Hot Tub Cover Broken Again?

Do you ever experience heavy rains or even hail in your area?  I know living in northwest Washington I experience about two weeks of sunshine and about 50 weeks of rain each year.  We get a lot of inquires from hot tub owners during their search for a new hot tub cover about the damage snow, rain or hail can cause to our covers.  The old school foam covers can be totally destroyed by a heavy rain or hail, even within the first year of owning your spa.  They are not designed to absorb impact very well.  So when the elements constantly pound the outside of the cover it can begin to sag and break over time. Standard foam covers are not engineered to support weight or absorb an impact they are simply designed to bridge the water.

Branches, falling debris, hail, or heavy rain can be the end of your hard foam cover.  The foam inside is just not meant to withstand the pressure.  If you live in an area with weather such as this then you already know that anything flat and rigid is going to take a prolonged beating under the pressure. Maybe its time to ask yourself if there is another product out there that can cover your hot tub, insulate well, and stand up to the elements it will most certainly face in it's lifetime.

Let’s explore some options you have. One, you could buy an Aluminum hard hot tub cover.  It would of course be significantly stronger than a standard foam cover.  Although you’d still have to answer the question of storage, they're very cumbersome and can not easily be stored away. Also the aluminum cover is heavier, and significantly heavy once saturated, which it will one day surely be.

Second, you could purchase a roll cover.  This acts like an extension of your deck and rolls over the hot tub.  It certainly solves the issue of strength, which is wonderful—finally a cover that can keep debris out and withstand the elements.  The sizeable negative to these covers however, is that they are not designed to help insulate your spa.  Subsequently, they are expensive options that aren’t going to offer you anything in the way of energy savings.

Thirdly, you could try a reinforced rigid foam cover.  These covers have an added board on the bottom of the foam to add strength to the overall cover.  This solves the problem of pressure causing stress on the foam and making it break.  There are two main reasons most people don't choose this way of covering their hot tub.  First, if a gust of wind hits, your cover could become airborne.  Because the board is actually on the bottom of the foam next to the water surface, rain and hail can still accumulate on the foam and saturate it, once again rendering it completely useless.

The first solution that seems easy looking back is that a cover needs to be able to absorb impacts. Instead of attempting to bridge the water the cover should transfer force to the water surface. The cover is outside, exposed to the elements and needs to be able to hold up against strong winds, rain, hail, and snow.  In the movies, when a stunt man is called to fall from a great height, he wants to land on something that will absorb his impact.  Just like the air bag in a car, the air bag principle would work as a hot tub cover to hold up against impact damage.  This is one of the biggest advantages to the SpaCap Hot Tub Covers. Jumping on the cover would not be covered by the warranty and is in no way recommended, its just an example of applications of air bags to absorb impact.  

No matter how fierce the storm or the hail stone an air filled hot tub cover that's bottom rests on the water will transfer the force to the water. We have tested our covers by driving golf balls into them at close range, and by dropping bowling balls on them. They are in use around the world in areas that get severe hail storms. Before you replace another rigid foam spa cover because it broke, consider the only Hot Tub Covers that will not end up the same way, the SpaCap.