Spa Cover Broken?

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.

Branches, falling debris and large hail will pound the foam with enough force to damage or 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. First you could opt for 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.

Another option would be to go with a roll cover. 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. One of the latest developments in this area is to have the foam glued to a board for strength. This would of course handle all but the most devastating 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. Just like the stunt man landing on a cushion of air the same would be true of debris, branches and even severe hail.

Now the stunt air bag is designed to open and release air when it catches the stunt person so please do not use your air filled hot tub 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 should note here that jumping on any spa cover would not be covered by the warranty.

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.