Charles Bentley Hanging Banana Patio Garden Umbrella Parasol - Free Standing in 3M

Look at the price. Around £60 which is £30 cheaper than B&Q for the exact same item and that itself was not massive. I went to the major DIY retailer to buy a parasol and decided that this was the one except they didn't have the right colour in stock. In the spirit of meanness I had a quick look on Amazon and found it for a considerable saving. Whilst it might not have B&Q stamped on it, it is exactly the same item, brand marketed and made in China.Quality is not bad. I doubt it will last years of sterling service, but I'll probably get a couple of years out of it before it looks too tatty to put out. It's pretty much the same quality as you get for most of these high street reasonably priced items.Reasonably easy to put up although one would have to be a bit careful about the plastic locking collar that holds the lever arm in place. It will be okay as long as it's treated with respect - if not I suspect it will crack and render the parasol DOA.Operation is fairly easy. Lift up the lever arm and lock into place. This requires a bit of effort so if you are the kind of person that struggles to open a Frosties box lid then move on. The parasol bit is opened up by tuning a handle that winds up the rope and opens out the support arms. Easy peasy.The essential extra is weight. There is no way at all this will stay upright unless it is screwed down or heavily weighted. You can buy extra plates but I opted for sandbags. Free as I already had some in stock. I'll probably make up a concrete base at some point.

Love it!!!! Really quite big but does the job. I like that it's not fixed and rigid therefore when the wind blows its moves slightly so as not to take off like a kite. Very vibrant colour, I bought red. Easy to put together. We screw fixed the base to the ground as you can leave the cross base in place, if I chose to move the parasol all we need to do is have more screw holes on the other patio, which you can hardly see, you have to know there there to see them. Having it fixed ensures that it's not going to fall over ( it's quite windy where we are) and it saved us £50+ for weights which I don't particularly like. Great buy.Would definitely recommend this seller. Arrived early, packaging good.

Item arrived early but slight mark on canopy and a washer was missing from pack. Set up was easy though instructions lacked detail.Umbrella base itself needs to be weighted down which we achieved successfully.Once erected the umbrella is next to useless, it blows around in the slightest breeze and has to be continuously adjusted to keep in place.Worst purchase I have ever made with Amazon.

Never used this company...service was brilliant arrived before estimated delivery date, we were kept upto date with delivery progress, it was easy to assemble, you do need weights to anchor it down we bought 2 paving stones (cheaper) and put them diagonal from each other and it does the trick ... would recommend this product

Bought the parasol for a bbq and it didn't dissapoint. Package showed up a couple of days before the estimated delivery and was fairly simple to setup. Highly recommend getting some counter weights as the device cannot stay up on its own and topples over after any little breeze. However a couple of bags of sand later and it's as sturdy as can be. 3x3m gives good coverage away from the heat of the summer sun. It does have a tend to move around a little due to the main parasol part being on a string rather than a fixed pivot. However this is designed to allow it to fold down a little more compact. Overall a good quality product at a great price point. Ideal for anyone throwing a bbq and wants some cost effective sun cover.

After a 3 month period the cord snapped on my Bentley Parasol and the design may be a little suspect, however I do like this Cantilever Parasol and it behaved fine until the cord snapped. Therefore I would rather emphasise the excellent customer service that I received from "Buydirect4U" and the positive way a replacement was managed by the Customer Services Manager Chris Linay.

The picture shows a model with a T shaped base. I received one with an X shaped based, which is rather inconvenient as it now has to sit further away from the garden table than intended. Construction quality is good but I do feel that I will have to buy a strap to help secure the umbrella arm more closely to the base pole when it it closed (to minimise its wind footprint). I will have to buy two extra weights for the base as the two existing ones, although heavy, are not sufficient to stop the umbrella rotating when it is breezy.

we bought as a replacement for our previos normal unbrella of average size, this replacement is lovely and big is easy to put up an down, i am disabled an only got use of one arm and find it easy to get it up and down, but you must get the stablelisers for the base or save money an get couple paveing slabs also when winds gets up deffo put umbrella down an wrap bungee cord around to keep tidy...........