won't add them here). We didn't have any issues until we got to the last leg...it wouldn't lock! We tinkered with it for awhile and just as I was about to succumb to using duct tape to secure it, it locked. This isn't good enough for me. I'm concerned it may not hold up and I really don't want to resort to duct taping the leg each time (what a pain that would be!). This evening I contacted Amazon and they are sending a replacement to arrive in 2-days! Yay! Returns are so easy! Better than sitting back and complaining huh?! Thank you Amazon! When the new one arrives I'll test it out BEFORE I take it to the next event and make sure it all works.

I got my canopy and put it up by myself. The instructions are kinda hidden in the peg bag. Should have been somewhere easier to find. The directions are pretty basic but good enough.The frame went up without a problem. The actual canopy is white and fit well. One corner had the Velcro strips off a little.. but was still in position to connect to the frame. As I pulled the canopy tight to secure it I could hear some tearing sounds.. so some stitches were popping. My main concern is that the stitching seemed to light. But for $124 delivered it seems like it should last for a few years.UPDATE 9/18One day after I put up the canopy it rained. I go out to see how its holding up and I see drips falling on the inside. Every sewn in velcro tab was leaking, and the top center part where all the quarters are sewn together is leaking and all 4 diagonal support bars are dripping wet.The seams are NOT DOUBLE FLAT FELL sewn so every one will leak.I am on the edge regarding I should send it back... 60/40 I will.