Spa and Hot Tub Covers

If you own a hot tub in Texas, Arizona or at altitude in the Rockies you know what sun exposure can do to a vinyl spa cover. The reason is all vinyls are rated by hours outdoors. Normally 1500 hrs outdoors is pretty standard which amounts to about 100 days if you only count daylight hours. Makes it seem kind of silly to put vinyl on anything that’s going to be outdoors. Vinyl will always crack and fall apart eventually if it is exposed to temperature extremes and or UV. That’s why Sunbrella™ was invented. It has been the gold standard in outdoor fabric for more than forty five years. Sunbrella™ is manufactured by Glen Raven Mills here in the USA. Made from acrylic fiber woven into a canvas like fabric it offers the breathability of canvas without the shrinkage, rotting or fading. One of the great advantages of breathable fabric is that it does not trap moisture in like vinyl where it can grow mildew, If your present rigid foam cover smells like mildew the vinyl on the outside is one of the reasons why. Since acrylic is the same stuff most spas are made of Sunbrella™ is incredibly durable. Sunbrella™ doesn’t crack in cold like vinyl, or fade like canvas. If you live near a marina every boat top you see out there in a bright color is Sunbrella™. Anything else would fade out quickly, even the paint on the boat will fade before the Sunbrella™ will. Years ago a neighbor came to me and wanted me to repair his sail cover. His sail cover had been on his sail boat for twelve years, through all the weather the northwest pacific coast could through at it. For those of you who don’t know sailing, the typical sail material needs to be protected from exposure when not in use so it is bundled and covered with a sail cover. The sail cover is the shield that covers the expensive sail from damage. My neighbors sail cover was made from Sea Grass Green Sunbrella™ which is a bold fairly bright green. I explained to him that if I patched the cover with new material it would look terrible because new bright material would stick out like a sore thumb on the faded older material. I laid a piece of new material on his old cover to prove my point. To my astonishment the only difference between the two was his was a little dirty. Once it was cleaned and patched, there was no difference between the new fabric and the old even after constant exposure for twelve years. If your spa is outdoors and your tired of replacing your cover due to sun damage you really need to get the only spa cover that is offered in Sunbrella™ fabric the SpaCap.

We get a lot of inquiries from spa owners that are replacing their cover due to hail damage. Traditional rigid foam covers get hammered by hail because they don’t absorb impact very well. As people who live in areas of heavy hail storms know, anything rigid is going to take a pounding. The solution to this would be something that is able to give or absorb impacts. In Hollywood when a stunt man falls from a great height, he wants to land on something that will absorb his impact like an air bag. The air bags the stunt man lands on are designed made from the same materials as the SpaCap. Now the stunt air bag is designed to open and release air when it “catches” the stunt person so please don’t use your SpaCap this way. However if your house is on fire and you have to jump out of the window to save your life aiming for the SpaCap would probably save your life. However you are a little bigger than the typical hail stone and the damage from you jumping on the cover would not be covered by the warranty. But no matter how fierce the storm or the hail stone the SpaCap will give or catch it without damage. We have tested it by driving golf balls into it, dropping bowling balls on them and just having them in use around the country in areas that get severe hail storms. We do a brisk business replacing foam covers after a storm but so far not even one SpaCap has been damaged by hail.

In areas where your spa is subjected to high winds, traditional foam covers tend to fly away. I see a lot of pictures of covers held down with bricks, bags of rocks, sand bags or tied down with ropes. The reason a rigid cover will fly is because it makes a good wing. Wind typically hits the side of the spa cabinet, then diverts over the spa, as it does it creates lift on the rigid foam. As the rigid foam lifts up, more air moves into the void between the water surface and the bottom of the cover which pushes the cover up from the bottom too. Now the spa cover is truly airborne. There is however a solution to this challenge. A spa cover with no rigid surface to create lift, no void between the bottom of the spa cover and the water it is keeping warm. A spa cover with a natural dome shape to let the wind flow over it rather than create lift. That cover is the SpaCap. In nearly thirty years there has never been even one fly off even though they go through tornados and hurricane force winds every year.

What is the SpaCap?
The SpaCap is a gigantic leap forward in spa cover technology. The SpaCap spa and hot tub cover will not break under any snow load or saturate, or blow away in the wind. Your spa water to retain it’s heat with less energy, while your spa cover stays light weight! Since there is no foam in the SpaCap it won’t saturate or warp. Imagine a spa cover that will weigh the same and insulate just as effectively in five years as the day you first put it on your spa.

It looks different…
The SpaCap looks radically different because it is. Since every spa and hot tub cover we build is Custom made and available in Sunbrella™ the gold standard of outdoor fabric so you can color coordinate with your spa surroundings or patio furniture.

Why a SpaCap?
Every foam filled hot tub cover will eventually become saturated or break. Plus no rigid foam cover is ever in contact with the water it is supposed to keep warm. You are losing heat below the bottom of the cover. As your spa water produces steam that steam hits the bottom of the cooler rigid cover, condenses and falls back into the spa actually cooling the water. Imagine holding your best winter coat over your head to stay warm. If you don’t put it on your body it won’t keep you warm. The same is true about your spa water. If you put the insulation right on the water it does a much better job.