I put the Triton to bed for the winter this afternoon having first washed and dried it and drained off all the water. As we were pulling the tailor made cover over the roof I grabbed hold of the material to ease it over the tennis ball-protected chimney and the material ripped like paper leaving a hole that required a 6" x 8" repair patch to render waterproof.

We bought the cover new in November 2012 since when I have had to Evo-Stik on around half a dozen repair patches due to wear, storm damage and attachment points pulling off. The cover has been used for eight of the 11 years that we have owned it and the material is now pretty fragile no doubt having been denatured by exposure to rain, wind and UV light over the years. I have no confidence that it will survive another winter. I had to throw the hitch cover part out maybe three years ago when it literally fell apart in my hands while being fitted.

Am I being unreasonable when I say that I think this make of cover to be of pretty shoddy quality? What do you think is a reasonable service life to expect of a ProTek cover? What has been your experience with these covers?

I've got mixed feelings on this one. You have paid top money for what is supposed to be about the best you can buy, so how long should it last?
I expect the fairest comparison would be an awning. After 10 years it would be fairly tired and needed a re-proofing. But then again it would have only had say 10 years x 6 weeks use, or exposure to uv and the elements. Your cover will have had 10 years x 46 weeks exposure to the elements.

Colin

We've had our Protec since 2010 but have not put it on this Autumn......yet.

To date, including when we removed it 5 months ago, it has shown good service but is a little more fragile than it was when new. Also I notice a "bleed" on the roof which manifests itself as a very faded camouflage pattern, when we remove the cover.

It does have a few holes where it was attacked by mice a few years ago while being stored in the garage but I'm quite pleased with the service it has given and hopefully will do so again for this winter at least.

p,s, We are in a very exposed position.

Randa