Should you cover your hot tub? The answer is a resounding YES!! The reason is because your hot tub cover will last years and years longer than if it is completely exposed to the elements.
After cleaning thousands of hot tubs, what we’ve seen 100% of the time is the hot tubs that had any type of cover over them had covers last way longer than hot tubs that had no cover. Whether it was a deck with a roof, or something as simple as a tarp over the cover, your cover is going to last longer.
In many cases, the most common reason for hot tub covers to fail is they start to absorb water. If you buy a decent hot tub cover, it will be closed-cell foam inside heat-sealed plastic. No cover built like that should ever absorb water. The problem is that the worst thing you can do with a hot tub cover is put it on a hot tub. The steam from the water is constantly pounding the bottom of the cover. Additionally, rain and sun beating down on the top of that cover helps break it down as well. Some people use bubble blankets on top of the water, under the hot tub cover. Those do a great job preventing all that steam from pounding against the bottom of the cover.
Side note: I don’t like bubble blankets. What we’ve found is that the more stuff people need to do to use their hot tub, the less likely they are to use it. Whether it’s taking off another cover or turning the heater up because you leave the temperature lower than you prefer, it’s just more stuff to do. We use our hot tub all the time. It’s always set to the temperature we like. When we want to use it, we get in. I recommend you do too! Ok, side note over.
I understand building a roof over your patio, or buying a gazebo can be expensive, however there are lots of alternatives to those. I also understand that many prefer nothing over their hot tubs because they want to see the sky or have open air. For those people, there are retractable awnings you can mount to the outside of your house. Cheap? No. But they are convenient and nice!
Another option that most hot tub owners use are retractable umbrellas. Nowadays you can buy pretty nice ones for a few hundred bucks. All of the big box stores and the largest online retailers on the planet have them available in lots of different colors and varieties.
The last two options are the best priced options. The first is a Pretecta-Spa Coverall. These are great. They cover your cover and your whole hot tub! They only cost around $100 depending on what size you need, and they’ll help your cover last darn near forever. I have included the link below.
The last option that not a lot of people know about are hot tub-shaped canvas covers that go over your hot tub cover. They’re great! You can find them online by searching “hot tub cover”, however you will have to sift through some results. Many companies sell actual hot tub covers, but you’re looking for a cover for your hot tub cover. These covers are durable canvas or cloth and only set you back $30-$70!
Thanks for reading, and I hope this information helps!
Hot Tub Mark