Hampton Bay is Junk

A few weeks ago a bad storm system moved through the central Virginia area bringing with it a lot of rain and very high winds. (It ended up being so bad that we actually woke our kids up and moved downstairs to take shelter following a tornado warning.) My brother lives on the opposite end of town from us that got hit first and was therefore able to give me enough advanced warning to get outside and either tie down or bring in things that might blow away or cause damage.

While much of the area suffered high damage, downed trees, and power outages (it also caused the cancelation of the last day of school, sure to be a once in a career event) we made it through unscathed. Until the next morning at least when I went to put everything back out. I stuck the umbrella through the hole in the glass top and then needed to shift the table slightly so it would go into the weighted base underneath. That slight amount of pressure of the umbrella leaning against the center hole was enough to cause the whole top to shatter into thousands of pieces on the deck.

Unfortunately there's no way to replace just the table. It's only available as part of a set with the four chairs. In the process of researching the replacement however we came across a several sites with numerous reviews that all said the same thing, that Hampton Bay's glass tops shatter way too easily. I wish we'd seen those reviews prior to buying the set.

On a side note, this made a tremendous mess and cleaning it up took forever. I went out several times to vacuum up all the glass with my shop vacuum because every time I thought I had all of it I found more. I also had to take a screwdriver and pry up smaller bits that had fallen between the deck boards followed by hosing the entire deck down. It's really not something I want to deal with again.