SunSetter is recalling about 270,000 vinyl covers for motorized awnings in the United States and about 11,000 units in Canada.
If a powered awning is activated while the cover is secured with bungee tie-downs then the cover is removed, the awning can open unexpectedly with enough force to strike a consumer, causing him or her to fall and suffer serious injury or death.
The company has received 14 reports of incidents, including one death and six injuries. The death occurred when a 73-year-old man fell from a ladder and went over a balcony after a motorized awning opened unexpectedly and struck him while he was removing the cover’s bungee tie-downs.
This recall involves all soft vinyl awning covers used with SunSetter Motorized, Motorized XL, Motorized PRO, Motorized PROXL, and Oasis Freestanding Motorized Retractable Awnings distributed by SunSetter from June 1999 to January 2019 and supplied with bungee tie-downs. Covers for manually operated awnings aren’t affected by this recall.
The recalled covers were sold for about $100 or distributed as a promotional item or as part of a package with motorized awnings directly by SunSetter, through independent dealers nationwide, and through Costco Wholesale between June 1999 and January 2019.
Consumers shouldn’t attempt to install covers for the motorized awnings or remove any installed covers until they’ve received instructions from SunSetter, the company and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advise. Consumers should contact SunSetter for free breakaway safety clips to replace the bungee tie-downs and instructions on how to safely remove any installed bungee tie-downs. (The instructions also are available at https://www.sunsetter.com/safety.) SunSetter is contacting all known purchasers directly.
For more information, call SunSetter at 844-313-0144 from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET daily, visit www.sunsetter.com/safety-clips, or email at safety-clips@sunsetter.com.
