Spa Cover Lifters
58657
Home & Family > Home Accessories
Dec 5, 2007
flashgordon
Spa Cover Lifters
Think you need a spa cover lifter? Most spa cover lifters are simply a metal bar bent into a large U shape, that goes across the center of your spa. You fold your hot tub cover over the bar and then push it off your spa. These ?Bar Lifters,? actually work great as long as your hot tub cover is not too heavy.
The spa cover lifter was an after thought, an after market solution to a product that was already in use. It works fine provided the Hot Tub cover has not begun to saturate. Most spa owners buy one because their spa cover is already heavy. If that?s you, the lifter won?t help. The bar lifter does nothing to help you get the cover open halfway. You still have to lift the first half of the cover up to fold it over the bar all on your own. If you can?t do that now, the lifter will do no good.
If you are strong enough to lift your heavy saturated spa cover over the bar it will either rip itself in two on the lifter or the bar lifter itself will be ripped from its own pivot points because it is not meant to handle the weight of a saturated cover. The center seam of the typical spa cover was never meant to handle its own weight once it gets saturated.
The bar lifter does make a nice place to hang the spa cover. Again this requires a light weight spa cover to work easily. That means, if the reason you bought the cover lifter was to avoid having to replace your heavy spa cover, this is not the answer. You will still need to replace your typical rigid foam filled hot tub cover every couple of years to make that lifter effective. Which in most cases is more frequently then you replace it now. If not, you will begin to use the hot tub less. The harder you have to struggle to get into it, the less priority it has.
If you already have a spa cover lifter, you probably know all this. Don?t despair. You just need to set aside enough money to replace that cover, like clockwork, every one to two years. When you buy the new cover, store the old one in a dry place somewhere. When the new one spa cover is one year old you can rotate the old one back onto the spa. It will have lost the weight of the saturation once you took it off the spa. You can get some extra life out of your spa covers this way but the fix is not permanent because all vinyl's will eventually crack and fall apart. If you add a new one every three years and throw out the oldest one, you can keep two drying while one is in use.
Don?t bother buying the most expensive foam spa cover you can find because they all fall victim to the same thing eventually and the cheap covers will last just as long with rotation. The other option for those that already have a bar lifter would be to buy a different type of cover that could still be used with the mechanism. There are some options out there, I would recommend you shop on line. Look for something that won?t weigh more that a typical foam spa cover and that can work in a similar way to lay over the bar. Just keep in mind the goal is to use your spa, not your lifter. You may have to adjust how or where it pivots from to accommodate a different kind of cover, but if it makes getting in and out of your spa easy that is the real bottom line.
The Author is a former Police Sergeant, Licensed Pilot, Heavy Equipment Operator, Military Trained Mechanic that has written technical manuals and short stories. He has over twenty years experience as a business owner and currently lives in the northwest. An accomplished motorcycle rider he enjoys riding the back roads of Washington on his Harley Davidson, Road King, Police Edition.
Find out more by clicking here SpaCap.com Spa Covers. send email to flashgordon
The spa cover lifter was an after thought, an after market solution to a product that was already in use. It works fine provided the Hot Tub cover has not begun to saturate. Most spa owners buy one because their spa cover is already heavy. If that?s you, the lifter won?t help. The bar lifter does nothing to help you get the cover open halfway. You still have to lift the first half of the cover up to fold it over the bar all on your own. If you can?t do that now, the lifter will do no good.
If you are strong enough to lift your heavy saturated spa cover over the bar it will either rip itself in two on the lifter or the bar lifter itself will be ripped from its own pivot points because it is not meant to handle the weight of a saturated cover. The center seam of the typical spa cover was never meant to handle its own weight once it gets saturated.
The bar lifter does make a nice place to hang the spa cover. Again this requires a light weight spa cover to work easily. That means, if the reason you bought the cover lifter was to avoid having to replace your heavy spa cover, this is not the answer. You will still need to replace your typical rigid foam filled hot tub cover every couple of years to make that lifter effective. Which in most cases is more frequently then you replace it now. If not, you will begin to use the hot tub less. The harder you have to struggle to get into it, the less priority it has.
If you already have a spa cover lifter, you probably know all this. Don?t despair. You just need to set aside enough money to replace that cover, like clockwork, every one to two years. When you buy the new cover, store the old one in a dry place somewhere. When the new one spa cover is one year old you can rotate the old one back onto the spa. It will have lost the weight of the saturation once you took it off the spa. You can get some extra life out of your spa covers this way but the fix is not permanent because all vinyl's will eventually crack and fall apart. If you add a new one every three years and throw out the oldest one, you can keep two drying while one is in use.
Don?t bother buying the most expensive foam spa cover you can find because they all fall victim to the same thing eventually and the cheap covers will last just as long with rotation. The other option for those that already have a bar lifter would be to buy a different type of cover that could still be used with the mechanism. There are some options out there, I would recommend you shop on line. Look for something that won?t weigh more that a typical foam spa cover and that can work in a similar way to lay over the bar. Just keep in mind the goal is to use your spa, not your lifter. You may have to adjust how or where it pivots from to accommodate a different kind of cover, but if it makes getting in and out of your spa easy that is the real bottom line.
The Author is a former Police Sergeant, Licensed Pilot, Heavy Equipment Operator, Military Trained Mechanic that has written technical manuals and short stories. He has over twenty years experience as a business owner and currently lives in the northwest. An accomplished motorcycle rider he enjoys riding the back roads of Washington on his Harley Davidson, Road King, Police Edition.
Find out more by clicking here SpaCap.com Spa Covers. send email to flashgordon
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Article
Other links at Home & Family > Home Accessories
Tips on how to organize your kitchen better so you can easily find what you are looking for and make the room less cluttered with unrelated items.
Category:
Doing it in style - decorating for different types of homes and flowers that compliment them.
Category:
So you've decided to buy some Amish furniture. You've heard that it's sturdy, beautiful and will last a lifetime and beyond. Now comes the hard part. What piece of furniture do you want to purchase?
Category:
Bathroom maintenance is an integral part of good housekeeping. For some, bathrooms signify privacy and intimacy. Bathrooms are often decorated with a wide range of accessories. The objective is the same -- generate a feeling that bathroom is no different
Category:
What will be the best way to maintain the electric clothes dryers? In this article you will learn the tips to maintain your dryers. Your electric iron also needs a special care, sometimes iron can become burned on starch when you iron the cloth in wet con
Category:
Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics
Articles: 68285
Categories: 501
Yahoo Entertainment
