Technology Toolkit

The main reason for Hot Tub Covers keep debris from blowing into your spa water while you’re not using your hot tub.

Secondly, Hot Tub Covers are supposed to help insulate the water from the outside so your spa water stays toasty warm while using less energy.

In the dawn of the recent age of the Hot Tub, spa manufacturers gave little thought to a cover for the spa. They just covered a piece of rigid foam board with vinyl as a way to keep stuff out of the spa. But cheap foam board gets saturated and begins to warp fairly fast if it isn’t reinforced. Especially if it is used to span a wide area that contains hot water. Hot water turns to steam, steam rises. Some of the steam molecules penetrate the foam board and then condenses back into moisture. Before long the moisture fills that foam to the point of saturation. Aside from making the hot tub cover too heavy to lift, the saturated foam offers no insulation since the air spaces the moisture occupies are all gone.

Essentially at this point rigid foam hot tub covers offer the same insulation as a wet piece of plywood. The foam often sags until it comes in contact with the water, forming a huge bowl that catches rain water and dumps it along with all the debris, into your hot tub water.

Hot Tub Cover manufacturers have developed “improved versions of the foam cover by wrapping it with layers of plastic, reinforcing the center edge of the foam board with metal to prevent sagging and saturation.

Did it work? Hot Tub Covers still got too heavy to lift so they were still getting saturated. They still broke, so just putting metal down the edge did little to stop that.

Why do Hot Tub Dealers still only offer more of the same? Henry Ford once gave a new car to the humorist, Will Rogers. Mr. Rogers tried to refuse the gift saying, “you can’t make any money if you give your cars away!” To which Mr. Ford replied, “Not true, with the money I make from selling parts to repair my autos I could afford to give them away.” Think about it for a minute. There have been a few times in history that no new cars were being sold. How did car dealers stay in business? Repairing and replacing parts.

Selling an inferior product to their customers does two things for hot tub dealers… First it adds another way for them to make money after the sale. It also keeps the customer coming back in to the store every couple years. Getting the customer back in the store gives them an opportunity to show off the latest spa models and hopefully sell a few more hot tubs with more bells and whistles.

Unfortunately, this isn’t what always happens. More often than not the hot tub owners get tired of buying the same thing over and over again. When the hot tub cover starts to get heavy, they just use their spa less. Eventually it becomes less a priority. Which is truly sad because spa use is one aspect of a healthy life. It relieves stress to the point where you require less sleep. The sleep you do get is better, more restful after a little water therapy. If you suffer from stiff joints or muscle soreness it can be the key to living a much improved life.

All this because of poorly designed Hot Tub Covers? It would be like giving up your car because your tires got bald. That’s why the SpaCap Hot Tub Covers make so much sense. SpaCap Hot Tub Covers use air to insulate. No foam means no saturation. No rigid foam board means nothing to break or get heavy. SpaCap Spa Covers keep debris out of the spa, insulate better than any foam cover ever could and tend to last a lot longer.

Check them out at SpaCap.com or call 800-850-2468.