Heavy Spa Covers Waste Energy

Heavy Broken Spa Covers Waste Energy. I saw this advertised on line the other day. When I went to check out the guys website, guess what he’s selling? Rigid foam spa covers that will end up heavy or broken, usually within two years. To me this is like a coat salesman telling you wet wind breakers won’t keep you warm, here you need to buy this new dry wind breaker and go play outside in the rain.

Instead of selling you something that won’t get heavy or broken he keeps selling the same thing, hoping you won’t notice. If you have had to replace a spa cover because it got heavy, maybe the question you should ask before you buy the next one is, Why?

What causes the foam spa cover to get heavy is that it traps moisture inside. Rigid foam board is used in lots of insulation applications. It can be used around refrigeration storage areas like in a super market. Layers of foam board can insulate the cool storage area while the customer area can be kept comfortably warm. But in this type of installation the foam is not subjected to hot moist air. As long as the foam stays dry it has a predictable insulation value. But if the foam were to have moisture in it instead of the little air spaces it uses to insulate, it would have no insulation value at all.

If you wanted to produce the perfect environment for a rigid foam board to become saturated it would be to put it over a source of warm, humid, steam. You couldn’t get water into it faster even if you tied it to the bottom of your swimming pool. Why? Because water molecules are bigger than steam molecules. Steam can get into smaller spaces faster than water. And once the steam cools, it condenses back into water, displacing air in the foam as it does.

Long before you notice the spa cover getting heavy, moisture has begun to replace the air spaces in your cover. When it does, the little insulation value that cover might have had, goes down dramatically. From whatever it may have been when you first put it on your spa it has gone down to as much insulation as a wet piece of plywood by the time you actually notice it got heavy.

You might get fooled into thinking that it is still insulating well because snow won’t melt off it. Unfortunately, you would be wrong. Snow won’t melt off a frozen pond either but it doesn’t mean the ice is insulating the water. When snow falls on a saturated foam spa cover, it freezes the moisture in the cover because it is laying directly on the cover. The water of your spa is never in contact with the foam since the foam is resting way up on top of the acrylic of the spa, usually about a foot above the water surface. What’s happening is the warm spa water is evaporating into steam. That steam is rising, because that is what heat does, until it hits the bottom of the frozen spa cover. Then the steam cools and turns back into water. The water, now cooled, falls, because that’s what cold does, back into the warm spa water, cooling it off.

So if you wanted to invent a radiator to cool off your warm spa water this would be the perfect design. Put a block of frozen foam over the water. Load it up with snow so it will keep the spa cover frozen and stand back and watch the power meter spin. Instead of buying another rigid foam spa cover that will positively end up like the one you are replacing now, shop online for one that is designed better. Look for a spa cover that will insulate the water from the water surface, without rigid foam.

Broken Spa Cover

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 do not absorb impact very well. The foam inside the cover is rigid enough to form a bridge over the spa, however it does not allow for impacts.

Falling debris like branches and hail will pulverize the foam hard enough to break the cover. As people who live in areas of heavy hail storms know, anything rigid is going to take a pounding. If you have been replacing covers because of this type of damage you have to ask yourself if there is some better way of covering your spa.

Let’s look at a few options. You might look at an Aluminum cover. This would be stronger than a foam filled spa cover, but it could be a little unwieldy because a one piece cover that size would need significant storage space. Not to mention even the slightest wind would make it a very large destructive frisbee.

A roll spa cover would be one possible option. These are very strong and essentially work like a portion of deck that you roll over the spa. The down side is they tend to collect small debris and allow it to get into the spa. Though strong they also offer little in the way of insulation.

Then you could choose to go for a reinforced rigid foam cover. The latest actually have plywood glued to the rigid foam to add strength. Naturally this will handle all but the most severe hail storm. Only two caveats on this type of spa cover, it still will fly in a wind storm and with the added mass it will do serious damage to anything it lands on and it will still eventually become saturated. Once it is saturated a cover like this will be a four person job to open the spa.

