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RV-Dreams.com Home -> RV-Dreams Community Forum -> RV Maintenance and Technical Tips -> A & E electric awning - JUNK?
Post Info TOPIC: A & E electric awning - JUNK?
Old Snipe


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A & E electric awning - JUNK?
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I have the A & E Electric awning with the wind sensor.  The motor has already failed once and was replaced under warranty.  It has failed again and my MH is going into the shop the last week of April for another motor. cry

I rarely use the awning, the first motor failed after maybe 20-25 in-and-out cycles.  The second motor has failed with maybe 5 cycles.

Lucky me, the MH warranty expires end of May.  I have two questions:

1.  Is this a normal failure rate?  I have heard these awnings are somewhat unreliable, but this is terrible. 

2.  Has anyone replaced their electric awning with a better brand, (say Girard, or Carefree of Colorado), or even gone back to a reliable manual awning?

I'm glad A & E only makes awnings, can you imagine the problems you'd have if they made engines or transmissions! wink

Best Regards!

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jrp


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Paul, A & E makes many models, not sure which one you have. I have an A&E WeatherPro on my MH and I've not had any problems. I've also not heard of many complaints from others, except the annoying wind alarm going off when it shouldn't, and not shedding rain correctly.
Burning up two motors in that short time, seems to indicate something else wrong. Maybe your dealer just replaced the obvious and didn't look into the root cause.
Although your wrap around MH warranty may be expiring, many of its individual components continue to be warrantied by their manufactuerers for longer periods.
A & E (part of Dometic) warranties their awning for 3 years (2 yrs on labor). Try contacting their customer service directly.

good luck,

Jim

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RVDude


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Not sure what "burning up" actually means, but one thing to look for is moisture/water leakage into the motor. Something might not be well sealed in the mounting area.

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Roz


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Paul,

I echo what Jim and Jeff said.  So why am I responding? 

We have an A&E on a 2004 coach and have had no problems whatsoever.  If this is an inherrent problem with A&E, others responding should give you some indication.

My only complaint is I am not sure why the wind activated retraction is so sensitive.   But on the other hand, I do not want to have an awning assembly to replace.

Good luck!

Charles

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Linda


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We also have the A&E Weather Pro awning.  We have not had any problems with ours except the wind sensor being a little off.  We usually just keep that sensor disabled.  We love ours and wouldn't be without it. 

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Judy


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As you can see from the posts not many have trouble with these type of awnings.  We also have the A & E weather pro on our Doubletree Elite fiver and have had no problems with it.  Wind sensor does work well.
southwestjudy

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bjoyce


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We have the same problem with our WeatherPro.  The motor was fixed once under warranty and now it is having issues again but this time it is our money.  Been told this can be because of three different problems if it is a repeat problem:
1) Awning tube sagging so the motor has to work too hard and burns out.  Put in  a center support (we might do this anyway).
2) Inadequate or faulty wiring so when the motor kicks in the voltage drops and the motor works too hard.  Some frayed wire, too small a wire, or a bad connection somewhere could be causing this.
3) The motors are not all that good and can fail.

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Speedhitch


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Bill you bring up a good point the wiring. Even tough it should be standard on all units there is a chance that an installer used the wrong gauge of wire on this one. It is one thing that you could have checked before installing the third motor. Also make sure it is not over fused.

Speedy

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igotjam


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A&E Weatherpro owner. Wind sensor never works..we keep it off. My motor still works but the tube its in fills with water when it rains. My guess is that I'm living on borrowed time. Used it maybe 5 times in the last year.

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Judy


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Our windsensor does work....I was inside the rv one day and a gust of wind came up and it closed itself and believe me we do have lots of wind in the southwest. Who would buy a unit and not have everything work on it...not us.
southwestjudy

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bjoyce


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Our Weatherpro wind sensor has always worked, we have had it come in many times. But I have heard it is a problem for many. Supposedly the Carefree and Girard wind sensors work more reliably. Been told the Carefree one is a bounce sensor and if the awning bounces too much it brings it in. Girard uses a spinner and that is more reliable than the Weatherpro design.

-- Edited by bjoyce at 11:44, 2008-04-22

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jdensie


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We have a Girard and it works great.  While we were in Fl for the winter it seemed like it came in everyday and never missed a beat.  Yeah, we have the little spinner on the roof and it does a great job, just have to make sure it dosen't get cloged with debris.

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hogans1947


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We have just lost our awning due to the wonderful weather in Il. so now I'm interested in this discussion.  Really been wanting an A&E Weather-Pro but also thinking about the Carefree.  Any more pros and cons would be appreciated.
Thank you, Brenda

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RVDude


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It's sort of like

Chevy = A&E
BMW = Carefree of Colorado
Rolls Royce = Girard

They are all "good" but you also do get what you pay for... Stick with these name brands and you'll do fine... Buy what you can afford... Invest in those brands with the features that are important to you.



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SoCalToolGuy


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We have a 2004 unit with the A&E WeatherPro 1000 automatic awning that was factory installed. We have had no problems with the awning itself but the wind sensor is messed up for some reason. The control box that is located in the storage bay emits a tiny beeping noise that I cannot hear but it drives Barb nuts. I had to turn it off so she could sleep. Anyway, I looked to see if the sensor on the roof was broken or clogged with dirt but could't see anything wrong. We were with our son and his family and relating the noise issue. I turned the unit back on. The beeping was still there but all of a sudden the awning closed by itself when a gust of wind came up. It seemed to work like it was supposed to but the beeping is still there so I had to turn it back off. I am at a loss as to what the problem could be. It is out of warranty so I will live with the current situation but if any of you have had a similar situation I would appreciate hearing about it.
Ray

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