I had an earlier post on this forum asking if it is critical to have a cover lifter (we are in the process of looking for our first hot tub). The overwhelming response I got is that yes, we need to have a cover lifter.
I have done some research and found a very simple, DIY cover lifter that just might work in our application. Someone made a cover lifter out of PVC conduit. I'll post a quick YouTube link here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnS2wZsumyQ (I hope it's O.K. to do this on this website??) to show you what I'm referring to. I read in the comments section that someone inserted wooden dowels in the conduit to make it stronger.
I found a number of people who said they had tried this and it worked great, but I'm not sure any of these people were long term users. I think they put it together, tried it, and it worked. I'm wondering if anyone on this website has any long term experience using a DIY cover lifter like this one, or even something else, and how it has worked for the long term?
And just so you know, there are a couple of reasons I am looking at something like this. The main reason is that with this type of DIY cover lifter, it does not attach to the side of the tub. With at least one of the tubs I'm thinking of, with the way the tub would be situated the cover lifter would need to attach to the front of the tub, and I just don't think I can do that. With this DIY lifter, I don't have to worry about this as obviously it does not attach to the tub.
Any thoughts? Thank you.