Unbleached Cotton Canvas Malu Awning

The ultimate portable shade - perfect for those bright spring or scorching summer days.

A Malu (the Hawaiian word for shade) is a clever piece of portable shade that packs down small, takes minutes to set up and has myriad uses.

Made from high-quality, cotton canvas (which is a lighter-weight version of the canvas used in our Bell Tents and Tipi Tent), this tactile accessory looks great whether it’s in the garden or on the beach. It's treated to be water, mould and UV-resistant, and can be used alone or in conjunction with other objects like tents (especially our Bell Tents) or vehicles.

Please note - our Malus have a beige, 2cm polyester strengthening edge to them, to protect against fraying and ripping, updated from the green edging that you can see in the pictures. You’ll also find that moving the tensions on the guy ropes around contorts the shape of the Malu into many useful and abstract shapes
 

Uses

• In the park
• On the beach
• On holiday
• With children
• At festivals
• Garden chillout
• Outside playarea
• Picnic awnings
• Bell Tent or Tipi Tent porch
• To connect tents together or to vehicles

Comes with everything you need

• Cotton canvas Malu (375x375cm)
• Two x durable, galvanized steel poles (dh) - 2.5x235cm
• Adjustable guy ropes
• Thick steel pegs, plus a few spares
• Matching canvas bag

As with our Bell, Tipi and Touareg tents, please allow to dry completely before packing away.

In a little attempt to save some trees and resources we no longer include paper instructions with our tents - we have seen too many sets of instructions blowing past at too many festivals...click below to download the instruction PDF and if possible familiarize yourself with them on screen (they are pretty logical and only usually require one read) before going camping and only print them off if you really need to.

Click here to download Instructions PDF 

We also recommend you check you have received all the elements of your purchase when it arrives and familiarise yourself with it before you are standing in a field at the beginning of a 2 week camping holiday. If for some reason a element is missing we can rush one to you but that won't be much good if you're trying to sleep in it that night!! 

Tech Spec:

• Large 3.75m square awning

• Lightweight but strong high-quality, 100% unbleached cotton canvas

• Only weighs 6.4kg

• Packs down into a matching canvas bag small and light enough to carry to the park / field / beach, go on the back of a bike or take on holiday with you (approx 60x10x10cm)

• Material is treated to be water resistant, and it is also UV and mould-resistant (please note, no canvas is entirely mould-proof, so we strongly recommend that you take it down every now and then to dry it out completely when it has been up for a while, especially if it's become wet after rain)

• European tested to BS5852: unlike many of the copies out there, our tents are European tested to BS5852 standards. This is the 'cigarette test' which shows that the tent will not ignite when burnt by the likes of a cigarette. If burnt with the likes of a gas burner it takes an average of five seconds to ignite and will continue to burn but will not drip 'napalm'  like polyester tents. If you require a more fire-resistant tent consider going for our Bell Tent Pro option - see the Why Go Pro tab above.

• Can be erected by one person in around four minutes...okay, we've practised!

• Beautifully made from quality materials (please note, colour may vary slightly from pictures, and from year to year)

• Perfect for scorching summer days at the beach or park relaxing on rugs with a picnic

• Designed to double as an awning for your car or van

• Adjustable guy lines alter the Malu's angle in seconds - no more moving site as the sun drops in the sky

• Can be connected onto the front of a Bell Tent to create a porch

• Attach to a building to create a mellow, shaded area

• A fantastic accessory to a canvas Bell Tent

Not only can Bell Tent UK get your tent clean and re-proofed, you can now even Go Pro and make your tent fire-resistant (with UK certification)!

Please call us on 07830 355 993 if you would like to go pro and fire proof your tent

For more information on cleaning your tent see www.cleanyourtent.co.uk.

Go Pro

Due to enquiries from professional users, and those who want the peace of mind of a fire-resistant tent, we now offer a Go Pro option for all tents, old and new! Depending on how much you use your tent, the fire-resistant proofing should last two seasons of normal use (approx  3 months of use per season), but the certification lasts for 12 months. Because of this your Go Pro tent needs to be proofed immediately after you purchase it, so that you get the full benefit of the 12 month certification.

Going Pro will add approximately 15 working days to the arrival time of your tent.

What happens:

Once you've purchased your new tent and gone for the Go Pro option, we unpack the canvas, and ship it off to the proofing company, where they wash it, and then treat it with the fire-proofer. It is then returned to us, where we put all the components back together, and then ship your complete tent straight to you, with a brand new, 12 month certificate.

The process:

To get the best results, proper proofing is done by actually 'cooking' the proofer into the canvas, and not just spraying it on. This is done by -

1. Firstly the canvas is washed, and weighed, and just the right amount of heat-reactive proofer is added after the rinse
2. The tent is left to drip dry naturally
3. Then, using a special, computer-controlled drier, it is then slowly and gently completely dried to avoid shrinkage. Once machine detects it is bone dry it then 'cooks it' to over 60 degrees so chemical proofing ‘takes’ and is then ingrained in the canvas
4. The canvas is then folded and returned with its certificate

We have tested our tent canvas in a special hydrostatic machine that forces water through the material and measures the pressure required for this to happen – a new tent canvas takes a lot of pressure to get water through, as you can see below, and it gets even better once it’s been re-proofed with our service!

Hydrostatic reader tries to force water through the canvas (of a new Bell Tent, not yet treated)

The reading is even better on the re-proofed tent! And much better than the next best Bell Tent copy in the UK!

Once your tent has been cleaned and proofed, it will be dropped back off to you, sparkly and ready for its next outing!

Can my old tent Go Pro?:

Yes, it can! The process is the same, but your tent is collected and returned directly to you, rather than via us. 

Please note: washing an old tent or other item is always a risk and by putting yours through our cleaning company's rigorous industrial washing process, you are agreeing that this risk is being taken. When they collect it, if they still feel your tent may be very compromised by being washed, they will contact you to confirm you still want to go ahead. However, not being contacted does not guarantee that the item will come out the same way that it was sent. You can’t always tell how an item will come out of a wash when it is put in, so please do think hard before deciding on a clean as the risk may not be worth taking.

Prices are as follows:

The cost of fire-resistant proofing of canvas part of tent is measured by the dry weight of the canvas.

To fire-proof your canvas only:

The canvas part of Malu weighs 2kg, and cost per kg is £5.99 inc VAT. So it costs £12 to fire-proof.

If you have an older tent, to clean, water-proof and fire-proof your canvas:

With a 2kg canvas, and cost per kg is £7.99 inc VAT, it costs £16 to clean, water- and fire-proof.

Shipping:

On top of that, the canvas has to be collected by the proofing company and returned (either to us if it's a new tent, or to you if it's a used tent).

Collection and re-delivery costs £25, so the total cost of Going Pro on a Malu is:

£37 (fire-proofing only) or £41 (cleaning, water- and fire-proofing)       

(Please note: as it costs more to ship a Malu that to clean / fire- / water-proof it, you might want to consider combining that clean with a Bell Tent if you have one, to save on shipping)

(If you are sending in a used tent, please remove all guy ropes from the canvas and pack it in a bag, ready for collection and go to www.fireproofyourtent.co.uk)