On 16 May 2006 02:21:04 -0700, "Jason"
wrote:

I've been living in my house for 3 years, and it came with an outdoor
hot tub (subjected to rain, sun, cold weather, etc). The cover wasn't
in the best condition when I moved in, but it has gotten considerably
worse, and a lot heavier. It's now way past the time to replace it.

In researching, I now understand that water logs the styrofoam

This happened to us after the spa was around 5 years old
(outdoors year-round with no protection). The cover was
cosmetically in good shape but got so waterlogged it was hard to
life. Luckily, the spa cover had zippered access to the
insulation layer (does yours?)

Only one of the two halves was waterlogged, so I just emptied out
the old insulation and put in some new, made out of sheet
insulation cut roughly to fit and taped together. It's a little
less thermally efficient but close enough to the original and
much better than in the water-logged state (water isn't a good
insulator.)

This jackleg replacement has lasted six months so far, and is so
cheap I could afford to replace it quite often compared to buying
a decent new cover. It hasn't gotten waterlogged yet.

I do suspect at some point I'll replace the cover totally once
the stitching starts to go or the plastic starts cracking. But
when I shop I'll look for the same zipper access.

Just a thought for the cheapskates among us.

--EnoRiverBend
somewhere at rtmdt dot net