20 Repeat Buyers Say the Dokon Patio Cover Is Not What It Was
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Order this cover once and it may be the best you have owned. Order the same listing again three years later and 26 of the last 100 UK buyers say what turns up is a thinner, shinier thing, and seven of them sent it straight back.
Buy this cover once and there is a decent chance you will love it. Buy the same listing again three years later and there is a decent chance you will send it back.
That split runs right through the 100 most recent UK reviews of Dokon's 220 x 220 x 90cm square patio cover. Twenty-six of those hundred say the same thing in slightly different words: the fabric that arrives now is thinner, shinier and lighter than the heavy duty Oxford the listing promises. Twenty of them are on their second, third or fourth Dokon cover, holding the new one against the one it replaced. Amazon still shows 4.4 stars from 10,019 ratings. The most recent hundred average 3.20, with 43 of them sitting at one or two stars.
We read all 100. Our score is 2.6 out of 5 and we would not buy this cover right now. The rest of this piece shows the working, because 40 of those same hundred buyers gave it five stars and the gap between the two camps is not random.
The Listing No Longer Says 600D, and Buyers Noticed
Twenty-six of the 100 most recent reviews say the material is thinner, lighter or no longer the heavy duty Oxford the listing promises. That is the largest complaint cluster in the sample by a wide margin, and it is not a general grumble about cheapness. Twenty of them are holding a cover they already own against one they have just unwrapped from the same listing. Seven returned it.
Danny Houghton, two stars, is blunt: “Clearly no longer made of thick Oxford fabric. Now it’s thin nylon.” He kept it regardless, because he needed a table cover. The most specific version comes from JP, also two stars, on their third Dokon cover: “the previous ones were made of heavyweight 600D fabric. This description is no longer present so the item is not the same.” They went back through their own order history to check, and returned this one for a refund.
That last claim is checkable, and it checks out. The five bullet points on the current listing describe “heavy duty oxford fabric with a nano waterproof coating” and give no denier figure anywhere. Neither do any of the seven listing images: the spec panel on the fabric close-up reads Heavy Duty Oxford Fabric, Double Stitching Seam, Waterproof Taped Seam, Non-Scratch Treatment, and stops there. Two other reviewers in the sample name 600D from memory of their older covers. Whatever this cover is woven from today, Dokon are not putting a number on it.
One listing, several years of reviews, and effectively two different products underneath. Hold onto that when you look at the 4.4-star badge, because a large share of those 10,019 ratings were left by people who received the older fabric.
Where the Water Actually Gets In
Sixteen of the 100 reviews report water reaching the furniture. Against a first bullet point promising the cover “remains 100% leak-free, even after prolonged exposure to standing water”, that is a number worth stopping on.
The failure is rarely a hole. Rob T, two stars, describes both routes in one sentence: “the taped seams let water through, and in warm weather it sweats leaving the furniture cushions feeling damp.” He rates it as adequate for very light showers and nothing past that. Samantha Monginho, three stars, narrows it after two soakings: “Not sure if it is leaking along the seam where the stitching is on top.” (sic) Neither soaking followed heavy rain, she notes: both times she puts it down to water collecting on the top panel.
Both point at the same weak spot. A 220 x 220cm flat top stretched over a dining table has nowhere to shed water to, so rain pools on the panel and the taped seams sit in the puddle rather than under running water. Seven of those sixteen name soaked cushions specifically, which is the expensive half of the failure.
It is not universal, and saying so matters. Glen A, five stars, covers a rattan style sofa, two armchairs and a coffee table and reports it “Keeps everything nice and dry.” The sample does not describe a cover that always leaks. It describes one where roughly one buyer in six ends up with wet furniture, which is a poor bet to place on a set you paid real money for.
PATIO PLUS 600D Heavy Duty Garden Furniture Set Cover, 250 x 250 x 90cm
At 250 x 250 x 90cm it clears the Dokon on all three sides, and its listing states the fabric weight Dokon's no longer does: 600D Oxford, with mesh air vents and four click-close buckles. Heavier cloth, and the right size for a big square set.
Two Winters, Then the Rips Start
Thirteen of the 100 reviews report the cover tearing, perishing or shedding its coating. The timings cluster tightly, and they are the main reason our score sits where it does.
The most upvoted review in the entire sample, with 11 helpful votes, is a four-star one. Michael Rosen has bought it twice: “It is heavy, thick and waterproof and is made well. However, be aware that both have ripped after about 2/2.5 years and need replacing.” Neil F., three stars, has had two and puts the life span at one to one and a half years: “First one, all of the leg ties ripped off, second one lasted 1.5 years before tearing.”
Then there is the coating. Christopher Payne, two stars, a year in: “2 out of 4 foot straps have come off and the weather proofing has disintegrated leaving black buts all over my cushions.” (sic) Another two-star buyer turned an under-two-year-old cover inside out and found the waterproof membrane cracked in lines a few millimetres wide that could be seen through. That is the same mechanism as the leaks in the previous section, further down the road.
