Dometic E9500 Awning and Rain

[Beaver]

Our maiden voyage with the 2017 19' and the Dometic E9500 awning did not feature much rain, but the rain we did have one day collected in the awning and I ended up pushing the awning up and shedding the considerable water that had collected. The water shedding feature mentioned in the manual of one corner of the awning tipping down to shed water did not activate. Has anyone else had experience with this?

Also concerning is that the manual says the awning is o.k. in a "light" rain only, not a heavy one. We set up our cooking gear under the awning, so this is bad news for us. Also, if we leave the trailer, how do we know that there will not be a "heavy" rain? What will happen? Will the awning fill with water and pull itself off the trailer?

[Losangeles]

Good questions.

Following.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Beaver

Also, if we leave the trailer, how do we know that there will not be a "heavy" rain? What will happen? Will the awning fill with water and pull itself off the trailer?

What I have seen regarding this water shed feature, is just that the awning waits until it overloads with water, then one corner collapses causing it to dump, then returns to normal position. I have not tested this function yet, just going from a couple things I have heard.

I am guessing you might not have given it enough time to collect enough water for this function to activate is all.

My 9500E will be out in heavy rain, just not wild winds.

[sunrisetrucker]

The more I hear and read about these new awnings, the happier I am with our old one.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by sunrisetrucker

The more I hear and read about these new awnings, the happier I am with our old one.

Yet, the more I read about them, the more eager I am to use it.

Only time will tell though whether I keep this attitude or not. Have not really heard of many negatives, and folks sure do like to try and find them in new things.

[Kountrykamper]

We camped in the rain but I lowered the front of the camper a little so the water ran off the awning. It did not collect enough to activate the water shead feature. From playing with it at home it will hold a lot of weight and I think it takes quit a bit of water from the videos I have seen.

I can say that the auto retract feature works. I shook the rail for 8 seconds like it says in the manual and the awning retracted.

Having had both awnings, so far I prefer the new one. I sure like being able to push a button if things get rough at night instead of going outside in my Fruit of the Looms and taking the awning down in the rain. Like Jim said time will tell

[tractors1]

If I had the new awning I could not possibly resist testing it with my water hose at home. Fill that sucker up until it tips a corner to drain. I'd have to figure out if it had enough smarts to determine which is the best corner to tip - if not, then I'd want to know the default tipping corner so I didn't place anything on the ground there!

[Beaver]

Thanks for the replies. I too am adopting a "wait and see" attitude at present. However, even in Jim's scenario, where the awning collects and then dumps, I then have a minor flood at one corner of the awning and hence at my mat and cooking area. It makes so much more sense for the rain to be shed gradually by tilting the awning in the first place, as we did with our manual Carefree awning on our 2012 17'. Neither rain nor wind caused the having to go out half naked in the middle of the night to retract the awning scenario. Furthermore, isn't all this water going to stretch the awning? Yeah, I am projecting negativity right now, but will keep an open mind and see what actually happens under real conditions.

[Beaver]

Yeah, as "tractors 1" says, I too will not be able to resist testing it. Stay tuned...

[cpaharley2008]

I had my automatic awning retract twice in the and scenario, have not tried the water test. On my Lance trailer it had the automatic dump and you have to be careful where you sit, I got one of those "ice bucket" challenge one time sitting out in the rain. As far as leaving it unattended, I would never leave the cg with it deployed, manual or automatic.

[tractors1]

Originally Posted by Beaver

Yeah, as "tractors 1" says, I too will not be able to resist testing it. Stay tuned...

Might try placing a weight on the corners (alternating) and see if gravity puts a little bias on the decision which corner may be the default.......

[Iowa Dave]

Well , I suppose a person could get a piece of clear plastic hose and tape it in a corner so it would siphon the rain off as it collected. Run the hose into a bucket and use the collected water to flush the toilet or do some general cleanup in the camp or pour it off into the nearby brush to water the trees and shrubs. If you had a dog along you could give him a bath. Or get nekkid and take a shower under the corner when it dumps. Think outside box.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Well , I suppose a person could get a piece of clear plastic hose and tape it in a corner so it would siphon the rain off as it collected. Run the hose into a bucket and use the collected water to flush the toilet or do some general cleanup in the camp or pour it off into the nearby brush to water the trees and shrubs. If you had a dog along you could give him a bath. Or get nekkid and take a shower under the corner when it dumps. Think outside box.

All very good ideas for boondocking, Dave.

[cpaharley2008]

In Bermuda all the homes have rain collection systems as there is very little fresh water on the island. Your house has a large tank inside for water storage.

[Iowa Dave]

Hi Jim Bennett
One thing I forgot and couldn't believe I did, was collecting water to put out the campfire the last thing in the evening.
When I had the Venture fold down pop up tent camping trailer ( hope that covers it) , We had a water tank low point drain that was easy to access. We drained water off outside more than we pumped water inside. As you know, theee kids and two adults, camping for a week and 5 miles to water, you learn to conserve and the opportunity for water collected off the awning was a welcome benefit.
Dave

[Iowa Dave]

Hi Jim Norman:
The only memory I have of my great grandmother was when we went to her house in Elberon, Iowa. She was washing her hair out of a rain barrel at the back of her house. I thought it was so strange , she was born in the 1860s and I met her when she was about 90 and I was maybe 10 Those old Bohemies wasted nothing. My mom called it soft water.
Dave

[reace]

I was playing with the awning in the rain the other day...because it just hasn't stopped raining...

With the awning fully extended, water will collect in the centre and build up until it gets too heavy and dumps. You have to have faith as it fills quite a bit before it finally lets go.

I then retracted the awning about 2' and it sheds the water without it collecting. Left it for a few hours in heavy rain...and nothing!

Give that a try

Something else I was playing with in the show room...

I removed the batteries from the wind sensor...and waited to see exactly how long it took for the awning to realized that the batteries were dead and close. It is supposed to pick this up...

After 8 hours I figured it wasn't going to sense this...

I will contact Dometic about this...but in the mean time...I recommend testing the wind sensor regularly

Reace

[Marry]

Now with my "old" awning, do I hope for rain during the Osoyoos gathering......?

[gbaglo]

Nah. There's the sprinklers.

[cpaharley2008]

Osoyoos is like an oasis in the desert, beautiful but not too hot. So envious of Bruce and anyone else who live there.
Thanks Reace for the update, 2' retract in should take care of the rain and test the wind sensor occasionally.