Looking for a lightweight and small umbrella for travel, I bought the Amazon Basics, Repel, and Umenice for something even lighter. I decided to keep 2, and I chose the Umenice and Repel, in that order. But this also seemed an overall good umbrella so read on.I weighed them myself:Umenice 9ozAmazon 13ozRepel 14ozI measured the diameters myself:Umenice 38.5″Repel and Amazon 37.75″The Repel and Amazon are very similar, both auto open, both vented designs which theoretically makes them less likely to invert in strong gusts. The Umenice is quite different, due to its silver UV-resistant fabric, manual open, and unvented.While each was open, I shook each violently up and down as if wind gusts were attempting to invert the umbrellas. The Repel 9 rib design was noticeably stiffer/sturdier than the 8 rib Amazon. Surprisingly, the Umenice 8 rib design seemed much closer in sturdiness to the Repel than the Amazon, despite being 8 rib and unvented. Perhaps the different fabric on the Umenice played a part in this.The handles on the Repel and Amazon are larger and easier to hold on to than the Umenice, however, the handles on the Repel and Amazon also have a considerable amount of ‘play’ between the umbrella shaft and the handle, meaning they will twist and turn noticeably in wind gusts, which is something I found mildly annoying with my last umbrella. I think this may be an unfortunate side effect of all auto open umbrellas.Another slight difference is the storage sleeve is a tight fit over the Amazon while the Repel and Umenice slide in more easily. When I bought, the Repel and Umenice we’re both about $30, while the Amazon was $17. I was going to buy a Repel umbrella with a design on it to help it stand out, but I read that’s accomplished with another layer of fabric and I wanted umbrellas as light as possible. The Repel advertises a lifetime warranty.I chose the Umenice first because it is noticeably lighter and smaller for travel than either of the other two, that’s my most important quality in a travel umbrella, and I don’t care much about auto open, particularly because that feature still requires two hands to fully close the umbrella. And in fact it seems to require ‘loose’ handles which to me makes a net negative. I do wish the Umenice had a slightly larger (yet still lightweight) handle which I think would add less than an ounce but make it easier to hold. I also wish it was vented, but it surprisingly held up to my wind gust scenario seemingly nearly as well as the vented Repel, and definitely better than the vented Amazon. The lifetime warranty with the Repel is great in theory, however it’s nearly twice the price of the very similar Amazon and personally I know from experience it will go missing (not covered under warranty of course) before I went through 2 Amazon umbrellas so I don’t consider that of particular benefit. It being sturdier/9 rib is, so I’m going to keep the Repel as an extra, and for long-term comparison to the Umenice.
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