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 bag principle would work as a spa cover to guard against impact damage. Like the stunt person lands on a cushion of air, likewise hail and other debris.

The stunt bag is designed to dump air quickly on impact to catch the stunt person so you should not use your air filled spa cover this way. However if your house is on fire and you have to jump out of the window aiming for the large air bag would probably save your life. I need to mention that jumping on Any spa cover would not be covered as normal wear.

No matter how fierce the storm or the hail stone an air filled spa cover will give or catch it without damage. We have tested them by driving golf balls into them at close range, dropping bowling balls on them and just having them in use around the country in areas that get severe hail storms. Before you replace another rigid foam spa cover because it broke shop online for a spa cover that will not end up the same way.

Can a Spa Cover be Green?

Worried about the Earth? A big part of what you can do to help may be as simple as choosing a better spa cover. If there 10 million spas in the US and each had a rigid foam cover that was two inches thick, each spa cover would contain roughly 10.5 cubic feet of foam.

If each cover on every spa becomes saturated within two years and needs to be replaced that would mean that we would be adding 52.In spa covers alone that equals 5 million cubic feet of waste in our land fills every year. If it takes two and a half covers worth of foam to make up one cubic yard that translates to 4 million cubic yards of waste added to our land fills every two years just in spa covers.

It took 11 million cubic yards of stone to build the Great Pyramid of Giza, at this rate we could build a copy out of discarded foam spa covers every six years. It took 4.5 million cubic yards of concrete to build Hoover Dam. We could build a two lane highway of discarded foam filled spa covers from Seattle Washington to Miami Florida every two years.

In case you have not noticed most foam filled spa covers are not two inches thick anymore. If all those old foam covers were four inches thick all these calculations would be double. But we are just being conservative so we want to stick with two inches thick. If we ripped the covers in half and laid those pieces end to end we could circle the earth at the equator on used spa covers every two years.

Heck with parking lots, in a few years we could pave the entire planet with foam just from saturated foam spa covers from the USA alone.

So what is the solution? You could start by choosing a better spa cover. There are options available on the internet that your local spa dealer probably does not offer. You do not have to quit using your spa to save us. You just need to get a Spa Cover that does not use foam to insulate. There would be two major advantages to doing so. First the spa cover that did not use rigid foam to insulate would last longer. Since what always fails in the typical spa cover is the foam, either breaking or getting so saturated that you cannot lift it, a spa cover that did not use foam would tend to last longer.

Second, if the new type of spa cover does not use rigid foam it will also be a lot more friendly to the environment when it does come time to discard it. Less trash, less waste, less land fill, not that is what going green is all about.

Selecting your Next Spa Cover

To begin we need to define the function of a spa cover.

1) Keep out debris. Keeping leaves, rain and debris out of the spa water is important. This helps the water filters and chemicals do their job keeping the water clear and ready for you next use.

2) Insulate. This is the second most important reason for having a cover. Since you want to jump in your spa whenever the mood or opportunity hits you. The objective is to keep the spa water warm while using the least amount of power to do so. If your spa cover insulates well that saves you money on your power bill.

3) Easy access to the spa. If your spa cover keeps out the leaves and insulates the water but you have to wrestle it every time you want to get into the spa then it isn?t worth much. In my many years in the spa cover business I have discovered the number one reason people quit using their spa is this one thing, ease of use. If your cover gets heavy and it just becomes too much of a struggle to get in to use the spa you will use it less and less. You’ll sell it or give it away to and say these words as it leaves, “It works fine, it just needs a new cover.” Would you give away your car because it needs new tires? If you purchased your spa new it cost about as much as a small car.

Spa Covers For Custom Spas

Every week I get a call from someone wanting to know if we can build a custom spa cover. The answer is yes with a qualification. Not every spa can be covered. Before you let work begin on that custom spa idea you should consider how you plan to cover it. After the spa is built it will often be too late.

