Spa Blanket on Steriods?

[ndabunka]

Anyone here seen this product or offer a similar alternative?
http://www.spacap.com/products.php

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

BBB Reliability Report

Nature of Business

This company offers hot tub cover manufacturer.

Customer Experience

Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaints.

Report as of 10/28/2004

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Hi Guys,

Thanks for your posts. I was searching for a new top for my spa and came across Spacap. I started to research it as it appeared to be an interesting idea.

I contacted Jeff Sliger of Another Company who makes the spacap.
I said I was interested in his cover but, due to the unique nature of his cap I was a little nervous. I asked him if I could see a copy of his R value testing. Or, was there customer near me that I could ask about it.

His response was that he would not give me any references and "Did you ask any hard cover dealers for customer references? No, because you know from personal experience they don't work." I replied , that I did in fact ask my spa maker for references on a spa cover with a radiant barrier. He gladly gave me a number of them.

I then , again, asked Jeff Sliger for a copy of their R-Value testing. Had he provided it and it verified his claims, I would have purchased it. His claims seem to be very high for just plain air. It contradicts all the information I found on R values for dead air spaces.

Jeff Sliger never replied. Very rude. This ticked me off a bit. At least tell me, NO you're not going to send it. Of course this peaked my curious nature and I did a little searching.

Spacap.com/ Another Company/ Owner Jeff Slinger have an unsatisfactor rating with the Better Business Bureau of Western Washington.http://www.oregonandwesternwa.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=13025291

A further patent search showed the inventor of spacap to be Kingston; James E and the assignee to be Sliger.

This is my experience with this company. I won't do business with them. Thanks to the forum for a heads up.

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Author: drumstick (67.130.87.---)
Date:   09-15-04 18:45

I've come to the conclusion that the spa cap should be SPA CRAP. AFTER 6 MONTHS OF TEMP. TESTING 2 TIMES A DAY WHEN THE AM TEMP IS in the 40s I will lose 5 degrees in 5 hours . Thats extreme. The cap with 3 bladdes is a pain in the butt to get on and off. It is a farce that sounds good but RUN RUN RUN

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Author: mkamdar (---.dyn.optonline.net)
Date:   07-19-04 15:55

When It would rain, the top layer would let water seep in and it would get trapped in the middle with the air making it extremely difficult to lift it. Also, it would waver in the winds and that caused the fasteners to rip off - It was a horrible decision on my part to fall for the little video clip on their website. This is just my experience but my spa guy had warned me agianst this cover for precisely what I am describing. I was foolish enough to ignore him thinking that he is just saying that crap because he wants me to buy the cover from him.

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Posted By: wethe002 (CPE-24-163-252-228.mn.rr.com)
Date: Tuesday, 30 November 2004, at 5:29 p.m.

Had one for 3 years (it eventually leaked), uncertain if it insulated well. Also bought one for a second home, it arrived defective, and they have not replaced or repaired it. Bought it in 12/03, returned it 3/04, and have called many times. Still don't have a new one 11/30/04! Would NOT deal with this place- am about to contact them again!

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Posted By: gary tass
Date: Monday, 20 December 2004, at 8:07 a.m.


I got a spacap but im not real happy with it . it is real hard to get on and off. one person is a real chore. i have the one with 3 bladders and im not really sold on the insulating factor it should have. sounds good though.

[drewstar]

 I don't see how an inflatblae cover can insulate better than high density foam. Heat from the water will transfer to the air bladder which in turn will transfer through it's sidewall to the ambient air

A reg flag went off went they describe it working like a themal window.  Windows don't use air as an insualtor  They use noble gasses and relfective coatings to slow heat transfer.  (if windows didn't need to be transparent, they'd be full of foam.  Not transparent gas).

I can't imagine using this product in New england in Feb after an ice storm.

And it cant be used witha cover lifter system.  


Anyhow, I think these folks a few years ago were advertising thier product on it's safety features (if you fell on it, you bounced).   Now they are back claiming to be a superior insulator, but provide no data? They do make a selling point that the cover will not become heavy and saturared after a few years.  this seems to be it's main selling point, rather than insualtion.  I can't see how this would insualte better in a frigid enviroment.


