It does its primary job of holding the umbrella admirably. I have it filled with water and it's quite solid. I've had the umbrella open in some pretty high winds and haven't feared that it would tip over at all.

My main problem with this stand is that the collar that sticks up through the base and actually holds the umbrella pole spins freely. So, even if you have the umbrella clamped tightly, the entire collar is allowed to spin within the heavy base.

It doesn't really make a difference if your umbrella stays flat. However, ours has the ability to tilt and we actually use that feature quite a bit to block the sun once it starts to set. Because the collar spins in the base, our umbrella acts like a sail with even a moderate gust of wind and spins to catch the wind.

I would give this a 5 star review if it had an option to lock the collar into the base to stop it from spinning.

I received this stand and assembled it according to the instructions which was easy. Took it to my outdoor pool deck and filled with water which again was easy. It held my umbrella fine and tightening screw held the umbrella great. Our old umbrella stand would tilt anytime there was any wind. This stand certainly takes care of that problem. The flaw I've discovered is that the actual flag holder does not fasten to anything so consequently it rotates easily. This is no big deal when the flag is upright, but we have one of the umbrellas that tilt. With the holder not being fixed any wind rotates the tilted umbrella so that we cannot keep it positioned where it blocks the sun. This makes the tilt feature of our umbrella not usable. So the three star rating. The stand is easy to setup, holds the umbrella great, but will not keep the umbrella from rotating.

First: Great idea, looks cheap but it's on my pool deck so I don't really care. Once full it is nice and heavy. I filled it with sand as much as I could and then when I tried to use it, it was still tipping over in the wind so I filled it the rest of the way with water (it took a LOT more water so I guess I didn't have as much sand in it as I thought). After that, it shook a little with the wind but stayed put. Second: This thing was a gigantic pain to fill with sand!! That tiny hole made it an hour+ process, stuffing sand in little bits at a time.. I tried a funnel, the sand got stuck in it repeatedly and I gave up.. The sand I had was a bit damp (took it right out of the bag from the hardware store - play sand), so maybe if I had spread it out and let it dry for a while it wouldn't have been so hard but wow was this frustrating. And then I ended up adding water anyways! It's super heavy now so I guess that's good. But honestly it would benefit from a much bigger "put sand here" opening! I'd try with water first to avoid the headache and then only switch to sand if the water isn't heavy enough for your use.

This is a tough and sturdy base. It is not attractive, but then it is under a table. It was easy to fill,with water and is still full after several months. Due to the wind we often have to tip it over and no water leaks out. One problem, the plastic inside henhouse where you put the umbrella stem is not well crafted and keeps the umbrella from dropping all the way down to the ground, as it should.

Love it heavy when filled water hold a large umbrella in a wind with no trouble. Can't ask for more and a good price also.