Spa manufacturers are building all sorts of shapes and sizes these days that can be purchased and delivered to your home and covered easily. But for high end custom built spas, that often cost six figures it is not so easy. Unfortunately far to often it is after the spa is complete and the owner gets their first heating bill that they think about a cover.

These spas are often featured in spa magazines and truly look amazing. Who would not want one? They look like theme park attractions you can own. They often feature natural looking rock walls and water falls, spill ways and infinite edges so that while you sit on the spa you can see the landscape beyond. All very impressive and expensive. Unfortunately heating and keeping debris out of such a work of art can also be an expensive proposition.

If you ask the designer of one of these spas how they intended it to be covered when the spa was not in use, the answer is they do not want it covered. That may not seem so bad if the spa is in southern California or some tropical island. However even these places need to keep rain water and blowing debris out of the spa. In snow country it becomes even more important to cover the spa when not in use.

If you are considering having one of these spas built, make sure the designer is including a cover into the process and that it does offer insulation. Just having a safety cover anchored over the spa is not going to keep heat in or debris out. To insulate the water when the spa has different heights around the edge such as a spillway, the spa cover should actually rest on the water. By coming in contact with the water the insulating cover will cut down evaporation and chemical consumption too.

In order for the cover to be easy to attach and remove you also need to consider access around the spa. If you have one side of the spa hanging off in space it may be attractive but fastening any cover on that side would be precarious without some consideration of how to safely maneuver around outside of it.

Likewise a spa buried in a rock wall. If a wall of any kind rises up vertically, although beautiful will always be problematic for fastening and keeping stuff out of the spa. Planning on a cover before built is the only way I know of to deal well with this.

There are solutions available to cover almost any spa if the cover is built into the initial design. It will most likely be a costly spa cover and pricey to replace however not as expensive as leaving the spa uncovered. The reason for the cost is that each time it is built is basically a one off production. This is why most concept cars go straight to a museum. If anything breaks on it there are no replacements sitting on a shelf somewhere.

Spa Covers Gone With The Wind?

Where is my spa cover? Ever have to ask yourself this question after a wind storm? I have had people tell me they have found their cover a quarter mile from their home. I do not know how they knew it was their cover. Maybe in some parts of the country people write things on their spa covers to help them recover them after a storm. I suppose you could write, If Found Please Call, on the bottom. Maybe, Hope This Spa Cover Did Not Land On Your Sister.

Personally I think it might be time for a different type of spa cover. I found a posting on a spa cover dealers website claiming that they had several covers that made it through Hurricane Katrina. That is a little like saying there were some calvary survivors after Custers last stand. There is a big difference between having some going undamaged and having no losses.

The question to ask is are they selling anything different? So far I have found stronger straps as their solution. Well you could build a solid roof that attaches to the spa but in case you did not notice solid roofs were flying right off houses. The answer is not stronger tie downs for the wing you use to cover your spa but get rid of the wing.

Find a design that does not offer a rigid surface for the wind to lift on. The reason rigid foam spa covers fly is that they make a good wing. Our armed services fly planes with less aerodynamics than the typical rigid foam spa cover.

What causes a spa cover to fly? When wind comes at the spa, some of it hits the side of the cabinet and has to go around. As the air is pushed around the spa it some of it goes up over. As it breaks over the top of the rigid foam cover it starts a little ripple or swirl action that begins to suck upward on the rigid surface. Like when your riding in a convertible, if you have hair like I used to, it does not blow backward like you expect but forward because of the windshield diverting the air flow. If you had no windshield your hair would be blown straight back. This swirl action pulls the foam cover up off the spa.

It does not need to move it very much, just enough to create enough of a gap for some of the air to get under the cover. The second reason rigid foam spa covers fly is they have a nice air space between them and the water surface they are supposed to be keeping warm. Once air starts to flood into this air space it creates pressure. The air rushing in can not push down on the water so it takes the only thing it can move, the spa cover. Once this action starts it is only a matter of what velocity is required before lift off occurs. The first movement of the flying spa cover is straight up.