Set against a listing that calls the cover “highly durable, resistant to tearing”, a working life of one to two and a half British winters is not what the page is selling. Three of those thirteen failed inside the first year, the fastest after three months of use.
220 x 220 x 90cm and the Sets It Swallows
Size is the strongest thing here, so get it straight before anything else. The listing and the sizing image both give 220 x 220 x 90cm, which is 86.7 x 86.7 x 35.5 inches. That is a big square by the standards of the category: an eight-seat dining set, a nine-piece cube set, or a corner sofa with a coffee table, which are the three configurations Dokon illustrates at the foot of the sizing image.
Buyers back that up. Seventeen of the 100 praise the fit or the size specifically. Samantha T., five stars, covers “a large outdoor table and 6 chairs”. M Hill, also five stars, had awkward geometry and it still worked: “Our seats at 198x143 so slightly odd corner sizing. But this cover fits perfectly.” The clips, they add, hold it snug across seats and table.
Three buyers say the shape was wrong for their set, and in both directions. One found it “considerably oversized and baggy compared to the description” despite measuring accurately. Another, replacing the same cover on the same L-shaped set, found it “several inches longer on each side meaning the corners won’t stay on the corners”. A third said the measurements ran tight. If your set is close to that 220cm limit rather than comfortably inside it, measure twice and check the current listing for the exact figures first.
Fastening is four click-close leg straps with snap buckles, a drawstring hem cord on toggles, and two adjustable side straps that draw the width in. Granny, five stars, rates that system: “Love the adjusters that pull the cover tight around the middle.” It is the best table and chair cover they have owned. One three-star buyer returned theirs the same day because the adjusting straps carried matching connectors on both sides instead of opposing halves, so they would not clip together.
Wind, Vents and the Puddle on the Table Top
Two structured air vents sit on opposite sides. Dokon's own detail image says they “reduce inside condensation and wind lofting”, which is two jobs in one panel: letting moisture out, and letting a gust pass through instead of ballooning the cover off the furniture.
Six of the 100 reviews say the wind job is not being done. One two-star buyer is blunt: “no matter how you tighten the straps it just acts as a sail the moment the wind gets under it and leaves the chairs uncovered.” Their one-word summary of it in even slightly windy weather is useless. Another names the trade-off precisely, reckoning the cover would last many years somewhere sheltered but that anyone in a windy spot should look elsewhere. Four of those six also report the lighter fabric, which makes sense: less mass on top of the table means less holding it down.
The condensation job gets mixed marks too. Rob T's report of the cover sweating in warm weather is the vents losing on a still, humid day, which is the standard British spring pattern of a warm afternoon following a wet night.
The single most useful line in the sample comes from C. Preston, five stars and six weeks in: “If the rain leaves a pool of water on top of my table, I tip it off or use a window/shower squeeze to remove it, (as recommend in the instructions.)” (sic) That is Dokon telling you, in the box, that water will sit on the top panel. Leave it there and you are testing those taped seams every time it rains. A one-star buyer found the related fault: rain collecting in the gaps between table and chairs, sinking down and dragging the cover off, with the conclusion that it only suits a table with no chairs, or chairs that tuck fully underneath.
Our Score, and the Cover We Would Put the Money Towards
We score this 2.6 out of 5, and we would not buy it. The arithmetic: the 100 most recent UK reviews average 3.20 stars against a lifetime badge of 4.4 from 10,019 ratings, and 43 of that hundred sit at one or two stars. The largest cluster, 26 in 100, is a fabric downgrade reported by people who owned the previous version. Sixteen report water getting through. Thirteen report tears or a perished coating.
Forty of the hundred did give five stars, and that camp is real rather than noise. Most of them are describing fit, straps and first impressions rather than a second winter, and two five-star reviewers say outright that it is too early for them to judge the waterproofing at all. Jan03 is on their second cover in four years and still recommends it. For keeping leaves, pollen and bird mess off a set you are not precious about, for one season, the odds are fine.
For a rattan or teak set with cushions you want to find dry in March, they are not. A cover that fails is worse than no cover at all, because it traps water against the furniture instead of letting a breeze dry it. And if you are here to reorder a Dokon cover you were happy with, plan for something different turning up in the box.
What to buy instead: the PATIO PLUS 600D garden furniture set cover at 250 x 250 x 90cm is the direction we would send this budget. It is larger than the Dokon on all three sides, so a 220cm square set still fits under it with room to spare, and its listing puts the number on the fabric that Dokon's has dropped: 600D Oxford, with mesh-lined air vents and four click-close buckles. It runs 4.4 stars from 821 ratings. We have not put a 100-review sample through it, so treat that as a category pointer rather than a scored verdict. If your set is small rather than 220cm square, our review of the BEEWAY 125cm garden furniture cover covers the budget end, with a similar caveat about fabric weight.
PATIO PLUS 600D Heavy Duty Garden Furniture Set Cover, 250 x 250 x 90cm
At 250 x 250 x 90cm it clears the Dokon on all three sides, and its listing states the fabric weight Dokon's no longer does: 600D Oxford, with mesh air vents and four click-close buckles. Heavier cloth, and the right size for a big square set.