Notice the people using this insualting cover are wearing summer clothes.   (they in shorts) I don't think this is a cold weatehr product.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Posted By: laurie <lsduke@xxxxxx.com> (65.220.66.222)
Date: Wednesday, 23 March 2005, at 8:13 a.m.

In Response To: alrighty who owns this cover (TomD)
 
This cover sucks. We hate this cover. It is very difficult to get on and off. If you don't fill it enough, water gathers in the top and causes the edges to lift up. when I bail out the cover after a rain, the water is WARM!!! That's when it's 25 degrees out!! Gee, I wonder how it's getting heated? If you fill it so that water doesn't puddle, it looks like a mushroom and you cannot fold it over. It's just a super-filled blob that is very difficult to move around. We are not at all pleased and our electric bill has gone up 25% since we installed it (that's $100!!!) due to the convection issue that we didn't realize.

ADDITIONALLY;
We have had hot tubs for 30 years and decided, after having to replace the foam ones every 4 years that it was time for a change.  We have not been happy with the cumbersome on/off maneuvers needed for this cover (not an easy one-man job), the water-pooling in the center (I got soaked this morning getting the 4 gallons of water out of the pool in the center of the cover - just so the sides would go down!!), and the poor, POOR insulating qualities.  I am furious about this purchase.  Their site is nothing but complete misrepresentation and when I called them, they said that no one else has ever complained.  HMMM.

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From:  littlestick (gptass@ironriver.tv)  
Date:  Friday, April 01, 2005 08:56 PM  

does any one else out there have a SPA CAP spa cover??? it is the one filled with 2 to 3 bladders of air. i have one and i am not happy at all with it. my electric bill for feb. was $240 !!! last year same month was half of that. it is not as easy as it shows on their website to take off and put on. it is a joke.!!!

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tomm1963
Joined 28 Dec 2005
Posts 2
 
I am a long time Spa owner and when it was time to replace yet another foam filled traditional hot tub cover I decided to take a look on the web for some new ideas or maybe a good deal on a cover. If you do a simple hot tub cover Google search you will surely come across the SPACAP by Another Company. The problem I had was that no other info was available about this product except what the maker had on his site. I read through his info and it sounded great. Supposedly more efficient than traditional covers and it will last longer. The theory made sense to me but I couldn't figure out if this was such a great idea why 25 other companies weren't offering the same thing. I tried to research and talked with as many knowledgeable people as I could with no definitive opinions anywhere. So I bit the hook and bought one.

I ordered it in the fall of 2004. I am writing this opinion in December of 05. I have owned it 18 months or so.

The cover came from the manufacturer quickly and was well constructed with a perfect fit. But the jury was still out as to wether an air bag works as well as foam insulation. The first thing I noticed was that snow (I am in Wisconsin) never accumulated on the Spacap. I used to have to sweep snow off the top of my traditional cover after every storm. But snow melted off the Spacap as fast as it fell.....HMMMMM.

Next I noticed my spa pump running more and my electric consumption never went down. Contrarily my power consumption went up.

I still needed more concrete evidence. A bit more scientific. Here is what I did......You be the judge.

I got a thermal imaging camera. This is used by energy annalists to check homes for heat loss and efficiency. It is also used by Fire Departments to check for hot spots in burning buildings. It uses infrared technology to get spot on accuracy. The camera allows you to point at any object and get a pinpoint temperature reading of the object.

I did the test on a day that the outside air temperature was 12 degrees. The thermal camera was reading ambient objects at around 14 degrees. It was reading the outside of houses at 19 degrees. Now the big moment......lets point this puppy at the Spacap. It read 40 degrees. What? Yes 40 degrees. The hot tub water is at 100 degrees. Gad that doesn't seem good at all. One last test to do. I needed to compare it to a foam cover. So to the neighbors yard I went. I turned the camera on to a traditional foam cover with a 102 degree hot tub. The camera read 19 degrees.

