Picking a Hot Tub Spa Cover

Choosing a cover for your hot tub spa is an important decision. It's especially crucial to get the right kind if you have an outdoor hot tub where the winters get cold and you use it year-round. Finding the best cover should be all about practical concerns. You can always find a style that will match the trim on your hot tub, so it's best to focus on finding one that will provide the optimal protection against the elements.

The primary choice you have in hot tub covers is between a soft or hard model. Either can be used indoors or outdoors, but if the weather where you live gets extremely cold in the winter, a hard, insulated cover is a must. In areas where the cold is not a concern, the deciding factor is often how much access you need around your spa.

Many hard spa covers can support the weight of an adult standing or walking on it. It might be worth this extra investment if your hot tub is in a spot that makes walking around it untenable. Other reasons for wanting a cover you can stand on include changing bulbs in overhead lighting and cleaning the interior of a shed or gazebo if one surrounds your spa.

A soft hot tub spa cover is a good choice for many indoor spas. You don't have the weather or flying debris to worry about. The use of an indoor cover is primarily to trap the heat and reduce your energy bills when the spa is not in use.

If you go with a soft spa cover on an outdoor hot tub, be careful to get one with an internal inflation bladder. This will keep the cover higher in the middle, allowing rainwater and/or melting snow to run off. A sagging cover can wreak havoc with your tub's heat retention and cleanliness. The inflated air also acts as a second layer of insulation against heat loss.