Spa Cover Question

[JohnnyK45]

Just curious...

Anyone skip on installing the little spa cover buckles on the sides of their tub? 

I haven't attached anything to the sides of our hot tub since getting it in early August and we've had some days with strong winds.  I just don't see our cover blowing off and our yard is totally enclosed, so I have no worry about some strange child randomly entering our yard and crawling in.

Anyway, has anyone seen their own cover actually get blown off due to wind or winter conditions?  Ours does have a nice suction type seal to it when it's on, so I don't even see any minor heat loss issues either.

J

[Spoiledrotten]

My spa is 28 years old and has never had them attached. 

[JohnnyK45]

Good to hear.

I think once winter passes and if I have no issues, I will cut those dangling eye-sores off.    Not so much for that actually, but when I close the cover, one always gets flipped inside and I have to open slightly to pull that strap out. 

If I don't see it effecting anything, I guess I rather not put holes in my sides; my guess is when the time comes to replace the cover, the next cover will likely have the straps shorter or longer, in a slightly different position, etc. and would require me to drill more holes.  If for some chance some horrible storm of the decade were to hit us, I have some smaller land-scaping bricks I could put around the edge if I thought necessary.

J

[vangoghsear]

 The strap locks are required by code in some areas in lieu of fencing. 

I usually strap down two points opposite my lifter arm, but i don't lock them, just snap them in place.  I actually locked all four when I went away for 10 days and when the hurricane Sandy blew through.

[Spoiledrotten]

I don't believe those little plastic clasp will hold much if the right wind comes through. It will lift and tear or splinter the sides of the shell. I've been thinking about cutting them off as well. I can see them being just to keep the kids out.

[Tman122]

I remember not attaching mine either on one tub I owned. I also remember after about 3 years with no problems coming home to a cover laying in my yard. After I took a long soak I retrieved the cover and installed the clips.

[deld]

For the whole week I've had my tub, I've been latching and locking the clips on the front, and not bothering to latch the ones on the back under the lifter.  I feel like I have to lock them so far, because my yard has been wide open. My fence finally started going up today, and I'm hoping it'll be finished tomorrow. 

[wmccall]

It just takes one unusual wind and a cover can be gone. The straps don't have to bear the whole load all the time, but if a brief wind justs it just right and you don't have the clips on these covers are like windsails.  I've seen covers go nearly a mile.  I usually just close the front two, but when I'm expecting a big storm, I put all 4 down, it holds the cover tight and prevents it from getting under one corner. Sure if its bad enough long enough it may pull the clips out, but I haven't had that happen yet.

[vangoghsear]

What Wmccall said got me to thinking about the physics of the thing (engineering designer here).  They aren't flat they are beveled.  When wind runs across a beveled rise and drop like you have on a spa cover, it moves faster over the rise, that increase in speed drops the air pressure above the bevel.  This beveling actually creates lift making them into a wing.  It's the same principle that makes airplanes fly.  If the wind creates enough lift to pull up a side a different principle takes over and it becomes a sail, catching the wind and possibly flipping it off. 

Most of the lift would be in the center I would think where the hump is highest, which is why the tie down straps would work.  In a strong sustained wind, they are really mainly overcoming forces pulling up from the center, not so much straight up at the edges.

[sorebikr]

I just put a large flat rock on one side of mine when I'm not around.  It never sat properly when closed (a slight gap near the filter) and as a result I once opened it to find a freshly poached mouse sitting on top of the filter.  Crawled in for the warmth and couldn't get back out I guess.  Since then the rock has fixed that problem. 

(yeah, that warranted a water-change)

[goose973]

My experience with the cover clips was that they were good enough to hold our cover down during sustained winds of 50 mph and gusts of 75 mph during hurricane Sandy. No damage.

[wmccall]

My experience with the cover clips was that they were good enough to hold our cover down during sustained winds of 50 mph and gusts of 75 mph during hurricane Sandy. No damage.

Good to know. I received my current tub before Sandy, They forecast 50mph winds for us and that is what we got.  That day I put all 4 clips on the cover made it fine. 

The same thing happened to me with Hurrican Ike in 2003. (I think I have my facts straight here)  I think that storm came ashore in Galveston, then traveled up the Mississippi Valley. We ended up, here in Ohio, with no rain, but 80mph sustained winds.  I also had secured my 4 clips that day, but we wern't projected to get that high of a wind.   We also had that freak storm July 3rd this year where we had straight line winds of 80 mph for just a minute.  In that 2003 storm my friend had 2 hot tub covers from the neighborhood fly by his yard.  If I lived in a costal area I would probably invest in ratcheting straps the way I believe Bonnie does.

[smackman]

I put my steps on top of my cover when I am out of town or a big southern storm is coming through

[pratzert]

I have had a couple of times where I didn't snap the snaps when I got out and over the course of a week, we had some high winds that I was not aware had been predicted.

And my cover actually DID blow open.

Luckily, my cover lifter kept it from flying off and getting damaged or damaging something it could have hit.

Last summer, we had a HUGE summer storm blow thru and my cover was not snapped down.

The wind blew off roof shingles, destroyed a trampoline and whipped opn the tub cover.

The wind was so string it actually broke the cover lifter and pulled the stitching out of the seams.

I put on a new cover lifter and managed to get thru the last yearh a torn up cover, but plan to order a new one in January.

There had been storms with high winds that I knew were coming and I made sure to snap the cover in place and nothing broke or came loose.

The biggest problem I have with snapping the cove rin place, is that it has 4 snaps... my kids would unsnap the from ones and then lift the cover up with the other two snaps still secured. be4casue of thatk I have had to replace the snap buckles about 5 times.  Now I only snap the front two snaps, which is the direction the wind comes from anyway.

[Spoiledrotten]

I had my daughter make me a couple of "belts" woven from parachute cord, which allows me to lock the top on when we are out of town. I have an eye hook screwed into the base of the tub, under the finished wall on each end of the spa. Then I put a small combination lock securing the top of the "belt" to the handles on each end of the cover. That surely will not keep anyone out that really wants to get in but it would hold the top down in wind and would surely let someone know (neighbors) that they are not welcome to come get in my spa while I'm out of town. It's as secure as those little plastic locks being discussed here, plus the straps are color coordinated with the spa. This also keeps me from putting a bunch of holes in the redwood sides.


They look something like this but with eyes on each end;

http://www.tacticalintelligence.net/images/TAN_BELT.jpg