Needless to say I am seriously bummed out that I got taken by a slick web site. I like to think I am smarter than the average bear. Anyway I felt I needed to post this info to the web so others can have a fair opinion before spending $400 or more on a Spacap.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

01-19-07, 11:02 PM
popper36

SpaCap-Ultimate Disapointment

In the spring of 2006, I too needed a replacement for my spa cover. I found the Spacap website intriguing to say the least. I live in the mountains of California, and we are all about extremes. Summer temps can get into the high 90's, and we can receive upwards of 6 feet of snow in winter storms with 60 MPH winds. Needless to say, I needed a spa cover that would on one hand keep the warmth in, and on the other hand keep the elements (sun, wind, snow, leaves, rain, etc) out. After much consideration and many chats with the Spacap people, I decided to give this thing a try (with much skepticism). I ordered their top of the line product with 3 air chambers and protection by sunbrella.

Things did not get off to a good start with the Spacap company with my order. After 8 weeks and probably a half dozen phone calls, my cover was finally being shipped (They had told me when I ordered the Spacap that it would be shipped in no more than 21 days). I inflated the 3 chambers, during which, one of the intakes was already starting to separate from the material that it is affixed to.

Within days, we were blessed with some gnardly 45 mph gusts-all seemed well with the Spacap; that is until we went to get in the spa the next day. The spa was completely dirty with leaves and dirt, not to mention our filters needed cleaning as well at this point. Our first test of mountain weather and the spa cap was not living up to its bidding.

After several weeks, we also noticed that the once inflated Spacap was losing its dome shape. This became quite a nuisance, we were inflating the Spacap every two weeks or so. As we got into summer, our next mountain weather phenomena raised its ugly head. We were getting daytime highs in the 90's with nighttime lows in the 40's. If the Spacap was inflated to its proper level in the early evening, that night it would deflate because of the cooler temps (Boyles Law). By midday the next day, it would be so over inflated that we were unable to undo the fasteners to get in the spa. This sequence repeated itself multiple times throughout the summer. The overt display of Boyles Law was demonstrating to me, that this product seemed to be very susceptible to environmental temperature swings. Needless to say, a second failure in as many attempts.

Finally, it was now winter. This is really why we bought this thing, the hope of huge savings on our electric bill as advertised by the Spacap people. Well, the Spacap didn't live up to this either. With wind and rain initially, we were still getting debris in our spa, and now with the rain we were starting to get pools of water on top of our Spacap. We called the company, and let them know what was going on. They informed us that under no circumstance were we to allow standing water on the Spacap. Apparently, the impermeable sunbrella is quite permeable under standing water. If water were to get inside the bladder system, it is very difficult to get out. Well, more work had been created for us. Not only were we required to refill the air chambers, but also now we had to keep all water off of the Balloon. That leads me to winter problem number 2, wind. It is quite impossible to get into your spa with any measurable wind (above 15 mph). The shape of the Spacap is very near the shape of an airfoil, i.e. wing or sail. At the point you unhooked the fasteners and began to lift the Spacap, the wind would grab it and where it would go is up to nature. Finally, snow! What can I say about snow? As previously posted, snow initially melts because of the warmth of the Spacap. This ultimately creates a really nice layer of ice on which the reaming snow accumulates (makes for easy snow removal). Without a spa lift or anything of the sort, the Spacap must rest on top of the snow-quite a feat of strength when the snow is 3 or 4 feet deep (my spa sits flush to a deck). What about all of those electric savings Spacap talks about you might ask? Well, with no substantial change in any other variable, we saw usage go up by 21.3%.

(continued next post)

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Not to drag this out any further, but I must add one more thing that I have learned from this experience. Speaking with Jeff (a Spacap guy) on about the 1st of November, I voiced my concerns that I have shared here. He tried to convince me how great the Spacap was and that if I weren't happy I could return the product for a full refund or repair for further use. I told him at that time that I was sure I wanted a refund. He convinced me that I should continue with the product for a couple of months noting that eventually I would have to send the product in to be repaired, and if after a couple of months had gone by and I still wasn't satisfied the offer of refund would still be valid. Fast forward to Jan 2007. I have made multiple attempts to get in contact with Jeff; he won't take any of my calls. All I'm getting is response from another associate that they are willing to repair my Spacap-refund is not an option. I was fully duped by Spacap's website, please don't let this happen to you.

[wmccall]

For your amusement.

[Spatech_tuo]

For your amusement.

The stickman video has me convinced, I'm getting one ASAP or sooner!!  

[Richs100]

So, Dr. Spa, Drewstar......This thing is a No-Go???  

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 Lynden is just a bit north of us.  Not sure how he does?   Been around for awhile.