The pressure in the space between the water of the spa and the bottom of the cover pops the cover straight up. It takes a lot less force than you might think because it is lifting on the entire bottom area of the rigid foam cover at once. Even a saturated rigid foam spa cover that is too heavy for one person to lift will fly when the air is pushing on the entire bottom surface. Once a heavy spa cover gets airborne watch out because anything it runs into is going to get damaged.

So are these spa cover dealers offing anything different? Are they offering a spa cover that is not designed like a wing? Are they selling a spa cover that does not require straps and truck ratchets to secure it to the spa? I propose looking for a different kind of spa cover.

The internet has put the world at your finger tips. Instead of settling for the same old thing, shop the web for a design that makes sense. Look for a design that does not use a rigid foam board resting across the top of the spa. A better design would rest right on the water surface first because the water is what you intend to keep warm and second because this would remove the void that would build up pressure to pop the cover off. If the flexible and dome shaped rather than flat and rigid it would resist lift and deflect even the strongest winds. If you are tired of worrying about your spa cover every time the wind blows, you owe it to yourself to find a better spa cover.

What's a spa cover?

A spa cover is a specially fitting cover that rests across the top of a spa or hot tub and completely covers the entire perimeter. Generally speaking, a spa cover is custom fitted for a particular make or model of spa or hot tub, but a replacement spa cover may be designed to fit several assorted makes and models. A spa cover is designed to be easy to remove and replace after use. Many spa covers are hinged in the middle to fold backwards for chemical maintenance without completely removing the cover.

The purpose of a spa cover applies mostly to spas or hot tubs housed outdoors. A spa cover helps to maintain the temperature setting of the water by not allowing heat to escape when the tub is not in use, thus reducing the amount of energy used by the heating mechanism and helping to prolong the life of the heater. A spa cover also helps prevent loss of chemicals through evaporation, making chemical maintenance easier and less frequently required.

For a spa or hot tub that is located outdoors, a spa cover protects the water from the elements and allows a spa to be used year round. Spa covers also significantly reduce the amount of external debris entering the water. Though heat loss and debris are not nearly as significant with an indoor spa or hot tub, a spa cover still serves many of the same purposes indoors as out.

A spa cover does not decimate the need for proper maintenance and chemical balance. Even with a spa cover, the chemical equilibrise of a spa should be checked regularly and always after heavy use. An improper chemical equilibrise can allow for the growth of bacteria, which can thrive in the moist and hot conditions of a hot tub or spa. A spa cover, combined with proper chemical maintenance and routine mechanical maintenance, will extend the life of your spa. If you need a newborn or replacement spa cover, contact a local pool supply store for assistance in ordering a well fitting and properly designed cover for your spa.

Importance of Spa Covers

Spa Covers gives you the sparing solution which not exclusive saves powers but also keeps the modify in the water. Without hotel counterbalance modify disappears from the water. But when the hotel is captured under the counterbalance it keeps the pool hot.

Spa counterbalance has plays binary functions in the pool. Spa counterbalance keeps liquid blistering and clean and also save money. Spa covers also provide country to the liquid from children and pets. As substantially as the manifest power fund that can be gained by having a hotel counterbalance there are the added benefits of cleanliness and safety.

Spa covers help conserve energy by keeping your liquid temperature consistent. You see, the hotel counterbalance is made with a layer of sparkle insulation that entireness the aforementioned way that a thermos does. It keeps the cold air out and the warm water, substantially warm. This means that it will exclusive take you a little time and a little bit of energy to modify your hotel to the desired temperature before use

When Spa Covers are dangerous

Something you will never hear from a foam spa cover dealer. Every year grouping are injured by foam hot containerful covers. Most of the injuries hit come from a gust of wind blowing the onerous foam cover onto grouping as they use their spa. Sometimes grouping attempting to carefully maneuver a saturated foam cover soured their spa, hit lost their grip and had the hard foam cover shut down breaking the arch of their foot.

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