Wind Vents: Why are they important and how to pick the right one?

With all of the wind vent choices available at CushionsAndUmbrellas.com, how are you going to choose the right one for your patio umbrella?

To give you a better understanding of the different features of our wind vents, it’s important to know what a Wind Vent does.

 

A wind vent is a flap in the fabric of canopy, or top, of a patio umbrella, that allows for wind and heat to escape the top of the umbrella. There are two main reasons why this is important.

Stability. The Wind Vent allows for wind and air to be safely “vented” through your umbrella. Without the Wind Vent, what you would have is a very big and expensive kite. Think of your hand umbrella in a strong breeze; turn the umbrella the wrong way, and not only does it turn inside out, but 9 times out of 10, it will fly away, usually very far away. However, because of the wind vent in our umbrellas, air and wind have a means of escape, without carrying the whole umbrella along with it.

Comfort. Heat rises, and patio umbrellas can trap a lot of heat under the canopy, like a hot air balloon. The Wind Vent allows for hot air to escape out of the top, and let’s cool air rush in underneath to cool the inside of the canopy. Without a Wind Vent, you’d be standing underneath a hot air oven. Not the best place to be on a hot day, and completely kills the purpose of having an outdoor shade.

So why are there different types of Wind Vents? Why would one type of Wind Vent be different than another? Let’s go over the differences.

Single Wind Vents (SWV)

An Single Wind Vent patio umbrella features a single vent placed in the optimum area at the top of the umbrella canopy. This provides basic wind and heat venting and is that standard vent among all patio umbrellas sold. In small patio areas and places where wind is not a big factor, this is a great umbrella cover. It also allows for a single, uniform look to your umbrella cover.

Almost all of CushionsAndUmbrellas.com patio umbrellas are available in Single Wind Vent.

 

Dual Wind Vents (DWV)

A Dual Wind Vent umbrella is just what the name suggests. Two Wind Vents placed at the top and middle positions of the umbrella canopy gives you twice the ventilation and twice the heat dissipation. Twice as efficient as a SWV, the DWV umbrella cover also gives your patio umbrella an added design feature that gives a little more fashion and elegance to your patio design. The Dual Wind Vent is perfect for those windy outdoor areas, or patios that
are in hot or tropical locals, where heat dissipation is really important.


Middle Accent Design (MAD)

A Middle Accent umbrella is a Dual Wind Vent cover with the added feature of a coordinating or complimenting fabric in the middle vent tier. It has all the advantages of a DWV, but opens a world of design opportunities for your outdoor décor. You can mix and match cushion fabrics and compliment it with your umbrella, or you can choose a complete pallet featuring cushions, outdoor pillows and umbrellas with a base fabric colors and accenting fabrics. Imagine picking a beautiful rich solid for your cushions; match it with a nice accenting stripe or pattern for your decorative pillows, and then making your umbrella with BOTH fabrics. As we said, a world of opportunities.


ED 9 Inch Edge (ED)

How can you make the concept of a Dual Wind Vent better? The 9 inch Edge does just that by creating a wider, middle vent tier that extends to 9 inches from the edge of the canopy. This canopy design has been shown to be a little more efficient than the standard Dual Wind Vent, and adds a rich, elegant look to your patio umbrella top. All of our Deluxe Patio Umbrellas are available in the ED 9 inch edge option
 

ED 9 Inch Edge MAD
 

Building on the elegance of the ED, adding a middle accent design brings yet another option to your patio umbrella canopy design.


RAD Master (RD)

The RAD Master is a bold new look for patio umbrellas. Creating the look of a geometric design, the RAD Master is basically two covers, braced at alternating ribs, that create a geometric star shaped canopy. The vents make a criss-cross atop the canopy, to give you multiple areas of heat and wind movement, while giving your patio umbrella a truly unique design. All of our Deluxe Patio Umbrellas come with a RAD master option.


RAD Dual Fabrics (RDD)

If you really want to open up the possibilities, the RAD Dual Fabric does that and more. The same star shape geometric design as the RAD, except with two different fabrics for each panel.



Most online merchants only carry Single Wind Vent patio umbrellas, and usually with a small choice of fabrics. CushionsAndUmbrellas.com is dedicated to giving you a wide selection of design choices for your umbrellas, so we added both the DWV and MAD designs to expand your choices. Why the difference? Most online merchants only feature selected umbrellas in a limited amount of fabric because they are easily ordered and shipped through the manufacturers. CushionsAndUmbrellas.com has gone through the extra steps to ensure that our customers have a wide variety of patio umbrella choices available to them.