Zip Dee Auto Awning

Just a quick tip to pass along in case someone else encounters the same problem.

Yesterday, as the breezes were increasing, I confidently hit the remote control button to close our patio awning. Wanted to close it "just to be on the safe side" as we were leaving the coach for the day.

Well, the air pressure released as expected but that was the end of the awning retraction. The electric motor wouldn't roll up the fabric. A quick check showed that the breaker in the Zip Dee control box would trip when trying to engage the motor to roll up the fabric.

In order to stabilize the awning, I hit the "open" button and it deployed without a problem.

After a quick call to Zip Dee, they advised me that when the awning control batteries get weak, too much current is drawn and can result in the tripped breaker. Also, they have up-graded from the existing 4 ah batteries to 5 ah batteries. They further said that I should be able to find replacement batteries at Radio Shack.

After a quick swap of the old batteries for new, the awning retracted without a problem. Sure was nice to have a relatively easy fix for once.

And it never did get windy enough to be a problem.........