British BBQ Society Forums

So I figure I need a little more than a brolly to keep the weather off the 'q when smoking. I'd like to know what gazebo people have. My experiance has mainly been with those cheap plastic jobbys for £30 out of tescos that last a season and die a death. Looking for something a bit more likely to take a wind and stay up over night.

I was looking at the airwave ones on ebay/amazon although I saw some bad reviews. What and how do you use yours?

I got mine from "The TV" but despite that it works well and has a roof vent to allow for breezy days, 4 walls and wrap around net walls. Despite that a strong wind walked it and 4x10Kg (approx.) weights across my pathetic excuse for a garden as shown in my pics viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2814&p=24271&hilit=gazebo#p24271.

I know a lot of the comp teams use the same or similar high end gazebos, but again those are expensive so it depends a lot on the depth of your pocket.

This year we are going to try Derek Miller's suggestion of drilling & bolting through the slabs and use "earth anchors" i.e gert great long rawlbolts or similar

if you are looking for something that will last, check out HEX 40 or 50 constriction, this is the diameter of the tube. www.galatent.co.uk have a few and i have used them for years. They arent cheap but they do last well/

We have two 3M x 3M waterproof gazebos from Homebase, which do the job, slightly more cheaper at £100 each.

Derek, how often do you end up replacing them?

It's a question of false economy. If £350 lasts 10 years and £100 only three...

Mark.
Thats completely dependant on the weather. If I had left them out in the winds we had earlier, they wouldnt have lasted a year.
Normally I put them out for the Calcutta cup and they come in after the bonfire party, going out temporary for Xmas.
If we get high winds, (and I mean high winds), I tend to take them down, they are screwed to the patio/paveing slabs.
I normally get about 3-4 years before they need replacing, and I tend to reproof them after 2.

But I do like that 3M x 6M from the company that Toby mentioned.

Hope this helps.
Derek.

We use this one http://uk.eurmax.com/premium-3mx3m-pop-up-tent.html

Very sturdy, reasonably priced & like the gala tent's you can buy any spare part so even if a part breaks you can fix it!

As I am one not to let a bargain go amiss, we upgraded from our tesco £14 special (which magically lasted our entire 1st season) to a 3mx3m easy gazebo http://www.easygazebos.com/. However, I was not prepared to pay the £200+ price tag, but kept an eye on ebay or their offers site as they frequently drop some b-grade/refurb units in for £79 - £100 notes. We are still using the same gazebo 3 years on and its been through Cartmel, Brighton and a number of other very unpleasant evenings.

On my 2nd Gala tent, first one must be 7 years old and getting to grubby for weddings and private events, but still use it when doing steam rallies and the like. Something quite smug when your sitting in it in the warm watching pop ups being blown ovall round the park but you get what you pay for

So with price and quality I went with the Eurmax 40 Hex construction.

Customer service (replying to emails and the like) was a little lacking and they didn't have the colour I ordered but it's come in the post and looks pretty damn solid especially compared to the £20 3x4.5m I got from B&Q because this didn't make it in time (partly my bad it would have had to have come at the early end of the delivery time) for the weekend.

Looking forward to putting it up!